Antlers 



five the herd came out in front of me. The 

 elephant made but httle noise as she slowly 

 walked through the patch of forest — quite open 

 forest and grass at this end — but it was enough 

 to bring out the herd, so little do they like 

 elephants. There was a decent head amongst them, 

 but I nearly lost it. It was on the fifth evening 

 that I made up my mind to fire at him, as I had 

 watched their manoeuvres sufficiently for my 

 purpose. That evening, instead of bounding 

 out of the jungle with those astonishing leaps of 

 theirs within 15-20 yards of me, they came out 

 at the extreme far edge of the forest, and the buck 

 was 200 yards away before I got a sight on to him. 

 He went away another 300 at racing pace, and 

 then dropped suddenly in a field. The cultiva- 

 tion was quite open and flat, with no hedges or 

 grass, and we watched him the whole way. It 

 was a lucky shot at the distance. 



Both howdah and pad - work require some 

 practice, for one has to help the mahout a good 

 deal in warding off branches and in keeping an eye 

 on the look out for thorny brakes, which are apt 

 otherwise to claw and scratch the face and hands 

 and catch and rip up the clothing. If sitting 

 sideways on a pad, one has to look after one's 

 feet, for an elephant is apt to forget that its rider's 

 feet project beyond the pad, and it is no joke having 

 your foot squashed between the pad and a tree 

 trunk. Great circumspection has also ever to be 



15 



