CHAPTER XIII. 



MONKEYS, BEARS, AND ELEPHANTS. 



The Black Langur.— Monkey Shooting.— A Startling Cry.— Absurd Encounter 

 with Three Bears.— A Stern Chase.— Death of Number Two.— A Woful 

 "Slip 'twixt cup and lip."— Surprise Number Two —The Old Bear Dies. 

 —Habits of the Species.— A Typical Elephant Hunt— Hunters Hunted.— 

 Wonderful Manoeuvring of the Elephants.— A Stealthy Retreat.— A 

 Double-barrelled Attack.—" Shavoogan ! "—Panic-stricken Hunters.— 

 Failures, Fever, and Scarcity of Food. 



From the day we entered the forest we began to collect speci- 

 mens of the black langur {Semnopithecus cucullatus), which actually 

 swarmed in the tree-tops wherever we went. We often saw more 

 than a hundred and fifty in a day, and had we desired, might easily 

 have killed fifty eveiy week. They are usually found in troops of 

 five to ten individuals, and are very noisy, uttering a most diabol- 

 ical cry which can be heard a mile in the densest forest. Often 

 when out hunting with my gang, stalking like silent shadows 

 through the forest, every eye and ear keenly on the alert to detect 

 the presence of large game, we would be suddenly startled by 

 healing exploded thirty feet above our heads, a terrific guttural 

 *'wah! wah!! wah ! ! ! " followed by a loud " a-/ioo-oo-/ioo-oo- 

 hoo-oo" making the forest ring. On looking up we would see a 

 jet-black face encircled by a ring of long, white hair, grinning and 

 making faces at us from the fork of a tree. The moment we raise 

 a gun the whole troop starts up, and the branches are alive with 

 leaping and climbing black forms, each of which tries to make the 

 quickest time on record in getting out of range. Once fairly 

 started, they go galloping off through the tree-tops so fast that we 

 have hard work to keep in sight of them, and mark down the larg- 

 est one when he stops. But after about two hundred yards or less 

 the flying column calls a halt to rest, count noses, and see how we 

 below are getting on. 



