78 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



shadowy form in a heavy patch of long grass, intently listen- 

 ing. I got as near as I thought safe about 30 paces off 

 stood up on the pad, and fired into the broad of his back, 

 hoping to break his spine. On receiving the bullet he was 

 round and into my elephant, just as I had time to throw my- 

 self into a sitting posture astride the pad. He then shifted his 

 position, and came to the side and looked up into my face. 

 I put down the heavy rifle, and, touching his forehead, pulled 

 the trigger, and for the only time, it missed fire. The next 

 instant my elephant was driven forward a good two yards I 

 told the mahout to take her out into an open space close by, 

 but the foolish beast would not budge, but kept yelling " blue 

 murder " whilst the bull was cruelly punishing her. At last, 

 seeing the other elephants which had at last approached 

 she condescended to go towards them, and the bull did not 

 venture to follow her into the plain. There I got on to a fresh 

 elephant and went back ; the bull was decidedly seedy, but 

 charged once or twice, but we managed to stop him, and at 

 last to lay him low ; but even when on the ground he struggled 

 so, that we had to pour in volley after volley before he gave 

 up the ghost. We had fired some 39 bullets into him. 

 He was fully 18 hands high, and it was as much as four 

 men could do to lift his head on to a pad elephant. My 

 elephant was laid up for several months. I never used her 

 again for sport. Though staunch, she was not fast enough, and 

 nothing breaks a sportsman's heart so much as being on an 

 elephant that has not a go in him or her. 



On another occasion, when out with General Blake, we came 

 across several, and killed three ; one of these charged my 

 elephant, but he promptly knocked him over. In Assam, in 

 the first six months, I shot twenty-two, and then the sport 

 had not the same attraction, and I seldom molested them 

 unless they disputed the right of way, or were inclined to be 

 pugnacious, which was not infrequent. I shot altogether over 

 two hundred. 



After the wild bulls have served the cows, instead of retir- 

 ing, they often insist on remaining with their harem. They 

 then become a nuisance, and the Assamese have recourse to 

 various devices to get rid of them ; they dig pitfalls, hang a 

 dart weighted on the branch of a tree under which they notice 



