236 DIARY OF A SPORTSMAN NATURALIST 



beast is engaged in this performance can have the faintest 

 notion of what it is like. At the first shake I was as nearly 

 as anything shot out of the howdah like a parched pea. 

 Desperately I clung to the rail and tried to get the muzzle 

 of the rifle on to it. At last I got my feet wedged into either 

 side of the howdah, and pressing my knees against the front, 

 I gripped the rifle with both hands and cocked it. As 

 I did so, I was again nearly flung out by a terrible shake, 

 and at the same instant the tigress was sent flying into the 

 ravine. I recovered myself, and was foolish enough to take 

 a snap shot at her. As it happened, I hit her far back, and 

 this only maddened her still further. Again she came for 

 us, and this time the elephant gave a step or two, preventing 

 me firing until the tigress was about to spring a second 

 time for his head. This time, however, my bullet found its 

 billet behind the neck, severing the spinal cord, and she 

 dropped hke a stone, as fine a fighting tigress as I had ever 

 encountered. 



" By this time I was bathed in perspiration, could hardly 

 see out of my eyes for it, and was feeling pretty sore from 

 the struggles I had made to retain my footing. But the 

 tusker had now to be reckoned with. He was fairly roused, 

 and to use a vulgar expression, was seeing red. Scarcely 

 had the tigress dropped in a heap on the ground, when he 

 rushed towards her, kicked her some yards with his fore 

 feet, luckily not in the direction of my first tiger, then knelt 

 on her and flattened her out of all recognition. Standing 

 up, he got her between his feet and played pitch-and-toss 

 with her between them, sending her backwards and for- 

 wards until she was a jelly. Then he varied his performance 

 by dancing on her, until b}^ degrees his ardour cooled, and 

 the mahout's persuasions finally reduced him to something 

 like sanity, although he remained a very vain, victorious, 

 and exceedingly touchy elephant for a couple of days. The 

 mahout had at first tried to keep him in hand and save 

 the skin, but had then given up, recognizing that it would 

 be as well to let him have his way and feel that he had 

 come out the conqueror over the tigress ; for otherwise 

 he might have been spoilt as a tiger elephant. As a matter 

 of fact, he remained as good as ever, if anything more con- 

 temptuous of tigers than before. 



" By the time the tusker had been brought to a fairly 

 reasonable frame of mind, I was reduced to a state of total 



