120 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



to avoid this, take a howdah ladder with you. It is about 

 8 feet long and ingeniously constructed ; there is a groove 

 into which the rungs fit when the ladder is folded up, and 

 then it looks like a stout stick slung on to one side of the pad. 

 They are obtainable in most of the principal towns in India 

 from which parties start out hunting. 



An elephant is naturally very gentle, and would not hurt a 

 worm, but they can be taught anything. Never allow your 

 beast to make a football of a dead beast between his legs ; he 

 will do it at first with reluctance, and only when forced, but 

 it teaches him bad habits, and if frightened he might do it to 

 his own master. No elephant will tread upon anything if he 

 can avoid it ; they are wonderfully sure-footed, and will go up 

 and clown the steepest places which to any other beast would 

 be impossible. The way they slide down the steep side of a 

 nullah with fore-legs stretched out in advance and the hind 

 doubled backwards dragging them along, or ascend an equally 

 steep place by bending the fore-legs and walking as it were on 

 their knees, has to be seen to be believed. 



I would rather be on an elephant that runs away than on 

 one given to charging. I have been run away with dozens of 

 times, and have had some narrow squeaks. Unfortunately, if 

 an elephant gets into a panic, and he sees a forest anywhere 

 near, he will make for it straight across country as hard as he 

 can amble along, for they cannot canter or gallop ; but it is 

 astonishing how fast they can go at their shamble. A good 

 runner might have a chance on a smooth sward, but he would 

 have none over rough ground. An elephant cannot jump a 

 deep ditch of over 7 feet is to him impassable unless he can 

 go down and up it. 



As a rule, they are frightened at seeing fire, but an elephant 

 of the battery in Debrooghur in Assam would help to put out 

 a fire, and she would do what I never saw any other elephant 

 do, and that was after a fallen buffalo's throat had been cut 

 through to the vertebrae, she would, when told, put her foot 

 on the neck, twist her trunk round the horns, and wrench the 

 head off and hand it up to the mahout. Some few elephants 

 will pick up birds after being shot and hand them up, but not 

 as a rule. 



