JOOMAS EATING ELEPHANT- FLESH. 173 



Next morning I went in a boat to examine the bodies. The news of 

 the occnrrence had spread, and I found about two hundred Joomas from 

 villages near assembled on the banks of the river, with a flotilla of dug-out 

 canoes and rafts. They had baskets and knives of every description, and 

 were awaiting the arrival of some one in authority to give them permission 

 to take the elephants' flesh, which they eat. They were like vultures 

 watching a carcass until it is sufficiently decomposed to allow of a com- 

 mencement being made. In the centre of the pool floated three leaden- 

 coloured objects. These were our poor elephants. Their buoyancy was 

 such that three men could stand on each without submeroing them. The 

 Joomas towed tliem ashore, and cut off their fore-feet for me, for making 

 into footstools in remembrance of them ; and I then gave tliem permission to 

 fall to, which they did with such a will that by next morning at the same 

 hour not a vestige of the elephants remained. The ]3oats and rafts had 

 been laden with flesh, and even the bones had been broken into pieces and 

 carried off to boil into soup (elephants' bones are solid and have no marrow). 

 It was well the bodies could be turned to account instead of beincr left to 

 pollute the air and water, as would have been the case in most parts of 

 India, where natives will not eat elephants' flesh. 



Arrived at Eungamuttea, my chief labours w^ere over. Tlie trip had 

 been very successful, and we had concluded our operations very expedi- 

 tiously. Mahouts and grass-cutters came from Chittagong or volunteered 

 from amongst the kheddah men, and every new elephant was entered in 

 a roll and brought on to the strength of the Commissariat Department. 

 They were then divided into lots of twenties under jemadars, and the whole 

 number, with the tame ones, proceeded by gentle marches vid Chittagong 

 to Dacca, a distance of 200 miles, under the supervision of the sergeant. 

 Only two died on the way ; the rest reached Dacca on 5 th May. All 

 the Europeans in the station assembled to see the cavalcade of about 

 a hundred and thirty elephants arrive. Some calves had been born, but 

 they had all died. Most of the new elephants carried their mahouts and 

 their baggage. All but a few of the quietest were still attached to the 

 tame ones, lest they should take fright and cause accidents. Arrived in 

 the Peelkhana, or elephant-stables, a picket was allotted to each, and their 

 systematic training was commenced. They would be fit to march to the 

 military station of Barrackpore, near Calcutta, at the end of the year, whence 

 they would be allotted to the different military stations, and applied to light 

 work in about two years. 



I left Dacca for Mysore in June "76, but I have recently heard of these 

 elephants from the Commissariat Department. Sixteen died in the first year. 



