66 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



should have expected of them, it is always 

 fair to remember that we may possibly misin- 

 terpret their motives and overlook reasons for 

 their conduct which, though not always ap- 

 parent from our limited point of view, may 

 appear perfectly sound to them. I give the 

 evidence in his own words : 



" In the cold weather of 1870, I was camped 

 out in the District of Nasik, in the Bombay 

 Presidency. At that time, the military depart- 

 ment maintained a number of elephants, some 

 of which were employed on what may be called 

 civil duties, such as the clearance of forests, 

 the destruction of wild beasts, ceremonial 

 occasions of a political character, and so forth. 

 A certain contingent of elephants had, on the 

 occasion of Lord Mayo's visit to Ajmer, or 

 some similar function, to be sent north. Three 

 elephants, one from Ahmednagar, a second 

 from Khandesh, and a third from Poona, were 

 to meet near my place of encampment and to 

 march in company to their appointed station. 

 On the arrival of the Khandesh elephant, 

 which had recently been employed in tiger- 

 killing operations, it was at once noticed that 

 something was seriously wrong. The animal 

 was clearly ill at ease. Next morning when 

 one mahout had mounted his elephant, and 

 another was about to mount the second, the 

 Khandesh elephant suddenly broke loose 

 before being mounted, roughly pushed away 

 his neighbour, and, taking the mahout in his 



