448 BURMA, ITS PEOPLE A.VD P/IODCCTIOXS. 



foot to go was by keopinp; to tlio path made by the cb'phants through the grass. A 

 Biirman tracker led tlie way, foHowed by two European forest otticers with ritles, and 

 a long line of armed Burmans bringing up the rear. All were in single file picking 

 their way along the path the elephant had just taken. 



Du-ectly the elephant scented his pursuers, down he came. The leading Burman 

 was struck down and crushed on the spot ; a volley of musketry from the men 

 behind followed, but the elephant charged through the midst and was never more 

 seen. One European found himself in a tree on one side of the road, and the other 

 was similarly hurled in an opjiosite direction, and their followers were equally 

 unceremoniously disposed of. When they had all reassembled, the European officer, 

 who had been in front, complained that his foot was injured, as he supposed by 

 the elephant, and he was carried home, but on examination it was found that a 

 bullet had gone tlirough his foot, probably whilst in the air, and he died of tetanus 

 in a few days. 



A similar instance occurred to myself. I was crossing the Arakim mountains 

 with twenty porters and two guides. The road lay down a valley through virgin 

 forest, and elephants were numerous. At one spot the guides said an elephant had 

 just passed, and asked leave to follow it up, and shoot it for its flesh. I accordingly 

 halted the party in the bed of a broad stream, and the two guides, each armed with 

 a musket, started in pursuit of the elephant, which they declared was not far ott' in 

 the forest. In about five minutes or a little more, two shots were heard, and instantly 

 every porter commenced ascending the tree nearest to him, leaving me and one or two 

 seiwants standing alone in the bed of the stream, not a little astonished by the 

 behaviour of my men. Almost immediately, however, the cry was raised, "He is 

 coming ! " and I at once comprehended the situation, and bolted for a high bank 

 near, but had scarcely reached it, when a fine young male elephant, with tusks 

 about a yard long, rushed past me within twenty yards, and disajipeared in the 

 forest, and we saw no more of him. Across the forest path, along wliich he came, 

 a huge tree had been blown down, and below its trunk there was a clear space of 

 some three feet. Beneath this trunk, on this very path, one of my servants, who 

 was no better climber than myself, squatted, supposing the ti-ee would turn the 

 elephant. But no, he came straight for it, and scrambled over it, leg after leg, in 

 a wonderful fashion, actually knocking otf the man's turban, who was paralyzed 

 by fright. It is probable he never saw the man, at all events he made no attempt 

 to touch him ; but it was clear that the elephant, on being fired at, had turned round 

 and retraced his steps along the very path on which we had struck his trail. 



There is a striking contrast between the treatment of an elephant by a Burman 

 or Karen, and by an Indian ^Mahout. In Burma an elephant is driven with a short 

 and light piece of bamboo, not shod with iron, in place of the cruel and ponderous 

 iron goad used in India, the result being that the head of an elephant belonging to 

 a Burman or Karen is as sound as any part of its body, instead of being, as is too often 

 the case in India, a mass superficially of ecchymoscd tissue, infiltrated with pus. 

 It were well if it could be said that the ignorant Indian Mahout was the chief offender 

 as regards the brutal usage of these poor creatures in India. But much of the suffer- 

 ing and misery undergone by elephants must be laid to the door of the responsible 

 European Officers in charge of Government elejihants, who, by their ignorance of the 

 habits of the animals they are paid to look after, cause their lives to be passed in 

 ceaseless misery. An elephant is very impatient of the sun, and suffers greatly by 

 exposure to it. Yet in all our cantonments these animals are tethered out in the full 

 glare of the mid-day sun, instead of being, as they should be (in default of forest 

 shelter), housed in well-roofed sheds. A Karen is too wise and too careful to expose 

 his elephant in this fashion to torture and injury. If it dies or goes blind, the loss 

 is his. The well-salaried official, however, who has perhaps 50 Government elephants 

 under his charge, knows or cares nothing for this. If they die, he simply buys 

 others. Their sufferings touch neither his heart, nor his pocket; and if the 'saliib 

 baliadur ' is so careless, how can one blame the rapacious and obsequious ' Gomashta ' 

 crew for not instructing him in his duty, and in some elementary ideas of the require- 

 ments of the animals in his charge ? AVho has not seen these poor brutes, tethered in 



