THE FIRST FALL. 155 



dry nurkiil reeds — the slirill trumpeting and snorting of 

 the elephants being mingled with the sharp ejaculations of 

 encouragement or abuse of their beasts from the mahouts, 

 as they vie with each other in their endeavours to keep the 

 wild herd in view. We have plenty to do in perpetually 

 ducking our heads and bending our bodies to avoid project- 

 ing branches. 



There goes the first fall ! An excited Goorkha is swept 

 clean off the pad of an elephant near me by a tough 

 creeper catching him across the middle, sending him 

 sprawling among the bushes. There is no stopping to pick 

 him up, but I glance back and see him on his legs again, 

 he fortunately having fallen on a soft place. Now we are 

 rolling and floundering through a quaking bog, from the 

 black tenacious mud of which the elephants slowly and 

 with difficulty drag their feet with a succession of squelchy 

 sucking sounds. This causes a temporary check, and gives 

 the fallen Goorkha time to scramble up on to his elephant, 

 an acrobatic feat he accomplishes with the assistance of the 

 animal's tail. But we are soon clear of the swamp, and 

 still on and on we tear helter-skelter. How we, who are 

 unaccustomed to such work, contrive to stick on to our small 

 pads, and also to balance a gun across our knees, seems 

 perfectly miraculous ; but one does things in hot blood that 

 one never dreams of being able to do in cold. 



At last a nooser has managed to lay his elephant along- 

 side the hindermost wild one. She appears only to see the 

 elephant and not its rider, who, with ready noose, eagerly 

 awaits a favourable opportunity for casting it ; consequently 

 she is unaware of her real danger until she feels the rope 

 on her head. But now, with a shrill trumpet, she shoots 

 swiftly on, slipping away from under the noose with a lift 

 of her trunk and a toss of her head. Still her maternal 

 solicitude causes her again to check her speed, for her off- 

 spring is beside her, and the phandete is once more up with 

 her, and makes another unsuccessful attempt to noose her. 



