COLONEL nightingale's LETTER. 2 I 7 
a double I had seized, into the brutes back. He let go 
the trunk and bit the huttie high up on the left shoulder 
very nearly sending me Hying ; even in all this confusion, 
tiger roaring, elephant trumpeting and niggers crying, I 
shifted my gun, having pitched away the empty one. In 
the meantime the infuriated demon of a Panura came under 
the huttie and seized him by the elbow, biting him in 
the joint high up and pulling him right over on his side. 
1 saw that in another second I should be on the ground, 
and that tt was bag or be bagged, so holding on like 
grim death to the howdah with my left, I used the 
gun as a pistol .with my right hand, and putting the 
muzzle close to the tiger rolled him over with a ball 
between the shoulders. He rushed off with loud roars, 
but gave the huttie a final cut in the hind leg as he went 
by. The huttie rose and ran off trumpeting but stopped 
after a little while : but fancy what had occurred, my 
scoundrel of a mahout had not brought his *hankoos' 
with him so had no command over the animal, who on 
being told to kneel down became furious, tore up a tree, 
pitched the mahout off on to the ground and ran off 
frantically. Well, thought I, this is neat, going like the 
wind on a mad huttie with no driver. I saw there was 
but one chance (as I object to jumping off either horse 
or huttie when run away with, as I always think I can 
stop him), so unheeding the entreaties of my man in the 
khowas, I clambered over the front of the howdah, and 
seated myself on the huttie s neck and tried to drive him ; 
unluckily I had no ' hankobs,' and though 1 tugged at 
the brute*s ears it was no use as you may fancy ; moreover, 
1 found that my spurs were running into his neck and 
