172 ELEPHANTS. 



of the district, being scared by the death of their comrade. 

 So the rest of our leave was devoted to themyng, daray, 

 and small game of sorts. The Burman's bullet was 

 beautifully placed. The shot had been a frontal one, and 

 the lower edge of the lump had been perforated in the 

 centre, exactly the right spot for a man of low stature 

 and firing on level ground to hit. All the jungle tribes 

 who live in elephant country are much more afraid of those 

 animals than of tigers or bison. The Carders, in particular, 

 were very lukewarm about tracking them up, and pointing 

 out the burrowings of a beetle, which deposits its eggs 

 under the warm droppings, would declare it was useless to 

 follow the trail, as the elephants were miles ahead, and 

 were travelling at speed, &c., &c. Knowing something 

 about tracking, I was inexorable on these occasions. As 

 we approached the herd their apprehension increased, the 

 climax being reached on sighting the game, when they 

 became useless, and could not be trusted to carry a rifle. 

 One of them (Atlay Moopen) had been in the service 

 of General Michael, a famous elephant shot, and therefore 

 he probably had no faith in such small deer as me, but he 

 was staunch at bison, and he once tracked a tiger up to 

 the carcase of a bison which had been shot a few days 

 previously, and then carried the pugs on to a thick clump 

 of bushes, fifty yards distant, where we expected to find 

 the brute. The tiger was there, but when he appeared, 

 Atlay stood his ground like a man, not flinching in the 

 least ; indeed, he ran forward with me to try to intercept 

 the brute before he reached some thick stuff further off, 

 but we failed to do so, and as we only got a glimpse of him 

 now and then as he crept quickly through the grass, 

 he got clear off without being fired at. A few days before 

 my departure from Toonacudavoo Captains Clay and 



