ELEPHANT HUNTING. 131 



former cylinder now flattens out into a broad slab, twelve to eigh- 

 teen inches wide. These bamboo slabs are then lashed with strips 

 of bark to the upright posts of a hut and form the walls. Bamboos 

 similarly treated were made into beds, tables, and doors, and it also 

 served as an excellent flooring. My wash-basin was a joint of bam- 

 boo made into a trough, and my pail was a four-foot bamboo stem 

 with all the joints broken out except the lowest one, which served 

 as a bottom. 



The roof of the hut is nothing but young teak-leaves laid on like 

 slates and held by their own petioles, being partly split and hooked 

 over the cross pieces. Besides a good comfortable hut for me, the 

 men built another to serve as a cook-house and servants' quarters, 

 while for themselves, their wives, children, and mothers-in-law, they 

 built simply a huge, low shed and covered the ground beneath it 

 with bamboo slabs. 



No man ever experienced half the keen pleasure and delightful 

 anticipation in taking possession of a mansion that I did in unpack- 

 ing and arranging my guns, ammunition, and camp equipage in that 

 rude little hiit. Before the door stood a large clump of bamboos, 

 an immense bouquet of ornamental grass sixty feet high, the long, 

 green, feathery stems nodding and bending as gracefully as ostrich 

 plumes. Far above us the tops of the giant fox-est trees met and 

 shut out aU but one Httle patch of blue sky, and the sun's rays 

 never reached our camp until high noon. The shade was so dense 

 that there was no undergrowth, and usually we could walk through 

 that grand old forest as freely as though it were a meadow. I felt 

 that at last I had reached the " happy hunting grounds " I had 

 so often been disaj^pointed of before, and subsequent events proved 

 that I was not mistaken. 



And now a word in regard to elephant hunting. I consider it 

 the grandest and most exciting of all field sports, and by several 

 of the greatest sportsmen living it is also considered the most dan- 

 gerous. The elephant is the true king of beasts, both as regards, 

 size and strength, mental capacity, and natural dignity of character. 

 As he marches majestically through the forest, monarch of all he 

 surveys, or rushes like a living avalanche upon his foe, he seems 

 the vital impersonation of an Irresistible Force. I have a greater 

 fear of the elephant and a gi-eater respect for him, than any other 

 wild beast I ever saw, either in the forest or in captivity, and this 

 feeling has only increased with protracted acquaintance. 



Elephant hunting is bovmd to bring into play all those qual- 



