ELEPHANT. 
137 
wounded the first elephant, failed in the pursuit of 
the second ; and being close upon him at the en- 
trance of the wood, he received a violent blow from 
the branch of a tree which the elephant had bent 
by his weight, and, after passing, allowed it to re- 
place itself ; when it knocked down both the riders, 
and very much hurt the horse. This, indeed, is 
the great danger in elephant-hunting ; for some of 
the trees, that are dry and short, break by the 
violent pressure of so immense a body moving so 
rapidly, and fall upon the pursuers, or across the 
roads. But the greatest number of these trees 
being of a succulent quality, they bend without 
breaking, and return quickly to their former po- 
sition, when they strike both horse and man so 
violently, that they often beat them to pieces. 
Dexterous too as the riders are, the elephant some- 
times reaches them with his trunk, with which he 
dashes the horse against the ground, and then sets 
his feet upon him, till he tears him limb from limb 
with his proboscis : a great many hunters die this 
way. Besides this, the soil at this time of the year 
is split into deep chasms, or cavities, by the heat of 
the sun, so that nothing can be more dangerous than 
the riding. 
tc The elephant once slain, they cut the whole 
flesh off his bones into thongs, like the reins of a 
bridle, and hang these like festoons upon the 
branches of trees, till they become perfectly dry, 
without salt ; and they then lay them up for their 
provisions in the season of the rains.” 
