A PLUCKY MAHOUT. 175 



the long grass, with what confiding sagacity does the animal 

 grope about for it and lift it up to him with its trunk ! In 

 tiger-shooting, however steady an elephant may naturally 

 be, its behaviour very much depends on the conduct of its 

 mahout. I may mention a remarkable instance of cool pluck 

 on the part of a mahout, which occurred during a tiger-beat 

 in the Dehra Boon. Amongst some elephants attached to 

 my regiment, as transport for our ammunition on field service, 

 was a very fast and steady one which had had the honour 

 of carrying the Prince of Wales when tiger-shooting in the 

 Kumaon Terai. The mahout who drove Alice, as she was 

 named, always wore in his girdle a hunting-knife, which he 

 showed with much pride as having been bestowed on him by 

 his Eoyal Highness. One day, during a scrimmage with a 

 tiger, this knife dropped from the man's girdle. " Oh, my 

 knife ! my knife !" he exclaimed, and instantly slipped down 

 off his elephant's neck on to the ground to recover it, at the 

 imminent risk of being boned by the tiger. 



On the third day we visited the scene of the death of one 

 of the Colonel's tigers, in hopes of further success, as the 

 place was considered one of the best finds in the Doon ; but 

 this time we drew it blank. It was a long narrow swamp 

 filled with flag-grass (called " putteyr "), which grew nearly as 

 high as the elephants' pads, and almost surrounded with tree- 

 jungle, altogether about as perfect a bit of ground for hold- 

 ing a tiger as could be desired. 



On one occasion when beating through this swamp, we had 

 a funny adventure with a crocodile, 1 which afforded us some 

 sport, such as it was, and considerable merriment. The 

 creature was lying among the flags, apparently taking a 

 snooze, for it either paid no attention to or did not observe 

 the approaching elephants, so I resolved to wake it up with a 

 charge of buckshot on its cranium. On receiving the shot, it 

 for the moment seemed stunned, but soon managed to wriggle 



1 The crocodile of India is usually but erroneously called an alligator. 



