ELEPHANTS 



to move on I went to Horawila, a Tamil village some 

 2 or 3 miles away, and sent men back from there to 

 cut out the tusks and cut off the fore-feet. I got two 

 worn and broken tusks, each about 18 inches long and 

 weighing each about 5 Ibs., both of which were, later, 

 made into silver-fitted inkstands, coming in very useful as 

 wedding presents on two occasions. Next day I travelled 

 some ii to 12 miles northward along the wilas to Muttu- 

 gala, where the other two condemned elephants had been 

 damaging paddy fields. 



The next day I set off, with Kanavathie and his brother, 

 the two men being a fine pair of muscular Tamils and both 

 expert " panikkans " or elephant catchers, to track down 

 an elephant which had been damaging a " chena " crop, 

 and had trespassed the very night of my arrival. After 

 a long track through forest the footmarks led us into an 

 old remote abandoned " chena," where we saw the elephant 

 standing near a dead tree in the middle of an open space. 

 This " chena " was short grass, with clumps of bushes and 

 odd trees here and there, so getting the tree by which the 

 elephant was standing between us and his head, the wind 

 being favourable, we walked up to the tree, though how 

 the animal failed to hear us I don't know, for the ground 

 was gritty quartz gravel, which grated with what seemed to 

 be a fearful noise at every step. 



Arrived at the tree I could have patted the elephant by 

 hand easily, so close were we, for he was partly leaning 

 against it quite still. Losing no time, however, I fired into 

 the back of his right ear with the 8 -bore, the muzzle of 

 the gun being not more than 3 feet from the point of 

 aim, and down he sank at once. Kanavathie was going 

 to fire at him again but I told him not to, like an ass, nor 

 did I take the precaution to put in another shot myself, 



105 



