284 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTKAL INDIA. 



innermost recess of the cover, where the brute is expected to 

 lie, is approached by the wonderfully intelligent and half- 

 human elephant. 



A strange affection springs up between the hunter and his 

 well-tried ally in the chase of the tiger ; and a creature seem- 

 ing to those who see him only in the menagerie, or labouring 

 under a load of baggage, but a lumbering mass of flesh, be- 

 comes to him almost a second self, yielding to his service the 

 perfection of physical and mental qualities of which a brute 

 is capable, and displaying an intelligent interest in his sport 

 of which no brute could be thought to be possessed. No one 

 who has not witnessed it would believe the astonishing caution 

 with which a well-trained elephant approaches a tiger, 

 removing with noiseless adroitness every obstacle of fallen 

 timber, etc., and passing his huge bulk over rustling leaves, or 

 rolling stones, or quaking bog, with an absolute and marvel- 

 lous silence ; handing up stones, when ordered, for his master 

 to fling into the cover ; smelling out a cold scent as a spaniel 

 roads a pheasant ; and at last, perhaps, pointing dead with sensi- 

 tive trunk at the hidden monster, or showing with short nervous 

 raps of that organ on the ground that he is somewhere near, 

 though not actually discovered to the senses of the elephant. 

 Then the unswerving steadiness when he sees the enemy he 

 naturally dreads, and would flee from panic-stricken in his 

 native haunts, perhaps charging headlong at his head, trusting 

 all to the skill of his rider, and thoughtless of using his own 

 tremendous strength in the encounter for a good elephant 

 never attempts to combat the tiger himself. To do so would 

 generally be fatal to the sport, and perhaps to the sportsman 

 too ; for no one could stick to an elephant engaged in a per- 

 sonal struggle with a tiger, far less use his gun under such 

 circumstances. The elephant's business is to stand like a rock 



