214 BIG GAME SHOOTING 



charge at tigers are exceedingly dangerous in the field, par- 

 ticularly after a tiger has been killed and men are dismounting 

 to pad it. All the elephants in such a case, except the one 

 destined to carry the beast, should be taken away from near the 

 carcase ; they are more or less in an excited state, and are apt 

 to mistake a man in the grass for another tiger. The writer 

 remembers being on an elephant that stood perfectly steady 

 for the shot, but as soon as the tiger was killed it was within a 

 few feet of her it was all the mahout could do to prevent her 

 charging it. 



The elephant has a way of playing football with an animal 

 which though diverting to a spectator is awkward for the man 

 in the howdah. The elephant performs a kind of war dance 

 over the carcase, kicking it about between his feet, lifting it 

 with the front of the hindfoot and returning it from the back 

 of the forefoot till tired, when he places one ponderous hind- 

 foot upon it and squashes it flat. If an elephant has been 

 mauled, it is not at all a bad plan to let it play with the carcase 

 of its enemy ; but everything should be taken out of the how- 

 dah, and the skin will not be worth much afterwards. 



Two other serious dangers that have to be guarded against 

 in tiger shooting are bees and red ants. Bees generally hang 

 their hives from boughs of trees or on the face of rocks, but 

 often they have them in high grass, and an elephant pushing 

 his way through disturbs them, rendering them exceedingly 

 aggressive, whilst a shot fired near them is quite enough to 

 make them attack. Deaths of men and animals from their 

 stings have often been recorded ; they almost always go at the 

 head, and the best way of escaping is to cover the head with 

 a blanket, which should invariably be placed in each howdah. 

 The mahouts always sit on theirs. Oddly enough, if the head 

 is covered the rest of the body, even of unclad natives, usually 

 escapes their attentions. A nest of red ants, though not so 

 dangerous, is quite enough to put anyone to flight, as they bite 

 unmercifully and leave their nippers in. No one would ever 

 think of climbing a tree with a bee's nest in it, but equal care 



