90 
WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WA VS 
CHAP. 
I once had an elephant who ought to have killed 
me upon several occasions through sheer panic, 
which induced him to run away like a railway 
locomotive rushing through a forest. This was the 
tusker Lord Mayo, who, although a good-tempered 
harmless creature, appeared to be utterly devoid of 
nerves, and would take fright at anything to which 
it was unaccustomed. The sound of the beaters 
when yelling and shouting in driving jungle was 
quite sufficient to start this animal off in a sense¬ 
less panic, not always for a short distance, as on one 
occasion it ran at full speed for upwards of a mile 
through a dense forest, in spite of the driving-hook 
of the mahout, which had been applied with a maxi¬ 
mum severity. 
It is curious to observe how all the education of 
an elephant appears to vanish when once the animal 
takes fright and bolts for the nearest jungle. That 
seems to be the one idea which is an instinct of 
original nature, to retreat into the concealment of a 
forest. 
I was on one occasion mounted upon Lord Mayo 
in the Balaghat district when the beaters were not 
dependable. A tiger had killed a bullock at the 
foot of a wooded hill bordered by an open plain. 
As the beaters had misbehaved upon several occa¬ 
sions by breaking their line, I determined to take 
command of the beat in person. I therefore formed 
the line in the open, with every man equidistant, 
there being about a hundred and twenty villagers. 
I had placed my shikari with a rifle in a convenient 
