72 The Wild Elephant. 



to proceed, and so, after a few words of encouragement 

 addressed to them, and a prayer or two offered up to Saman 

 dewiyo^ we resumed our journey. I also took the further 

 precaution of hanging up a few leaves.^ As the rain- was 

 coming down fast and thick, and I was anxious to get to 

 our halting-place before night, we moved on at a rapid pace. 

 My brother-in-law was in the van of the party, I myself 

 was in the rear, and the four coolies between us, all moving 

 along on a rugged, rocky, and difficult path ; as the road to 

 Badulla till lately was on the sloping side of a hill, covered 

 with jungle, pieces of projecting rock, and brushwood. It was 

 about five o'clock in the evening, or a little later, and we 

 had hardly cleared the foot of the hill and got to the plain 

 below, when a rustling of leaves and a crackling of dry 

 brushwood were heard on our right, followed immediately by 

 the trumpeting of a hora allia,^ which was making towards 

 us. We all fled, followed by the elephant. I, who was in 

 the rear of the party, was the first to take to flight ; the 

 coolies threw away their pingoes, and my brother-in-law his 

 umbrella, and all ran in different directions. I hid myself 

 behind a large boulder of granite nearly covered by jungle : 

 but as my place of concealment was on high ground, I 

 could see all that was going on below. The first thing I 

 observed was the elephant returning to the place where one 

 of the pingoes was lying : he was carrying one of the 

 coolies in a coil of his trunk. The body of the man was 

 dangling with the head downward. I cannot say whether 

 he was then alive or not ; I could not perceive any marks of 



' The tutelary spirit of the sacred from the .-ittacks of wild animals, and 



mountain, Adam's Peak. especially of elephants. Can it be 



- The Singhalese hold the belief, that the latter avoid the path, on dis- 



that twigs taken from one bush and covering this evidence of the pro.ximity 



placed on another growing close to a of recent passengers ? 



pathway, ensure protection to travellers •'' A rogue elephant. 



