Capturing Elephants. 1 1 7 



we should have got alongside and secured it without 

 any chase whatever. The mahout was coiling 

 his lasso, preparatory to casting it, when the wild one 

 pricked up his ears. The mahout jumped up, threw 

 the noose, but he was a second too late. It struck the 

 elephant's head but failed to encircle it. Off he went, 

 and we only about a length behind, but a little on one 

 side, to the left. We had met with our match in 

 speed. For quite half a mile we did not gain an 

 inch. The ground was very uneven and I was tossed 

 about everywhere. I had in my youth been accus- 

 tomed to gymnastics of all sorts, and had been rather 

 a proficient, but during the chase it was like practising 

 on the parallel bars or horizontal pole. I clung on by 

 my eyelids, my hands were clutched and held on like 

 a vice to the top of the girth, and I wished I had had the 

 feet of a gorilla to hold on by them too ! But I may 

 say that for a quarter of an hour, I was never for two 

 minutes at a time on the elephant's back. I would 

 have cried " Hold, enough," but could not speak. The 

 man behind me belaboured the sore and kept the 

 koonkie going as fast as she could lay legs to the 

 ground. Several times she came down on her head, 

 and I almost precipitated the mahout ahead of me 

 off her back, but he held on like grim death. I never 

 let go either, but I never passed such a quatre d'heure 

 in my life. Fortunately I was fairly strong in those 

 days, as hard as nails, in good condition, and pretty 

 game, but I suffered terrible agonies. My arms 

 were all but dislocated out of their sockets, and 

 1 cannot say how thankful I was when the chase took 

 us across ground which had been cultivated but last 

 year, and had not lapsed into tangled jungle, when 



