222 TAKE THE MUCKNA DOWN A PEG. 



this point was as thick as a man's calf, the agony which the poor brute 

 must have endured was enough to account for his savageness. 



As I had shot the rogue on the second day after my arrival, and I 

 intended staying eight days more, I now turned my attention to searching 

 for other single elephants. There were no herds in the jungle at that time 

 of the year ; the herds leave the vicinity of Kakankot6 about October, 

 and betake themselves to the lighter jungle bordering on the heavy forests. 

 Here the grass is not so overgrown, and is consequently more palatable, 

 and the cover is not so thick as to distress the calves, which are chiefly 

 born towards the end of the year. 



The muckna, the late rogue's friend, was the only single elephant now 

 in the jungles, and as the Kurrabas said he was always ready to chase them 

 if they met him, I thought it weU to give him a lesson. I did not wish 

 to kill him, as he had no trophies, but merely to impress upon him the 

 fact that man was sometimes a dangerous creature to meddle with. The 

 day after shooting the rogue we followed the muckna, and the two lead- 

 ino- trackers, who were fifty yards in advance of myself and gun-bearers, 

 nearly stumbled on him lying down in some long grass. The elephant 

 gained his feet in a moment, and with a tremendous crackling of bamboos 

 emerged into the open forest about sixty yards from us, head erect, ears 

 cocked, and squeaking continuously as he looked about for the disturbers 

 of his rest. I was just about to give him a shot through the head, but 

 above the brain so as not to kiU him, when one of the trackers who had 

 found his way out of the long grass ran to the bamboo-clump behind which 

 my men were sheltering. I was standing in the open to the left of the 

 clump in grass up to my shoulders. The muckna heard or saw the move- 

 ment in our direction, and at once came towards us. When witliin forty 

 yards I gave him the 4-bore high in the forehead. This staggered him, and 

 with ears pressed closely to his neck, and tail lowered, he made off in a 

 manner more hasty than dignified. "We aU shouted derisively at the col- 

 lapsed and retreating combatant, and I daresay the lesson made him a wiser 

 elephant. I have seen him recently in the same jungles, and having heard 

 nothing more to his disadvantage, hope he has become a reformed character. 



There were no other single elephants at this time in the jungle on the 

 Kakankot^ side of the Cubbany. The Kurrabas, however, said that they 

 had heard that there was one in the Baigoor forest on the other side of the 

 river, but that they knew no particulars about him, as other Kurrabas lived 

 there, whose duty it would be to afford us information. As this seemed to 

 be the only other beast we were likely to meet with, I despatched four 

 •Kurrabas with two days' provisions to see what they could learn of him, 



