12 BIG-GAME SHOOTING IN UPPER BURMA 



imagined. Allah Din and I, with the perspira- 

 tion streaming down our faces, pumphandled 

 each other till we were tired. The point of the 

 smaller tusk was firmly imbedded in the ground, 

 and the massive forelegs were doubled up under- 

 neath the animal. By dint of twisted creepers, 

 and much hauling on the part of the three 

 Bur mans who had now joined us, and ourselves, 

 we at length got one of the forelegs sufficiently 

 out from under the body to measure the foot, 

 and I remember wishing that Sanderson had 

 been there to see the size of it. I imagine it 

 would have altered his views regarding the height 

 to which the Indian elephant occasionally attains. 

 On our arrival at the village a bullock cart 

 was dispatched to bring in the head, attended 

 by the villagers en masse, each man armed with 

 a dah to assist in decapitating the fallen monster, 

 and, incidentally, to cut off as much meat for 

 himself as possible. I sent Allah Din to super- 

 intend the operation, with strict injunctions that 

 no meat was to be taken until the head and feet 

 were safely in the cart. The head was sent in in 

 triumph to Budalin next day, as much meat as 

 possible having been removed from the skull, 

 and a deep grave was duly dug for its temporary 

 resting-place, and kept well watered. At the 

 end of a fortnight the skull was dug up, and the 

 tusks — the left and lower ones of the frontispiece — 

 removed by hand. Their measurements are given 

 at the end of this chapter. The feet, after being 



