Elephant Fittings. 107 



cartridges will do ; in a scrimmage you have not time 

 to pick and choose the shells, but have to take what 

 you can lay hands upon. 



Under the seat on which you sit you can have a 

 compartment in which to carry food, etc., but the 

 less you yourself take the better. Have no rattling. 



In the jungles of Assam and Burma the denizens 

 are used to wild elephants, and care very little for 

 the noise those animals make when crashing their 

 way through the dense long grass, but if in addition 

 they hear the rattling of plates or bottles they smell 

 a rat and are off long before you can get within shot. 



Take a light zephyr waterproof coat with you to 

 put on if a storm comes up. If you have to travel 

 long distances over plains where there is little or 

 no game, and a fierce sun overhead, buy a common 

 native umbrella such as is used on occasions of 

 ceremony ; they have long handles to enable them 

 to be held over the heads of the swells by their re- 

 tainers. Pierce two holes in each side of your seat, 

 and corresponding holes in the floor of the howdah ; 

 into these insert the handle and you will have 

 ample shade. When you wish to resume shooting, 

 you have only to take the umbrella down, fold it up, 

 invert it, placing the top downwards against the 

 bottom of the front of your howdah ; the handle will 

 stick out behind and it will not be in the way in the 

 least. Never tether your elephants for more than a 

 day or two in the same place. Standing on their own 

 excreta softens or rots the sole of the foot, which, 

 though spongy, ought at the same time to be as hard 

 as ivory. Avoid giving an elephant a sore back, not 

 only for your own sake, because you cannot then use 



