AN ALARM. 145 



his belief that duck formed part of their menu, Jaffer retorted that as he 

 (the weighman) was a Brahmin he could not possibly know what cooked 

 duck looked like, unless, indeed, he had had some hand in their disappear- 

 ance, and had been thus unjustifiably varying his vegetarian diet ! At any 

 rate, as to the circumstantial evidence against himself and messmates, the 

 witness must have mistaken some curried pumpkin they were having for 

 duck. Jaffer could scarcely, however, hear the subject mentioned without 

 smirking, as if some savoury recollections stole over him ! 



At 2 p.m. we reached a place where the coolies were encamped ; but 

 as it was said the elephants could, before dark, reach the Chengree river, 

 towards which we were now descending, I ordered them to push on. After 

 making some terrible descents, which no beast of burden but an elephant 

 could have managed, and from the paths clown which we were obliged care- 

 fully to remove the pieces of wild-plantain stems strewn about by the leading- 

 elephants, lest we should have an accident to which the slipping of an alder- 

 man on a piece of orange-peel would have been a trifle, we got into a stream 

 forming an easy roadway till we came to a fallen trunk of a tree about six 

 feet from the ground, and which barred further passage. Its removal 

 required the united strength of as many elephants as could get at it to- 

 gether. In striding over it as it lay, my elephant made such a lurch that 

 I was thrown off the chdrjama (riding-pad) into the stream. 



After reaching the level ground at the bottom of the valley the jungle 

 was much better, being fine heavy timber, clear of undergrowth and the 

 abominable grass. Here a great uproar occurred in the rear of the column : 

 elephants trumpeted, mahouts shouted, and the jungle crashed. Some one 

 raised an alarm that a solitary tusker had attacked the females, but running 

 back with my heavy rifle I learnt that it was only a new elephant, captured 

 two years before — and which we had brought with us, with two or three 

 others, to learn kheddah work — which had taken fright at something she 

 saw or heard, and, after communicating her excitement to the other ele- 

 phants near, had bolted and thrown her mahout. A couple of elephants 

 gave chase and she was soon brought back. We shortly reached the river, 

 at which I was very glad, as this meant that our chief hardships of march- 

 ing were at an end. It would be impossible to exaggerate the difficulties 

 of the past three days' marches, or to overestimate the great usefulness of 

 our elephants. Poor, good beasts ! their patience and docility under the 

 annoying conditions of having to climb steep hills, and force their way 

 through thickets under a hot sun, were admirable. 



The river Chengree at the point where we struck improbably about 100 

 miles above Eungamuttea, and perhaps 60 from its source, was only fifteen 



K 



