86 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
still pulling, turned the elephant on her side. I in 
the meantime stood watching at a few yards off, 
unable to fire on account of the deep agitation of my 
own mount, who could hardly be restrained from 
either fighting or fleeing, and could not be made to 
stand steady. The tiger ultimately disappeared 
with one bound into the grass, the prostrate elephant 
slowly arose, blood pouring from her wounds, while 
the man lay still, and some minutes elapsed before 
he staggered bewildered to his feet, picked up his 
turban, and sought safety on my elephant. It was 
a melancholy procession that returned to Dhikdla, 
and there was an anxious time to follow in tending 
the elephant day and night till her wounds healed 
and she was herself once more. The remains of the 
tiger were found not far from the spot later on, but 
I had little interest in the matter, because I felt that, 
in yielding to the foolish persuasion of my men, I 
had brought about a disaster that might have been 
much more serious than it actually was. 
It is a curious circumstance that even in moments 
of greatest stress natives will insist on recovering 
their turbans and shoes—even, sometimes, at the risk 
of their lives. I have given an instance of this in 
the preceding narrative, and I recall two or three 
other occasions of a similar nature. In one case 
a mahout who had dropped his turban wished to 
descend to recover it, thus leaving his elephant un- 
attended in the face of a wounded tiger, and deeply 
resented my refusal to allow him to do so; later on 
we found his head-dress torn to scraps by the furious 
beast, which merely seemed to the man to supply a 
proof of my tyranny in not permitting him to pick 
