IN SEARCH OF BIG GAME. 
17 
over my head, terminating in a round mass which I concluded 
must be his head, fringed with two tattered garments which 
could only he his ears. Of his tusks I could not see a vestige. 
I have observed that if it takes you a very long tune to pick up 
an elephant's tusks when \ ou are at close quarters in thick 
jungle, when you do see them they are probably not very 
long. Of course this close proximity could not last long, as, 
however the wind was, he was hound to get our scent before 
long. I had just moved away a little from the tree and was 
i^qunttin^^ down trying to get a sight of his tusks, when 
suddenly without the slightest w arning he rushed out from his 
bower and was instantly in full Hight. But he did not see me 
for the moment and I thought tliat the was coming right on 
top of me ; he hesitated, turned a little and then went off, 
crashing dow n ever}-thing before him in his mad terror. When 
he hesitated. I had a sufficient glimpse of his tusks to sta\' my 
linger from pulling the trigger. I could have killo^l him, I 
think, because I saw very plainly his entire head which was 
not more than a dozen yards from me when he turned. But 
again, although a big elephant, his tiisks were not good, and 
would not 1 think have weit;hed more than 30 pounds the pair. 
Tlie moment the excitement wa^ over, and 1 caji assure 
you it was exciting enough, I felt that I had another go of 
fever on me and was soon shaking with ague. We had 
followed the elephant farther than I thought. To make 
matters worse the local men took us back to the path that we 
had followed from tlie boat by a short cut which was about 
twice as far as the way we had come, and by the time I 
arrived back at our camp I was ver>' done up. I shall never 
forget that afternoon. It was tearfully hot and I was stretched 
out on my camp bed with nothing between me and the sun 
except a couple of kadjan^'R, There was no shelter near by 
and one just had to stick it out. But, as the ancient king 
took as his motto "This too shall pass away," so I tried to 
console myself with the thought that it would be cooler as 
the afternoon wore on and tliat there must be an end to my 
fever some time or other. 
Next morning I am afraid that I was not up very 
early, and we did not break up camp until about eight o'clock. 
Before we left, the women from the backwoods came 
down to the river again, on their way to a fishing expedition, 
so they said — I told Mat Linggi that the\' had come down 
to see him— and they told us that the elephant had not 
returned during the night. 
We soon came out on to the Pahang River and made 
our way up stream towards Kuala Bera. We halted at 
