PUNISH THE GUARD. 163 



could have followed ; and with so many ropes I knew the tent could not 

 be iipset bodily. I only thought of making sure of the intruder by waiting 

 till I saw the outline of his head, when I would have given him both 

 barrels of my heavy rifle, and left him to enjoy the further demolition of 

 the tent with what zest he might. What a novelty it would have been to 

 bag an elephant inside one's tent at 1 a.m. ! 



After the first crash the elephant drew back. The small ropes in the 

 eyelet-holes which laced the side-walls of the tent to the inner fly had all 

 given way, and the side-walls on the sides nearest the elephant fell out- 

 wards. The unexpected flood of light must have startled him, as whilst I 

 looked for the reappearance of his head he was already making off, a fact 

 of which I only became aware when I caught sight of his hind-legs vanish- 

 ing from the circle of light. I determined he should not depart without 

 a souvenir of his visit, and, stooping, I fired through the open side of the 

 tent after him, but, as I afterwards found, without hitting him. 



By this time every one in the camp was up and piling wood on the 

 fires, alarmed at the disturbance. The jemadar and some matchlock-men 

 came from the elephant-lines with torches to see what had happened. We 

 found that Badhapeary had been lying down fast asleep, or she would have 

 given some signal of the tusker's approach. His attack on the tent was 

 not prompted by viciousness, but by the spirit of curiosity and mischievous- 

 ness which are such strongly-marked characteristics of wild elephants, and 

 which leads them to upset telegraph-posts, trample new road-embankments, 

 pull up survey tracing-pegs, and to similar acts. I once heard a detachment 

 of elephants playing with a long chain which we had left over night in the 

 jungles, evidently pleased with the clinking noise it made. The presence of 

 so many elephants encouraged this one's daring approach, and seeing my 

 tent he had ventured upon an examination of it. My speaking inside led 

 to his attack upon it. 



I now took into consideration the case of the rascally guard, which 

 ended in their getting a dozen as sound cuts each with a rattan as one of 

 Gool Budden's lieutenants could administer. They belonged to his party 

 of kheddah men, and he reviled them in Chittagong Billingsgate as the 

 lascar whacked away, saying they were pigs and sons of pigs, and guilty, 

 like their fathers, mothers, and every one of their relatives, of every species 

 of immorality, in addition to the immediate neglect of duty for which they 

 were being chastised. We had some great scoundrels amongst our two 

 kheddah parties, but the jemadars were stern disciplinarians and main- 

 tained fair order. It was rather too bad that when every one had been 

 working hard all day except these lazy scoundrels, who had nothing to 



