THE BLAT ELEPHANT. 191 



shed of the Blat and Sol appeared to have made some 

 vow to be fulfilled upon " its " death. 



While we were thus talking, voices hailed us out of 

 the darkness that lay upon the river. A couple of 

 Malays passing down stream in a dug-out, recognising 

 my house-boat and guessing our errand, called out to 

 let us know that they had just heard the elephant 

 feeding on the opposite bank of the river, about half a 

 mile up-stream. Brahim told us that the ford by 

 which the elephant generally crossed the river was at 

 this place, and we decided that, if we waited there in 

 a boat, we might possibly surprise the animal at the 

 shallows. Ahman, Sleman, and I therefore took a 

 dug-out and started without further delay. 



Before we had gone far, we heard the elephant 

 feeding, about a quarter of a mile inland from the 

 river bank. It is not easy to say how impressive 

 the sound was in the stillness of the night as it came 

 from the darkness of the forest, which stood up wall- 

 like above the river bank. There was the peaceful 

 sound of the elephant's slow, contented feeding, mixed 

 with occasional sounds of the flapping of an ear, 

 rumbling and squelching noises in its stomach, and 

 an intermittent thwacking of its tail upon its sides. 

 Now we could hear a bough being snapped off, and 

 now a bunch of grass being torn up by the roots. 

 It seemed a shame to think of killing an animal 

 so huge and so unseemingly inoffensive ; and it 

 was necessary to harden my heart with the memory 

 of the mischief that it wrought. The wind was blow- 

 ing from it to us, and we waited in silence beside 

 the ford. It fed slowly towards us until only a 



