The Kheddah 



123 



uneasily to and fro. The silent approach of 

 others of their kind was viewed without much 

 alarm, save that the scent of human beings was 

 repugnant to their sensitive nostrils. But as 

 they wandered in indecision towards the further 

 end of the valley, the air seemed suddenly to be 



filled with the shouts of men, with the rushing 

 of many elephants, and with the trampling of 

 grass and the breaking of saplings. A panic 

 seized the herd, and it fled in confusion with 

 uplifted tails and curling trunks ; and the next 

 moment the strangers were amongst them, each 

 of the forty mahouts singling out a victim and 

 devoting entire attention to its capture. Those 



