AN AWKWARD PLIGHT. 193 



elephant from a fussand (swamp or quicksand), is to throw 

 branches of trees, bundles of grass, &c., within its reach. These 

 the sagacious beast forces down with its trunk under its feet, 

 until the footing thus made becomes tolerably firm. 



At length, by dint of great perseverance and exertion on 

 the part of Golab Soondrie, she reached the edge of this 

 abominable quagmire, and having managed to get her fore- 

 feet up on to some firmer-looking ground, was with difficulty 

 dragging out her hind-quarters, when to my consternation 

 the rotten bank gave way under her weight. Back she slid 

 into the horrible slough almost perpendicularly so much so 

 that the guns lying in their sloping positions alongside me 

 in the howdah fell back on to my outstretched arms, as I 

 clutched the side-rails for support, and I for the moment 

 feared she was going to roll completely over. Matters now 

 looked serious ; for the "kawas" (back partition) of the howdah 

 was quite under water, and the black muddy fluid reached 

 half-way up to my knees in the fore-part of it. The mahout 

 was obliged to quit his seat on the neck of the elephant, and 

 little else was to be seen of the animal save the top of her 

 head and her trunk. Still the fine old creature continued to 

 make the most prodigious efforts, until at last, thanks to her 

 being a small and an active elephant, she managed to scramble 

 out. Before we overtook the rest of the party who, from 

 the thickness of the jungle, had not seen our mishap they 

 had almost reached the tents, which were near at hand, when 

 the dirty plight we presented after our mud-larking adven- 

 ture afforded much merriment at our expense. 



Finding there was no fresh " kubber" (intelligence) of tigers 

 in this vicinity, we next day had a beat for game in general, 

 of which the pads showed a fair amount, when, towards even- 

 ing, we reforded the river on the elephants. As we were 

 passing some grass-sheds on our way to camp, Moula Buksh 

 <li^l'layed his evil disposition by chevying a wretched pony, 

 which was heavily handicapped in the chase by being 



N 



