The Elephant 23 



and nearly idiotic when frightened, an elephant may attack 

 the hunter who has just stepped off his back into a tree, 

 thinking that he has been suddenly transformed into a 

 brute of this kind. But from all appearances some of 

 them like to hunt, and when well broken and in good 

 health, their prompt and intelligent obedience, their dis- 

 play of natural powers of several kinds, and the firmness 

 with which they confront danger and bear pain, are 

 wonderful. 



Neither the man on his back nor the elephant himself 

 is by any means secure against fatal results when a tiger 

 charges home. Shikar animals, nevertheless, often do 

 everything that is required of them admirably. The diffi- 

 culty is that the best elephants cannot be counted upon. 

 A tusker, whose scars speak for themselves, is as likely 

 as not, says Colonel MacMaster, " to bolt from a hare or 

 small deer, or quake with fear when a partridge or pea- 

 fowl rises under his trunk." 



The following narrative by Captain James Forsyth 

 (" The Highlands of Central India ") illustrates some of 

 the foregoing criticisms very well : — 



"It was in 1853 that the two brothers N. and Colonel 

 G. beat the covers" of Betul, near the village of 

 Bhadugaon, "for a family of tigers said to be in it. One of 

 the brothers was posted in a tree, while G. and the other 

 N. beat through on an elephant. The man in a tree first 

 shot two of the tigers, and then Colonel G. saw a very 

 large one lying in the shade of a bush and fired at it, 

 on- which it charged and mounted the elephant's head. 

 It was a srnall female elephant, and was terribly punished 



