THE SOLDIER'S CAMEL 
3°7 
difficulty that we could get him to go near enough to 
attach a drag-rope to one camel I wanted to rescue. 
In spite of our being about fifty yards from the bank 
of the river, he evinced the greatest anxiety, while his 
movements were made with extreme caution. Despite 
coaxing, persuasive remonstrance, and at last a shower 
of heavy blows dealt upon his head by the exasperated 
mahout, this elephant stubbornly refused to go where 
he was wanted, but, with his trunk shoved out in front 
of him, kept feeling his way with his ponderous feet, 
placing them before him slowly, deliberately, and me- 
thodically, treading all the while with the velvety soft- 
ness of a cat, and taking only one step at a time. Then 
suddenly he would break out into a suppressed kind of 
shriek, and retreat backwards in great haste. When the 
animal had nearly completed a circuit of the ground 
with the same caution and deliberation, he advanced to 
within ten yards of the poor camel, but not another 
inch would he move, though several men were walking 
between him and the camel without any signs of the 
ground giving way/’ 
But if the camel is too mechanical, the elephant is 
too soft for the hardships of the baggage train or rough 
country. He requires good roads, a temperate climate, 
and meals not only 66 regular,” but luxurious. Ten 
elephants out of eleven reached Candahar safely in 
1878, on a diet of chapatties, rice, sugar, and two 
bottles of rum apiece after their supper. No wonder 
u the faces of the men, and their remarks, as they 
looked on with watering mouths and overpowering 
