WILD BEASTS AND THEIR WAYS 
CHAP. 
190 
beneath the branches of a tree ; fortunately there 
was no occupant, or he would certainly have been 
killed. The sound of fire is most trying to the 
nerves of elephants, but a good shooting animal 
should be trained especially to bear with it; other¬ 
wise it is exceedingly dangerous. 
The Rajah’s elephants were his peculiar enjoy¬ 
ment, and there was the same difference in their 
general appearance, when compared with the 
keddah elephants, as would be seen in a well-kept 
stable of hunters and a team of ordinary farm- 
horses. At the same time it must be remembered 
that Suchi Khan’s elephants did no work, but were 
kept solely for his amusement, while the keddah 
animals had been working hard in the Garo Hills 
for many months upon inferior food, engaged with 
their experienced superintendent Mr. Sanderson in 
catching wild elephants. Nevertheless there was a 
notable superiority in the Rajah’s shikari animals, as 
they had been carefully trained to the sport of tiger¬ 
hunting ; they marched with so easy a motion that 
a person could stand upright in the howdah, rifle in 
hand, without the necessity of holding the rail. 
They appeared to glide instead of swaying as they 
moved, and in that respect alone they exhibited 
immense superiority, the difficulty of shooting 
with a rifle from the back of an elephant in 
motion being extreme. Several of these elephants 
were so well trained that they showed no 
alarm when a tiger was on foot, at which time an 
elephant generally exhibits a tendency to nervous- 
