222 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



was very little appreciated by the old women who 

 passed through the gate, whose bundles, and even 

 whose persons, they searched in a most unceremoni- 

 ous way, and who in return cursed them from head 

 to heel, and otherwise treated them to a profusion 

 of the most abusive language. 



I enjoyed life in these tents exceedingly, but 

 nothing exciting occurred there except one day when 

 a sowar galloped down and told us that one of the 

 I^awab's elephants had gone Avild, had broken loose 

 from its keeper, and was coming down upon us. 

 The skedaddle which immediately took place was 

 most amusing. The guard of Arabs and Belooches 

 disappeared instantly, leaving the gate to take care 

 of itself. The old women threw down their bundles 

 and made a rush for some huts outside the gate. 

 My servants and attendants fled for the gateway 

 tower, and never stopped until they attained the 

 highest positions possible. And, curiously, a number 

 of pariah dogs which had been lying and playing 

 about seemed at once to understand that some danger 

 was near, and ran into concealment in the jungle. 

 In half a minute the whole place was deserted. 

 There was a very large half -uprooted and sloping 

 trunk of a banian-tree close beside me, and it at once 

 occurred to me that (with the aid of the trunk of a 

 mad elephant behind) I could walk up that banian- 

 tree with sufficient alacrity to place myself out of 

 danger ; so, keeping a keen look-out in the direction 



