MAULED BY AN ELEPHANT 99 



the agile native, twisting and doubling in the 

 thick grass, managed finally to escape. The 

 elephant had devastated the grass, bushes, and 

 small trees in his search for the man and, for- 

 tunately, had not returned to me. 



"While it is undoubtedly true that the na- 

 tive's action had much to do with saving me, 

 one reason why I was not dashed to death 

 lies in the fact that an elephant's trunk is the 

 tenderest part of his body, and, being twined 

 about me, it received the brunt of the blow 

 each time that I struck the ground, and evi- 

 dently the pain kept the animal from using the 

 force necessary to kill me. 



"As a result of that mauling, I was laid up 

 for six weeks before I was well enough to hob- 

 ble about again. 



"That elephant may be alive at this present 

 moment, for all I know. My native attendants 

 were too terror-stricken over the outcome of the 

 hunt to give the brute any further attention 

 after I was mauled; so no one followed him up 

 to discover what damage my shots had done. 

 Judging from the amount of vigour that was 

 left in his great hulk at the time he put me to 

 sleep, he could not have been seriously wounded. 



