SHE HAS BITTEN ME ! 63 



with hook-like thorns, and these kept tripping me up, and 

 every few paces I went a cropper backwards. Every time I 

 fell, Boyle thought the tigress had me, but could do nothing 

 to help me ; after about as nasty a hundred yards' trudge as 

 I ever wish to undergo, I got to where the elephants were 

 congregated ; the soles of my feet and my legs (pretty well 

 denuded of my pyjamas) were torn and bleeding. 



Fortunately just then a large commissariat tusker, who 

 had been with Madden and Osmer, came upon the scene. I 

 jumped on to the pad on his back, and he not having been 

 in the scrimmage advanced pretty rapidly towards where 

 the elephant and tigress were still fighting. Before I had 

 gone 50 yards I saw my elephant, who had shaken off the 

 tigress, coming towards me at his best pace, dragging the 

 charah along the ground and the mahout hanging on to his 

 hind-quarters, instead of being seated on the neck as usual. 

 As he passed me he called out 



" She has bitten me ! " 



I of course hurried to the front ; no sooner had I got 

 within about 20 yards, than without waiting to be shot at, 

 she charged. I hit her and stopped her for a second ; 

 had the elephant stood, I might have killed her, but he 

 spun round like a teetotum. She rushed on and seized him 

 high up on the inside of the thigh, and hung on like a 

 bulldog. 



Using the gun like a pistol, with one hand, whilst I held on 

 with the other to the ropes of the pad, I tried to shoot her ; 

 but her body swayed about so that I missed ; and she fell off 

 and went into another patch of grass. As soon as I could 

 get this elephant who was nearly 10 feet in height round, 

 I again returned to the charge, but it was already getting 

 dusk ; she did not allow us to get very close, but rushed at 

 me with short, coughing roars that sent the steed flying. 



To make a long story short, this vixen mauled my second 

 mount several times, receiving herself a bullet each time ; 

 but no great damage was done either way. I was as savage 

 as the tigress, and would have advanced on foot had it been 

 practicable ; but the grass, though burnt here and there, was 

 too long in her vicinity, for she did not throw a chance away 

 for a man to have had any chance. My elephant at last 



