Capturing Elephants. 1 1 9 



avoided it easily, but as the wild one scraped past us, 



the mahout threw his noose and snared him cleverly, 



but our elephant was not prepared, so got dragged 



sideways most ignominiously and all but overthrown. 



Our man was on the point of cutting the rope which 



held us together, when a large tusker was brought up 



diagonally and charged the mucknah, striking him 



obliquely. He all but went down, but not quite. The 



tame beast stepped back a pace or two and was in the 



act of repeating the dose when the mucknah met him 



half-way and they crashed so violently together, head 



to head that both were driven back. More tame 



elephants arrived on the scene, and as they all 



closed in 011 the wild one, he could not resist his 



fate, so was captured, but the injuries he received 



were so great, especially from the rope of the noose 



which had cut into the flesh to a depth of three or 



four inches, that before a week was out, mortification 



set in and he died. We caught one more that day, 



a small tusker about ten years old. One of his female 



relatives gave us a great deal of trouble, frequently 



charging, so that at one time we thought of letting the 



youngster loose for a while and securing her, but the 



mahout said she was not worth the catching, so we 



let a couple of elephants at her and drove her off, then 



secured the little one. I had had enough of sport by 



that time, so got on to one of my own pad elephants 



and went back to camp, and for the next week I was 



.hoi's de combat ! 



Eight were caught in two days. Of these, two 

 were strangled outright and two so severely cut that 

 they died. I had one other hunt in the dooars, and 

 having practised for about a week previously I was 



