228 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



cause, AVC were provided with, long spears, and Bhauad- 

 din showed himself particularly active and courageous 

 when one large elephant did threaten us. The fight- 

 ing was by torchlight, which added to the extraor- 

 dinary character of the scene. A large elephant in 

 an excited state was let loose into the arena, and 

 surrounded by a number of men, each holding a 

 torch in one hand and a very long sharp spear in the 

 other. First one man would give the elephant a 

 prog with his spear, and when it turned upon him 

 another would arrest its attention by progging it on 

 the other side. When hard pressed the spearmen 

 had apertures in the wall of the arena into which 

 they could escape, and accidents seldom happen, but 

 one or two of them had rather narrow escapes. If 

 the elephant was excited when he entered, he became 

 ten times more so under this system of progging, and 

 some difficulty was experienced in getting him out 

 of the arena by exploding fireworks behind him, 

 which also did not tend to soothe his mind ; but he 

 seemed to enjoy the thing in a way, and it can hardly 

 be said that there was any cruelty in the amusement, 

 or that it was as bad as fox-hunting, in which men 

 run the risk of breaking their necks, and the fox 

 suffers not a little. It was a moonless night, and a 

 curious effect was produced by the infuriated animal 

 rushing about with a swiftness rendered remarkable 

 by its vast proportions, amid the flickering light of 

 torches, the glare of fireworks, or the steady blue 



