138 
IVILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS 
CHAP. 
precaution of standing by his side instead of in his 
front, and of resting my left hand upon his tusk 
while I fed him with the right. Every morning at 
daylight he was brought to the tent with Demoiselle 
(the female elephant), and they both received from 
my own hands the choice bits which gained their 
confidence. 
My suspicions were first aroused by his peculiar 
behaviour upon an occasion when we had killed two 
tigers; these were young animals, and although 
large, there was no difficulty in arranging them upon 
the pad, upon which they were secured by ropes, 
when the elephant kneeling down was carefully 
loaded. Hardly had Bisgaum risen to his feet, 
when, conscious of the character of the animals upon 
his back, and, I suppose, not quite certain that life 
was actually extinct, he trumpeted a shrill scream, 
and shook his immense carcase like a wet dog that 
has just landed from the water. This effect was so 
violent that one tiger was thrown some yards to the 
right, while the other fell to the ground on the left, 
and without a moment’s warning, the elephant 
charged the lifeless body, sent it flying by a kick 
with his fore foot, and immediately proceeded to 
dance a war-dance, kicking with his hind legs to so 
great a height that he could have reached a tall 
man’s hat. A vigorous application of the driving- 
hook by the mahout, who was a powerful man, at 
length changed the scene, and the elephant at once 
desisted from his attack upon the dead tiger, and 
rushed madly upon one side, where he stood nerv- 
