156 ELEPHANTS. 



gradually filling them with the earth thus displaced. The 

 pits were arranged in groups of four or five, two usually 

 being in front, and one on each flank to intercept those 

 that bolted on the collapse of the leading elephant. Bison 

 and sambur were not unfrequently victimised by these 

 contrivances. The Mysore Government also prohibited the 

 killing of elephants in the same year (1871), and since then 

 have only sanctioned enterprises against " rogues," which 

 are solitary male elephants addicted to infesting the 

 vicinity of roads, where they interrupt the traffic and 

 frequently kill any human being they may meet. A few 

 of these brutes were on the warpath almost every year in 

 the Mysore jungles. One was a well-known muckna 

 (tuskless male), and lorded it over the natives in the 

 Karkancottah jungles. Several men had been killed by 

 him. It was stated that he had been wounded by a sahib, 

 and that this had the effect of making him an implacable 

 enemy to all mankind. Mucknas are credited with being 

 far more dangerous than the ordinary tusker, and it was 

 one of these brutes that killed Wedderburn in the old 

 muzzle-loading days, in the Wynaad jungle near Tippicado. 

 In 1880 and 1881 a rogue elephant was hanging about 

 the main road from Mysore to Ootacamund, near this 

 place (Tippicado) ; his beat extended as far as Bandipore 

 to the north, and to Madoor * on the west. I obtained a 

 " licence to shoot rogue elephants " through the kind 

 offices of Colonel Pearse (who was himself a thorough 

 sportsman), my intention being to first tackle the 

 Tippicado rogue on account of his tusks and then to 

 try conclusions with the Karkancottah muckna. Owing to 

 the exigencies of the service, leave could only be obtained 

 for short spells at a time, and on arrival at Bandipore he 

 * Or " Muddoor." 



