JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE. 79 



ghosts of all created elephants commenced wreaking 

 summary vengeance on my body by every kind of 

 horrible and incomprehensible means ; finally winding 

 up their sports by a game of battledore and shuttle- 

 cock (which latter little article was personated of 

 course by myself), until a smart concussion between 

 the table and my head, accompanied by a violent fit 

 of sneezing (caused by some ruffian having gratui- 

 tously administered a considerable quantity of " Irish 

 blackguard"), would release me from the clutches of 

 my elephantine inquisitors. 



When the evening arrives, and it is again cool, 

 the old man makes his re-appearance, and we either 

 devote the remaining daylight to elephant-shooting 

 or deerstalking, the place literally swarming with red 

 deer, so much so, that sitting in the verandah of the 

 bungalow, about dusk, one may kill as much venison 

 in an hour or two as would keep him from starving 

 for a twelvemonth. 



A more amusing sport with these animals is 

 coursing them with greyhounds (although this is ex- 

 celled on the continent of India, where they are 

 coursed with cheetahs), but as this carries us off our 

 present subject, we must postpone it to a future 

 chapter. 



One day's elephant shooting varies so little from 

 that of another, except in variety of escapes that we 

 experience, that it would be an unfeeling action to 

 drag the reader through a second day's labour; suffice 



