FAZUL THE MAHOUT. 237 



come back. They do not go in single herds, but 

 hundreds assemble at these meeting-places and talk 

 and talk and then decide where they will go and 

 how they will go. Yes, I have seen these meeting- 

 places when out with Sanderson Sahib, but I have 

 never witnessed a meeting. The Sahib must know 

 that elephants are the most restless creatures in 

 the world ; you can never get an elephant to stop 

 perfectly quiet for five minutes. It will shift from 

 leg to leg, fling its trunk about, flap its ears or shake 

 its head. If not chained it will walk about, and 

 never stand still in one place. When the elephants 

 meet to take counsel when they shall leave the 

 country, they cannot keep quiet but walk about in a 

 circle hence the open spaces in the forests. Moving 

 about from foot to foot may look like dancing to 

 the wild men. Yes, that is how they must say that 

 elephants dance. The Sahib is wise. Only old 

 elephants go to the meeting-places the leaders of 

 the herd, male or female. Why should not a female 

 lead a herd ? Have you not got a Ranee ? I have 

 seen herds led by a female, and such herds are always 

 more difficult to capture, as we cannot send koonkies 

 to decoy them. The koonkies are female elephants, 

 and we always use them to decoy the tusker that 

 leads the herd, and then the herd will follow him. 



" Have I seen an elephant-fight ? Yes, often. 

 During the kheddah-works in Assam we had to 

 watch the herd of wild elephants night and day for 

 months, and gradually drive them towards the 

 valley in which the kheddah was made, and thus one 

 sees much of elephant life and learns their ways 



