FAZUL THE MAHOUT. 235 



sugar-cane from its mouth, but the great creature 

 would only grunt its satisfaction. Sanderson Sahib 

 would sit for hours and watch that elephant and 

 boy at play ; and he took their pictures. How is it 

 my aunt took charge of the elephant after it killed 

 her husband ? That was his nusseeb (fate) ; who 

 can help his fate ? The elephant fed her child and 

 herself after my uncle's death, therefore why should 

 she not look after him ? Yet still, for all, elephants 

 are not to be trusted. I have lived my life with 

 them, and I ought to know. 



'' No, Sahib, elephants are not clever ; it is only 

 with the ankwas (goad) that we can make them 

 understand. The elephant is as the mahout is. If 

 the latter is sharp, the elephant will do almost 

 anything. Even a well-trained elephant grows dull 

 under a stupid mahout. Sanderson Sahib used to 

 say, ' Give me a good mahout and indifferent ele- 

 phant rather than a clever elephant and stupid 

 mahout.'' 



" Yes, I have been to Assam and Burmah ; I 

 have been in the Terai and in Mysore and Ceylon. 

 I went to Mysore with Sanderson Sahib when the 

 Padishaw (Duke of Clarence) came to India. We 

 went to show them how to catch elephants. I was 

 chief nooser, and the Lord Sahib spoke to me 

 through the one-handed Sahib (Sir Charles Brad- 

 ford). See, here is the certificate the one-armed 

 Sahib gave me. We caught fifty elephants in the 

 kheddah at Mysore when the Padishaw came. We 

 took twelve koonkies (decoy elephants) with us 

 from Dacca. Without koonkies elephants could 



