DEFEATED BY A CRAFTY OLD BULL. 173 



done, and we advanced a few steps further, the tracker, stoop- 

 ing low, with his right index finger pointed to the ground, 

 followed the buffalo's line of retreat. I was on my little 

 elephant on my companion's right, almost touching the side 

 of his big tusker, and the Ghoorka was leading a pace or two 

 in advance in the manner and attitude described, when in a 

 moment, without a warning sound or movement, the bull was 

 on the man, who nimbly ran between the elephant's legs, and 

 thus saved his life. In his fierce rush the bull came upon 

 the big elephant, which received him on the points of his 

 long tusks and hurled him backwards ; in the next instant I 

 was lying face downwards, clasping the waist of my " Ma- 

 hout," who fell forward over his elephant's head ; another 

 instant, and the bull was gone to be seen no more by us. 



"When his tall elephant bowed his head to meet the bull's 

 charge upon the points of his tusks, Sir C. R was pitched for- 

 ward almost clean out of his " howdah," and before he could 

 recover himself our crafty foe had disappeared. As for the 

 writer, he had enough to occupy him in his efforts to keep 

 his seat to take any interest in other matters, thankful that 

 his elephant had not been capsized altogether, and himself 

 and " Mahout " cast headlong upon the buffalo's horns. Both 

 elephants received wounds from the bull, but of no serious 

 nature, and after a fruitless search for him, we returned to 

 camp, to see the smoke from the funnel of the steamer, which 

 an hour later took us off our little sand-bank, R. wiser for 

 his short experience of buffaloes, and I well content with the 

 day's adventures, the shooting of the woodcock in such a 

 locality forming, in my eyes, the best part of it. The bull 

 having rapidly passed through the jungle in which he en- 

 countered us, went out into the plain beyond, and no doubt 

 rejoined the herd. 



It appeared afterwards that Sir C. R., being the inventor 

 of a new bullet, was particularly anxious to try its merits 

 upon a buffalo or other pachyderm, but the irregular and 

 unjustifiable behaviour of our late adversary demolished his 

 hopes on the very point of fruition. Does a bull buffalo 



