THE ELEPHANT. 167 



Brinjara at a safe distance, and ordered the little 

 Ghoorka to keep himself at about twenty or thirty yards 

 behind me with my reserve double-barrelled guns, 

 I began to creep towards the herd with my single 

 carabine. Suddenly a change in the wind caused a 

 number of trunks to be raised into the air. The 

 trunk has a little appendage in the shape of a finger, 

 and in a second each of them was turned towards 

 the bush behind which I was stooping down, as if 

 to indicate the place whence danger might be ex- 

 pected. The herd then began to move off slowly, 

 their frequent encounters with woodmen in the 

 jungles having rendered them less easy to frighten 

 than they would otherwise have been. We did 

 not see any ivory-bearer amongst them ; and if 

 the male was not near at hand, the head of the 

 troop would be some great muckna, or tuskless 

 male. 



" An enormous female was making her repast 

 amongst the branches of a bush of bamboos, at a 

 short distance in front of me. I crept along under 

 the cover, and arrived within four yards of her be- 

 fore she saw me. I aimed at her temples and fired. 

 I had resolved to hasten to the bottom of the escarp- 

 ment as quickly as I could, to see the effects of my 

 shot, and as soon as I had fired I ran straight to 

 the place where my Ghoorka was waiting. A fearful 



