CHAPTER X.Y. 



SKELETONIZING AN ELEPHANT. 



Mischievous Elephants. — Chase of a Large Herd. — Death of a Tusker. — Forbid- 

 den Ground. — A Secret. — The Mulcer's Oath. — A Change of Base. — Skel- 

 etonizing an Elephant in Sixteen Hours. — Cacheing the Bones. — The Traces 

 of our Guilt. — Moral Aspect of the Affair. — The Spotted Deer. — A Pretty 

 Picture. — The Indian Elk or Sambur. — Bad Case of Protective Coloring. 

 — Serenaded by Sambur. — The •' Brain-fever bird." — Tree Eats. — The 

 Muntjac. — Delicious Venison. — The Neilgherry Goat. — "Wild Hogs. 



When we returned to Tellicul after our absence while drying the 

 tiger skin, we found aU our huts a total wreck. A large herd 

 of elephants had visited the spot and walked through them from 

 one end to the other, tearing them completely to pieces, smashing 

 tables and cots, and even pulling up a few of the posts, and throw- 

 ing them some distance. All this just for pure mischief, just to be 

 doing something, and to show us what they could do. Many a 

 night in those hills I have heard the trumpeting and squeaking 

 of elephants near our camp, and I would never have been at all 

 surprised to have been awakened by an elephant pulling my hut 

 down over my head. I never went to sleep without Theobald's ele- 

 phant-gun standing loaded within reach of my hand, and other 

 weapons close by, so that in case any wild beast made us a mid- 

 night call we could give him a cordial reception. I also had a 

 hole cut in the end of my hut, at the foot of my cot, so that in case 

 a mischievous elephant should come and knock at my door in the 

 middle of the night, I could get out at the opposite end to receive 

 him in due form. 



Three weeks after the death of the tiger, another herd of ele- 

 phants visited our forest. The moment we found the trail, we 

 set out upon it as fast as we could go, and strained every nerve to 

 come up with the animals before they could get out of our hunting 

 ground. But once more wc were doomed to disappointment and 

 aggravation. An hour before sunset, the trackers declared that 

 11 



