ELEPHANTS HUNTING TIGERS. 119 



meet in the jungle each would probably be only anxious to get 

 out of the other's way as quickly as possible. 



The principal difficulty in training elephants for hunting is to 

 overcome the excessive antipathy^ and even dread, they enter- 

 tain toward tigers. To accomplish this a tiger's skin is stuffed 

 and placed partially concealed among the undergrowth skirting 

 some road. Along the road the elephant is then conducted ; 

 always observant, he quickly detects the unwelcome neighbor 

 and considerable urging is required to induce him to pass it. 

 After passing it several times he becomes more iudiferent to its 

 presence and may be gradually induced to approach it. Then 

 he is made to turn it over and get thoroughly familiar with it ; 

 this accustoms him to the tiger in a state of quietude. Then 

 the stuffed figure is thrown toward him and he is taught to 

 receive it upon his tusks. The next lesson may be to drive his 

 tusks into the body. The last operation is to teach the elephant 

 to allow the stuffed tiger to be placed upon his back; this is the 

 most difficult part of all. 



When the elephant is properly trained and ready for service 

 the hunter takes his place in the hondah — a sort of box-seat 

 fastened on the animal's back — while the mahout sits astride the 

 neck. Behind the hunter, in the hondah, rides the shikaree, or 

 native gun carrier, whose duty it is to '' play second fiddle " in 

 the expedition. A number of natives are also usually employed 

 as " beaters " to start the game. These men go on foot, seek- 

 ing safety, in case of danger, by climbing trees or by being 

 lifted up "by the elephant upon his back. The elephants are 

 now formed in line and the jungle beaten, in all parts if a small 

 one, or if very extensive in those portions only which appear 

 most likely to contain game. As soon as a tiger is started the 

 line advances upon him, each hunter watching for an opportu- 

 nity so fire as his elephant charges. Notwithstandmg the most 

 careful training instinct often proves an overmatch for the ele- 

 phant's education and, he takes to flight in spite of all the di'i- 

 ver's efforts to prevent him One hunter relates an incident of 

 his elephant being seized with a panic and dumping hunter, 

 driver and all upon his back, into the very midst of a number 

 of tigers which the party were in pursuit of. 



In taking a dead tiger home the elephant lies on his side 

 until the body is fastened to him, and then rises with it. 



The liability to be seized with a panic at trifling circumstances 

 is probably due in a measure to the elephant's limited range of 

 vision, the short neck preventing his looking much above the 

 level of his head. An anecdote illustrative of this is told by 

 Sir J. E. Tennent: ^'In 1841 an officer was chased by an 



