236 IN THE INDIAN JUNGLE. 



not be secured when driven into the kheddah. 

 There is no danger when on the koonkies' neck ; the 

 only danger is when we are hobbling the wild 

 elephant's feet. If we are not quick with the noose, 

 the brute will swing out its hind foot, and should 

 it hit you, death or broken bones are certain to 

 result. 



" Where are the largest herds ? Herds always 

 number about the same, twenty to thirty, seldom 

 more. The members of a herd are all of one family. 

 There may be several herds in one district, but they 

 never mingle ; they always keep apart. If from any 

 cause an elephant should become separated from 

 its herd and try to join another, it won't be allowed 

 to ; the members will turn it out hence the solitary 

 elephants one sometimes sees. In the Garo Hills, 

 in Assam, there are the most herds. In one season 

 we caught four hundred and thirty elephants there. 

 In Burmah also there are many herds. Sometimes 

 two or three herds may be driven into a kheddah at 

 one time, but these will always keep apart. 



" Do wild elephants dance ? Wagh ! Weigh ! 

 What talk is this ? Are elephants nautch-girls, that 

 they should dance ? Who has been lying to the 

 Sahib ? The Assamese and Kachees are liars and 

 sons of liars if they say so. Yes, there are ele- 

 phant-circles or cleared spaces in the heart of the 

 forest, where no man has been, but these are the 

 elephant meeting-places when they meet to go to 

 a far country. When the bamboo leaves become 

 black with leaf disease the elephants all leave that 

 country and go away for a year or two, and then 



