52 SPORT IN ASIA AND AFRICA 



stood at bay. A pause followed, and then 

 Nanneh Khan appeared on the scene with the 

 fighting elephants. There were five or six of 

 them, and shoulder to shoulder they bore down 

 upon the wild elephant. The wild elephant had 

 only one tusk, but this was sharp, while the 

 points of the tusks of the tame elephants had been 

 sawn off. The tusks do not, however, appear 

 to play much part in an elephant fight, and the 

 blow or shove is given with the centre of the 

 forehead. The wild elephant was quite undaunted 

 by the phalanx with which he was confronted, 

 and charged gallantly into the midst of his 

 opponents ; and I distinctly saw the head of one 

 of the tame elephants jerked backwards with 

 the blow he received. A grand melee ensued, 

 the tame elephants pummelling the wild one, 

 while the drivers of the females most courageously 

 dismounted and attempted to fasten their nooses 

 on the hind-legs of the wild elephant. A charge 

 by the wild elephant knocked one of the tame 

 elephants clean over, but the two men on his 

 back escaped serious injury. We were in close 

 proximity to the combat, and the drivers of the 

 Kheddah elephants continually shouted to Nellie's 

 mahout to take her away to a safe distance, but, 

 under Millward's orders, he kept close to the 

 battle. More than once there was no elephant 

 between us and the wild one, but Nellie's sex 

 protected us, and the wild elephant was too 

 gallant to attack. 



A battle of elephants is not, to outward appear- 

 ance at any rate, a specially ferocious combat. 

 Tremendous blows are given and taken, but 



