Mr. E. L, Layard's Rambles in Ceylon. 229 



again commenced its dibbling, sifting the mud somewhat Uke a duck : 

 it walked with the spring motion of the Hiaticulce, dropping on its 

 belly on the least alarm, and settUng itself either backwards or side- 

 ways under the least declivity or tuft of grass, the better to evade 

 observation, its fine eye all the while roaming anxiously about : so 

 fearless were the snipes here, that I saw several feeding up the same 

 drain. While drinking our coffee, Q. related one of his adventures 

 with elephants : — " It is now," he said, " some three years ago that 

 I came to reside in this very hut, while tracing a road in the vicinity. I 

 found the villagers in great distress and fear, from the nightly visits of 

 a large elephant, which pulled down their stockades and entered their 

 little enclosures, destroying their crops or stacks, and pulling the 

 thatch off their houses. "While talking with them as to his probable 

 haunts, we heard a loud trumpet from the tank ; taking my big two- 

 ouncer and the little ' Joe,' I ran down as quick as I could, and on 

 the other side of the tank, which was then very dry, I saw a fine 

 elephant standing up to his belly in the water. I let fly at his head, 

 and down he thundered, making the water surge again ; as he lay quite 

 still, we all crossed over and were clustered round him, when up he 

 arose. I luckily had taken the httle double * Joe' from the natives, for 

 they all fled right and left, leaving me standing in the water, and the 

 huge brute eyeing me and making ready for a charge : another shot 

 brought him to his knees, but again recovering himself he made at me, 

 and the last barrel rolled him over on his side. We all made sure he 

 was dead this time, and the cowardly natives returned. But now a 

 fresh evil, worse than the former, presented itself: ' Oh ! the water! 

 the water ! ' exclaimed one of the men ; * it will all be poisoned by 

 the putrifying carcase.' Here indeed was a difiiculty no one had 

 dreamt of, or knew how to overcome. Some proposed cutting it up ; 

 this was objected to, as the blood would have spoilt the water. Move 

 it we could not, with all the strength of the village. By this time all 

 the women and children had assembled, and rent the air with their 

 lamentations ; water could not be procured for miles ; suddenly, 

 to relieve our dilemma, up rose the elephant, and without looking 

 to the right or left, walked straight out of the tank to the middle of 

 the field, hesitated, stopt, tottered and fell, with a groan that made 

 us all start, — a lifeless mountain of flesh. You should have heard 

 the noise for many a night after, of all the beasts of the forest, 

 which came for a meal off the carcase : sleeping was out of the 

 question. — By the way, do you know that pigs are carnivorous ?" 

 Now, as we iaad just been eating wild pork-chops, that was not a 

 nice question. " Not wild pigs, I should think," was my answer, 

 "seeing they can get such abundance of food in the jungle ; tame 

 pigs I know will eat flesh, fresh or putrid." "And so will wild 

 ones," was his rejoinder ; " and Captain G., who was very fond of 

 pork, shot one inside an elephant : fact, I assure you," said Q., at my 

 roar of laughter. " He and a party had killed an elephant near a 

 rest house, and returning thither some few days after, they were dis- 

 turbed at night by the squealing and grunting of the pigs. G. stole 

 down to the hedge of the field, and seeing something dark and, as he 



