THE EDIBLE PORTIONS OF AN ELEPHANT 297 



grazing the heart, lodged in his chest. We extracted the 

 tusks and also took away with us to camp the tail, liver, and 

 heart ; the latter is, if my memory does not deceive me, about 

 the size of a Rugby football, o"r a little smaller perhaps, and is 

 capital eating. The tail stewed or as soup is simply excellent 

 in my opinion. The elephant was afterwards cut up, and the 

 meat divided amongst my camp-followers, who dried it in the 

 sun and over a slow fire, eventually disposing of it, together 

 with the meat of other animals shot by me at the expiration 

 of my shoot, to the neighbouring villagers, thereby netting a 

 round sum of some Rs.3OO to Rs.4OO. I have always made 

 it a point when out shooting to allow as little meat to be 

 wasted as possible. The proceeds of sale of all meat of 

 animals shot was always given to my hunters, who were after- 

 wards all the more keen in furnishing information as to the 

 whereabouts of game. 



My second elephant was bagged under rather peculiar 

 circumstances, and for some days after its death disagree- 

 able arguments by outsiders, who had nothing whatever to 

 do with the matter, and who had never before shot an elephant 

 amongst them, but who were keen on having their say, were 

 continually being raised as to who was entitled to the tusks. 

 The reader will, however, judge for himself. 



I was out on a ten days' shoot with two officers from a 

 regiment at a neighbouring hill station, Bernardmyo, whom 

 I had invited to shoot with me. I shall call them A and D ; 

 the latter was a hardy old veteran of over fifty, who had 

 lived a long time in the East, and was, besides being excellent 

 company, a keen and enthusiastic sportsman. A was a young 

 subaltern who had not, I presume, been long in the East. 

 Both knew how to use the rifle well. After getting out into 

 the jungle under canvas, some ten or fifteen miles away from 

 any village, we managed to work up separately, each with his 

 own gun-bearers and trackers, towards the Shwe-u-taung range 

 of hills. Our beats were arranged so that we should not 

 interfere with one another's sport. I had not been out half-an- 

 hour before my hunters struck the trail of a herd of gaur; 

 these tracks were, however, according to Moung Hpe, about 

 twelve hours old. Nevertheless, I was determined to stick 



