Chap. III.] 



THE ELEPHANT. 



137 



further precaution of hanging up a few leaves. 1 As the rain 

 was coming down fast and thick, and I was anxious to get 

 to our halting-place before night, we moved on at a rapid pace. 

 My brother-in-law was in the van of the party, I myself was 

 in the rear, and the four coolies between us, all moving 

 along on a rugged, rocky, and difficult path ; as the road to 

 Badulla till lately was on the sloping side of a hill, covered 

 with jungle, pieces of projecting rock, and brushwood. It 

 was about five o'clock in the evening, or a little later, and we 

 had hardly cleared the foot of the hill and got to the plain 

 below, when a rustling of leaves and a crackling of dry brush- 

 wood were heard on our right, followed immediately by the 

 trumpeting of a hora allia 2 , which was making towards us. We 

 all fled, followed by the elephant. I, who Was in the rear of 

 the party, was the first to take to flight; the coolies threw away 

 their pin goes, and my brother-in-law his umbrella, and all ran 

 in different directions. I hid myself behind a large boulder of 

 granite nearly covered by jungle : but as my place of conceal- 

 ment was on high ground, I could see all that was going on 

 below. The first thing I observed was the elephant returning 

 to the place where one of the pingoes was lying : he was 

 carrying one of the coolies in a coil of his trunk. The 

 body of the man was dangling with the head downward. I 

 cannot say whether he was then alive or not; I could not 

 perceive any marks of blood or bruises on his person : but 

 he appeared to be lifeless. The elephant placed him down 

 on the ground, put the pingo on his (the man's) shoulder, 

 steadying both the man and the pingo with his trunk 

 and fore-legs. But the man of course did not move or stand 

 up with his pingo. Seeing this, the elephant again raised the 

 cooly and dashed him against the ground, and then trampled 



1 The Singhalese hold the be- pecially of elephants. Can it be 



lief, that twigs taken from one that the latter avoid the path, on 



bush and placed on another grow- discovering this evidence of the 



ing close to a pathway, ensure proximity of recent passengers ? 



protection to travellers from the 2 A rogue elephant, 

 attacks of wild animals, and es- 



