430 THE IIIGHLAKDS OF CEIs^TRAL INDIA. 



was lifting the rifle to my eye, wlieu a short cough 

 behind caused me to L^ok round, and there, oh horror I 

 was a tall figure, clad in a yellow coat and bright 

 red turban, standing on an ant-hill and striving to 

 get up a tree ! Instantly I turned again to the elephant ; 

 but all I saw was his vast round stern in full retreat 

 through the trees. It was a little provoking, and I did 

 not bless very much the owner of that yellow garment 

 as I sped along frantically after the vanishing tusker. I 

 remember no more than this, till I found myself being 

 supported on my pony back to camp. They said I 

 had fallen senseless in the grass after runninsj about a 

 hundred yards. The culprit was a relative of the 

 Thakiir of Matin, who had stolen out after me, and, 

 coming up unperceived in the grass, had lain still 

 enough till the formidable aspect of the man-killer 

 had overcome his opium-shaken nerves. He looked so 

 utterly wretched and ashamed of himself that I could 

 not tell him all that I thought of him. There was also 

 rather a panic abroad just at the time, as not long 

 before a young son of the Thakiir of Uprora had been 

 taken out after some elephants which had come down 

 near the plains, by some sportsmen from Bilaspiir ; and 

 a large tusker charging down on them, after having 

 been followed and shot at for half a day, w^as trampled 

 up before he could get clear. It was a terrible dis- 

 appointment, and neither B. nor I ever had another 

 chance at an elephant which we might shoot. I made 

 a number of little excursions from Matin to the principal 

 elephant haunts of the neighbourhood. All about there 

 were great quantities of game of other sorts, spotted 

 deer along the nalds, and red deer in nearly every 

 glade of the sal forests. Bears were numerous, and 

 I saw a few prowling about in the early morning, but, 



