24 Wild Beasts 



about the trunk and eyes in this encounter, though the 

 mahout (a bold fellow named Ramzan, who was afterwards 

 in my own service) battered the tiger's head with his iron 

 driving-hook so as to leave deep marks in the bones of his 

 skull. At length he was shaken off, and retreated ; but 

 when the sportsmen urged in the elephant again, and the 

 tiger charged as before, she turned round, and the tiger 

 catching her by the hind leg fairly pulled her over on her 

 side. My informant, who was in the howdah, said that for 

 a time his arm was pinned between it and the tiger's body, 

 who was making efforts to pull the shikari out of the back 

 seat. They were all, of course, spilt on the ground with 

 their guns, and Colonel G., getting hold of one, made the 

 tiger retreat with a shot in the chest. The elephant had 

 fled from the scene of action, and the two sportsmen then 

 went in at the beast on foot. It charged again, and when 

 close to them was finally dropped by a lucky shot in the 

 head. But the sport did not end here, for they found two 

 more tigers in the same cover immediately afterwards, and 

 killed one of them, making four that day. The worrying 

 she had received, however, was the death of the elephant, 

 which was buried at Bhadugaon, — one of the few instances 

 on record of an elephant being actually killed by a tiger." 

 There is no way in which the intellect, moral attributes, 

 temper, receptive power, and adaptability of elephants can 

 be decided upon en masse. An animal of this kind will 

 tend his keeper's infant with a solicitude which seems to 

 justify all that has been said of his benevolence ; he will 

 also watch for an opportunity to kill its father with a 

 patience and self-command that are more significant still. 



