82 REMINISCENCES OF SONEPORE. 



sandbank near the river opposite, and at once charged. His 

 Sonepore opponent put down his head and rushed to meet 

 him. With a terrible shock they met, both seemed to stagger 

 for a minute, and then the mad one turned tail and bolted, 

 pursued by the other. The chase was not a long one, for Sir 

 Jung's tusker gained on the other fast, and as he was descend- 

 ing to the lower part of the bank, caught him in the rear with 

 such force, that he drove him head foremost into the sand, 

 where the now very-much-tamed elephant lay, receiving a 

 dig in the ribs now and then from his stronger brother. The 

 Sonepore elephant having hauled down his colors, his mahout 

 or driver mounted on his neck and off he marched, looking as 

 sheepish and cowed as an elephant possibly could look. 



It was at this meeting the folly of early morning racing 

 was first publicly discussed, and while no one denied the 

 soundness of the reasons against it, yet Civilians and Planters 

 are alike in being conservative to obstinacy ; and so the per- 

 nicious custom still continues, though an attempt to alter it 

 is to be made this year. The lotteries buzzed fairly. Echo 

 walked over for the Civilians' Cup, and only three, Silvertail, 

 Rising Star, and Long Hope, went out for the Bedouins, finish- 

 ing as placed, Kelly Maitland steering Rising Star. For the 

 Hajeepore Stakes four went out, Mr. Lee steering Messrs. 

 Butler and John's Revenge, whose owner steered Bearing Rein 

 for Mr. Prince. Jimmy got off with a flying start, and when 

 Revenge came up with a wet sail at the finish, he could not 

 quite get up, but the irony of fate was apparent here, for Jim- 

 my was over weight, and his own gee got the race much to 

 Jimmy's disgust. Echo won a three-quarter mile sweepstakes, 

 and that ended the third day. The off-clay was passed with 

 polo and tennis tournaments, Lord Mayo riding about the fair 

 on his grand weight carrier, Mr. Cox, which brought at thr 

 sale of the ill-fated Earl's stud the biggest price ever paid for 

 a hack in India, Rs. 4,300. On Friday the lotteries again 



