30 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



The elephants brought into our grounds were bound to 

 be highly trained, or they would have stampeded at the 

 very smell of the horses, or even of the stables, being natur- 

 ally terrified at them ; whereas the horses did not mind or 

 take the least notice of them. As it was, it spoke well for 

 their mahouts that no accidents ever occurred ; all these 

 elephants stood feeding quietly, while the horses grazed 

 beside them. 



When we were travelling, if elephants were with us they 

 had to be kept apart, all not being so amenable ; and if we 

 came upon the track of wild ones great caution was neces- 

 sary, as they too would stampede, rushing madly about any- 

 where, and be upon us overwhelmingly, so much alarmed 

 are these animals at horses or the faintest whiff of them. 



While the tame elephants mentioned above were with us 

 the opportunity was taken for clearing the hill upon which 

 our house was perched of the thick scrub growing all over 

 it, dangerously near to the house itself as affording too con- 

 venient cover for lurking panthers in wait for the dogs. 

 This scrub consisted entirely of Lantana bushes, of which 

 the flowers are most commonly orange, shading into red, 

 but there are also delicate pink and pure white varieties, 

 the scent being exactly like that of the English flowering 

 currant. When I returned to England on a visit a few 

 years after this, it was curious to be shown, in a conser- 

 vatory and most carefully nurtured and valued, a small 

 plant of this same Lantana which we had regarded as a 

 persistent nuisance, flourishing everywhere, for nothing 

 killed it, while it choked everything else. So the elephants 

 were set to grub it up by the roots, and this they did most 

 cleverly and effectually all by themselves. They found out 

 the best way with each bush ; the smaller ones they cleared 

 off first, as easily as you would pull up the weeds in a flower- 

 bed ; the larger ones, which were very tough, with strong, 

 gnarled branches and most tenacious roots, they also 



