MY HILL-DOG JOOMA. 171 



sacrificed under the exigency of our rigorous circumstances — and we had 

 great difficulty in getting any more substantial materials in the dark. At 

 last the men collected a sufficiency of the dry inner bark of a tree, and 

 the chewed fibres of wood from elephants' dung, and by shooting a piece of 

 rag out of my rifle into my pocket-handkerchief hung on a branch, we got 

 a light. A cheerful blaze soon sprang up, and I fired a couple of shots. 

 In a few seconds a perfect chorus of elephants' cries, about two miles dis- 

 tant, broke the stillness, as the mahouts in camp made their animals "speak" 

 (as they term it) in answer to our signal. There was every description of 

 note from the stentorian lungs of the huge animals, from the shrill trum- 

 pet to the sustained tremulous growl. We could even distinguish the 

 voices of several individuals — Tara Banee, Mohungowry, Issamuttee, &c. 

 Whilst waiting for the relieving party, sitting round the cheerful blaze, and 

 congratulating ourselves in having succeeded in starting it, a sudden puff of 

 gunpowder in its midst made us all jump up. On examining into the 

 cause, I found that an 8 -bore cartridge loaded with ten drams had fallen 

 from my pocket in the darkness before we kindled the fire, and had now 

 gone off on the ground, but the bullet remained on the spot, whilst the 

 cartridge - case was only moved a few inches. I judge from this that a 

 cartridge going off in a sportsman's pocket would do him no harm beyond 

 setting his coat on fire. An elephant and men with torches soon arrived, 

 and we reached home safely. 



A faithful dog that I had picked up at Jadoogapara accompanied the 

 party, and showed great delight at finding me. He was a hill-dog belong- 

 ing to the Joomas, and had strayed from a party of them who came to see 

 the elephants. He was of a bright rufous colour, with a bushy tail curling 

 over his back, and had a sharp, intelligent face. He was about a year old. 

 The first time I saw him was one day playing -with two fox-terrier puppies 

 and my bull-bitch Lady, which accompanied me on my trip, and I could 

 not but admire the amiability he displayed when I threw tent-pegs at him to 

 drive him away; so I finally made friends with him. Though he had been 

 brought up entirely amongst natives he would have nothing to do with any 

 of my men thenceforth, and always remained close to my tent. At the 

 same time he never came in unless specially invited, nor pushed himself 

 forward in any way. He never fought with the others for food, but would 

 sit patiently by and take without greediness whatever was left or given to 

 him. His sagacity and attachment to me were extraordinary. On one 

 occasion, intending to shoot by the way, I had started in a boat in advance 

 of the elephants down the Myanee, having sent " Jooma," as I called the 

 dog, to be tied up where he could not see me start. He was let loose when 



