ELEPHANTS. 179 



way ; lie was not blinded by the shot, but simply dazed, 

 though he had sense enough left to cross the Travancore 

 river close by up the opposite bank of which his track 

 led into the territory of the Rajah, where we could not 

 encroach. Atlay reappeared simultaneously with the 

 elephant's retreat, declaring that if a herd had been there 

 instead of a solitary rogue he would have stuck to me all 

 the time. The scene of the skirmish was revisited on the 

 way back ; the blood that had fallen from the first wound 

 was in gouts resembling liver, the range being nine yards ; 

 the second shot was fired at less than twelve yards range, 

 but to this day I cannot tell where either bullet struck, 

 although it is certain they were both very close to the brain. 

 Four days later two Carders came in to report that a Mulser 

 they had met the day before, had brought information of a 

 dead tusker, which had been found towards Nilliam baddy by 

 some jungle-wallahs, who had cut out and kept the tusks. 

 Atlay was sent for, and declared that it was within two 

 miles of where our scrimmage occurred, adding that his 

 clan were not on good terms with the natives of those 

 parts. I was incredulous, but promised that if the tusks 

 were brought in a good reward would be given. Two 

 Carders and the Mulser started off that day to negotiate 

 for them, but after an absence of two days returned empty- 

 handed, and apparently rather the worse for wear, stating 

 that a bargain could not be struck, and that the possessors of 

 the tusks had given them a sound thrashing ; this led to a 

 feud, which culminated in a free fight some months later, 

 in which two men lost their lives. 



If an elephant is badly wounded, and goes away, as 

 this tusker did, he very seldom succumbs to his wounds ; 

 but occasional cases have occurred of their doing so, 

 probably from loss of blood. How this could result from 



N 2 



