AT THE KHEDDAHS. 13 



shape. What would the scion of our Royal House 

 do ? The infuriated beast charged down on him 

 with several tame elephants close at her heels. 

 The Prince calmly awaited its approach, but when 

 the brute was within a dozen paces Sanderson, 

 who had been standing beside the Prince all the 

 while, stepped forward, raised his hand, and 

 shouted. Well was he called the hathee king ! As 

 if obedient to an order, the brute turned sharply 

 to the left and made off. This is what actually 

 took place, but Renter's agent, who was not 

 present when the incident occurred, telegraphed 

 home the camp version of the story, and numerous 

 were the mistaken messages sent to the Duke 

 of Clarence from all parts of the world ! 



Of the thirty-seven elephants captured on this 

 occasion, eight were shot next day by Sanderson's 

 order, as they were too old for work and could not 

 be tamed. I asked him why he could not let them 

 go free rather than destroy the poor brutes. He 

 told me that a herd consisted of a single family 

 youngsters, parents, grandparents, great-grand- 

 parents, sisters, cousins, aunts, et hoc genus omne ; 

 that the members of a herd always kept together ; 

 and that if he set some of them free they would not 

 take themselves off, but would linger around and 

 probably attack the camp at night. He added that, 

 on one occasion, when he was fresh to the business 

 of elephant-catching, he set free several old beasts, 

 after he had removed the remainder of his captives 

 to a camp twenty-six miles away. At night the 

 animals he had set free stampeded his camp and 



