284 WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



fire. Should the sportsman be in the line of flight in a 

 stampede of this sort he should always stand firm behind 

 the trunk of some tree or solid clump of bamboos. He will 

 then be in perfect safety, as the terrified animals are intent 

 only on getting away as far and as quickly as possible. A 

 herd alarmed in this manner will often travel ten or fifteen 

 miles without stopping. The only danger to be apprehended 

 is from a female elephant when accompanied by a young 

 one, of whose safety she is very solicitous. An old female, 

 when the herd has been alarmed, invariably takes the lead, 

 and the rear is usually brought up by a huge " muckna " or 

 tusker. The large tuskers more often, however, are the first 

 to get out of danger's way, and are, so far as my now 

 experience goes, never found near a herd, but always on the 

 outskirts, at distances varying from a few hundred yards 

 to a quarter of a mile. A large tusker will often during the 

 night wander away miles from a herd, in order to visit rice 

 fields or a certain favourite banana plantation. These visits 

 are often repeated at intervals, till the animal has either been 

 fired at or in some other manner effectually scared. Elephants 

 in Upper Burma do a great deal of damage annually to the 

 rice crops, and in a single night a herd of twenty animals 

 will utterly demolish a field of rice, in fact they destroy 

 more by trampling on it than they eat. 



I remember very well once on a pitch-dark night vainly 

 endeavouring to get a shot at a huge solitary elephant, that 

 night after night visited a certain patch of "paddy" land 

 in the Twinge jurisdiction of the Tagaung subdivision, 

 Ruby Mines district. The Burmans in this locality, being 

 unarmed, had done their utmost to drive away this animal 

 by making huge bonfires along the paths by which he was 

 known to enter the fields, and by throwing lighted brands 

 at him ; all to no purpose, however, as with a slight, sup- 

 pressed scream of rage and feinting charge he used to put 

 them all to flight. He would then stalk calmly in amongst 

 the standing rice and begin uprooting it ; the swish, swish 

 of the earth being knocked off the roots of the rice-stalks 

 as he banged them across his fore-legs prior to stuffing them 

 into his capacious mouth was distinctly audible. I succeeded 



