CHAPTER XIX 



THE elephant's tragic ending cast quite a gloom over the 

 camp, and by the " mahouts " and their assistants was 

 evidently regarded as an evil omen, which, so far as it 

 concerned our shooting, was unfortunately verified, for 

 during the next few weeks not a single expedition ended 

 in success. However, as by the time our tour was over 

 the hot weather had set in, we had fortunately no further 

 opportunity of testing this prediction; though, if an un- 

 usually unhealthy and generally unpleasant hot and 

 rainy season formed part of the prophecy, it was certainly 

 fulfilled. 



***** 



The cold season had come round again, and I had been 

 already out on tour a month or so, when my duties 

 took me to a part of the district where there were said 

 to be some bison ; but with the usual ups and downs of 

 luck in sport, the herd, as I discovered later, had left 

 these jungles the day before I came. 



However, being ignorant of this at the time, I hunted 

 diligently for them on an elephant for a day or two, then 

 being told they had a favourite feeding ground where 

 they came to graze late in the evenings, I conceived what 

 in my ignorance I imagined to be a brilliant idea, of 

 erecting a " machan " concealed in the jungle near this 

 feeding place, and watching for them on it ! 



I knew nothing in those days of the habits of these 

 animals or of their extraordinary power of scenting human 

 beings, but had heard that their sight was dull and limited, 

 and as my old " shikari " was not in camp with me at 

 the time nor anyone else bold enough to tell the sahib 

 that he was wrong I proceeded in all seriousness to carry 

 out my idiotic plan. 



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