WILD BUFFALOES. 
149 
covered from the terror excited by the crackers, which 
had hitherto diverted their attention from the ele- 
phant, gazed wildly round the enclosure, and, seeing 
their enemy prepared for a charge, pawed the ground, 
raising the dust, and flinging the earth over their 
heads with their hoofs in a continued shower ; then 
erecting their tails, with a loud roar they simultane- 
ously charged the elephant, which still remained in the 
corner where he had at first stationed himself. He 
eyed them with a deliberate but keen glance, placing 
his head, as before, towards the ground, and bringing 
those terrible instruments of destruction with which his 
jaws were armed in a position to meet the charge of 
his foremost foe. The result was precisely the same as 
in the former attack, the buffalo being instantly trans- 
fixed upon the elephant’s tusks ; but before the victor 
could release them from their incumbrance, the second 
buffalo was upon him. With the quickness of thought, 
however, he raised his fore leg and struck his assail- 
ant between the horns, rolling it over and instantly 
crushing it to death. 
It sometimes, indeed, happens in these encoun- 
ters, when the elephant is timid, which is the natu- 
ral character of this animal, that he is dreadfully 
gored by his furious assailants, to which he offers 
no resistance, but flies from them in the greatest ter- 
ror. An old elephant is generally too wary and too 
conscious of his own strength to allow himself to be 
subdued by such inferior adversaries, and when he 
offers a resolute resistance, the buffaloes invariably 
fare the worst. But at these cruel exhibitions, how- 
ever the contest terminates, there is much more dis- 
o 3 
