HISTORY AND COUNTRY 15 



elephants nearly fell on their heads. We tried 

 again with our whole power of three elephants, but 

 were powerless to shift him. 



Things looked bad. The poor beast sank till 

 all but a bit of his back and his head were under 

 the sand. He could not struggle, he could only 

 wave his trunk and trumpet feebly. It was certain 

 a short time would see him sucked down, or die of 

 exhaustion. 



A mahout suggested to Cotton, " Sahib, there 

 is a bend of the stream close above ; cut a channel 

 and let the water into the fussund." We did so. 

 It sounds a bigger job than it was, for we were 

 working in sand, and there were many hands and 

 willing. In an hour it was done. 



The effect was magical. The water poured in, 

 and, I suppose, loosened the binding action of the 

 quicksand. One last pull with every man, elephant, 

 and rope, and out the sufferer came ; he had been 

 in the quicksand six hours. I have never seen a 

 beast so done. He went in a fit, fat animal ; you 

 could count every bone in his body when he came 

 out. He was badly cut by ropes. We gave him 

 a bottle of brandy neat at once, and, with careful 

 nursing, he eventually recovered. 



To revert to our Meerut Kadir : in the more 

 cultivated country there are various other obstacles, 

 such as melon-beds, bumbas, and fences. 



The melon-beds are a series of pits covering acres 

 of ground, three feet square and three feet deep, 

 with a partition of ground six inches thick between 

 each. They are refilled with soft soil, and a melon 

 grows in the centre of each. If you ride into them 

 you fall — there is no option. 



The bumbas are simply small canals ; some 



