AN EXPLOEATION IN THE FAR EAST. 431 



being unable to work on foot, never got a sliot. I 

 picked up four or five deer, of sorts, shooting from the 

 elephant ; and, having to follow up the tracks of several 

 which were wounded, had an opportunity of admiring 

 the wonderful tracking powers of these wild Bhiimias. 

 An ordinary track that I could barely see, they ran 

 breast-high, and scarcely looking at the ground, and it 

 was not till all sign disappeared to other eyes that real 

 interest in the work began to be displayed. No natives 

 of these highlands can compare with a Bhiimia in real 

 knowledge of woodcraft. A short distance north-east of 

 Matin is a small hill called Malindeh. Many bones of 

 elephants lay strewn about below the steep precipice at 

 one end of this hill ; and it seemed that, the year before 

 we were there, a singular accident had led to the 

 destruction on this spot of almost the whole of a small 

 herd. The Thakur and villagers were going up the 

 narrow path, by which alone it is accessible, to pay 

 their annual devotions to the god of the hill. The 

 procession was accompanied by the noise of drums and 

 much shouting in honour of the deity ; and they were 

 wholly unaware that they were driving before them 

 a herd of five elephants which had been ahead of 

 them on the path. Arrived at the summit, and the 

 noise still pursuing them, the elephants became panic- 

 stricken, and four of them tried to descend on the 

 opposite side. Here a slope of loose shingle led down 

 from the top, ending in a sheer cliff". Once embarked 

 on this there was no retreat for their ponderous weight, 

 and the poor brutes were hurried over the perpendicular 

 fall. The fifth — the big tusker whom I had so recently 

 encountered, it was said — charged back through the 

 procession, scattering them like chaff", and made his 

 escape down the path. 



