UNRELIABILITY OF ELEPHANTS FOR SPORT 43 



with a whirr under their trunks, they would quake with 

 fear and hesitate to advance. One of my elephants, a 

 very massive, powerful female Koonkie, did not care two 

 pins for a tiger, but if she saw a pony coming towards her 

 at a canter she would run for her life, and nothing could 

 stop her. 



Be careful with your gear for all your elephants ; have the 

 guddies made to fit each individual animal. No two have 

 the backbone alike ; in some it is far more prominent than in 

 others ; the portion over the spine must be left open, and the 

 pad, lined with pith, should be well stuffed and sufficiently 

 thick to prevent anything placed on it pressing on the back 

 ridge. If you don't see to this, and your beast gets a sore 

 back, you can't use him. The lump formed has to be lanced 

 and the pus let out, and if an elephant is once cut he is never 

 so staunch afterwards as before the operation at least, that is 

 my own experience after having kept them for twenty-one 

 years. A good mahout will instil pluck into a cowardly 

 elephant, whilst a coward will cause the pluckiest animal to 

 run away. We all know what influence a man has on a 

 horse it is doubly so on an elephant, which is a far more 

 impressionable beast, and with not half the spirit of a thorough- 

 bred horse. The behaviour of the animal is but a reflex of 

 that of his rider. I here give an instance, though it did not 

 occur in Burma, but in Assam. 



Col. J. Macdonald, Deputy ,. Superintendent of Surveys in 

 Bengal, a capital sportsman, was on a tour of inspection, and 

 as he was anxious to kill a rhinoceros or two, I took him with 

 me into the dooars where I had to go on duty. The 

 Luckeepore Zemindar lent him for the trip one of the largest 

 and staunchest elephants in the province, off whose back 

 tigers, rhinoceros, buffaloes, etc., had been killed by the dozen. 

 His history too was a curious one. He was born in captivity, 

 his mother having been caught but a few months before his 

 birth, which took place on the same day as the Zemindar's 

 eldest child. The natives are very superstitious, and the 

 Brahmins foretold that the prosperity of the family depended 

 on their keeping possession of the elephant, who rapidly 

 developed into a very fine and high caste animal, but with 



