ELEPHANT SHOOTING 247 



to do ; his horse Colesberg was in mortal terror of the 

 huge, strange creature, and plunged wildly. A shot was 

 at length fired, but without much result, and the noise 

 at such close quarters ended by upsetting Colesberg's 

 nerves completely. In vain his master attempted to get 

 near enough to jump on his back ; Colesberg only plunged 

 and reared and swung round towards the wounded ele- 

 phant. At this moment a loud trumpeting noise was 

 heard from behind, and out from the trees came a 

 stone-deaf old dog, followed, unknown to himself, by the 

 friend of the wounded elephant, who had come to the 

 help of his comrade. The men looked on from afar ; 

 but, less loyal or brave than the elephant, they did nothing, 

 and Colonel Gordon Cumming's hunting days would have 

 ended there and then had it not been for the dogs who 

 yapped at the knees of the elephants, and took off their 

 attention — for elephants are horribly afraid of dogs. 

 When their trunks were almost touching him he 

 managed, goaded by the danger, to spring into the saddle, 

 and dashed off to where the men were standing for a 

 second rifle. Then, aiming as well as his frightened steed 

 would let him, he soon ended the sufferings of his first 

 victim, which fell to the ground, bringing down a huge 

 tree in her full. 



Her friend, seeing the case was hopeless, charged 

 straight at the murderer, who was forced to fly for 

 several hundred yards before he could contrive to get 

 a shot. At last he was able to turn and place a ball in 

 her shoulder, when, evidently hard hit, she gave it up 

 and made for cover. 



Some old writers have left us very curious stories 

 of the elephants which were first seen in Europe in 

 the wars of Pyrrhus with Eome. ' The beast which 

 hath between its eyes a serpent for a hand,' was much 

 used in battles in those days, and when steady and 

 well-trained, was most useful, both in charging the 

 enemy, and in carrying a kind of fort filled with light 



