152 ELEPHANT AND BISON. 



turned and bolted. I took a crack at the side of his head as 

 he rushed through the bamboos, and another at" his ear; both 

 shots appeared to stagger him. I kept running and watching 

 for a favourable turn of his head, but he never stopped and 

 made for some open forest. In passing through the bamboos 

 he or we had disturbed a bull bison, which ran across the 

 elephant's path, who immediately charged him furiously, and 

 Atley declared struck him with his tusks, which so alarmed 

 the bison that he put on his best pace and soon outran the 

 elephant, who continued to chase him for some minutes. I 

 tried to run on but got so blown I was obliged to give it up. 



On the nth October, 1856, Michael and I started after 

 an early breakfast to Pullikul on the chance of falling in with 

 elephants. Pullikul means " child's stone." The karder 

 women who love their lords come to it, and standing on a flat 

 stone a few yards from the Pullikul, which is a round pro- 

 jecting piece of rock, place a stone on their toes and attempt 

 to pitch it on the rock ; if it happens to alight on the rock, 

 the child will be a boy, if it hits and falls back, a girl, and if 

 they fail to strike the rock at all the child will die at its birth. 

 We wandered through the forest till nearly one o'clock with- 

 out seeing anything but some tracks of bison and the quite 

 fresh "pug" of a tiger. 



It should be mentioned that at this time (1856) the 

 elephants were very numerous in Southern India, and had 

 committed so many depredations in the cultivated districts 

 that the Government had issued an order for all elephants 

 to be killed, and offered a reward for each elephant, male 

 or female ; had this not been the case no females would 

 have been shot. We had just sat down to tiffin when 

 Atley pointed to the fresh track of an elephant; as soon as 



