THE STORY OF THE RHINOCEROS . 
275 
elephant is a dangerous brute at the best of times, but at night, and in 
herds, he tramples over everything, and feels more at home and free from 
danger than in the day, apparently. 
But these elephants did not seem to be aware of my presence. They 
were evidently excited about something else, and had not observed me, 
asleep in the shadow of the peepul. 
They were rushing about in the open ground, most of those I could 
see being females, as I knew by the absence of the tusks, and some sort 
INDIAN RHINOCEROS AFTER SHEDDING ITS HORN. 
of contest seemed to be going on among them. What it was, I could not 
see at first. 
At last a chorus of trumpetings and vicious pig-like squeal? broke out 
from the center of the moving mass, and I saw the female elephants scatter 
right and left in dismay. 
Then I discerned a terrible conflict. A huge bull elephant rushed for¬ 
ward, with his trunk curled up tightly behind the long formidable tusks 
out of harm’s way, striving to pierce a strange antagonist. 
A long, low, uncouth-looking beast, of some five feet in height at the 
