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Wild Beasts and Their Ways

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Before the line had time to advance, there was a sudden roar, and a tiger sprang from the grass, and seized a large muckna (tuskless male) by the trunk, pulling it down upon its knees so instantaneously that the mahout was thrown to the ground. As quick as lightning the tiger relinquished its hold upon the elephant and seized the unfortunate mahout. I never witnessed such a hopeless panic. The whole line of elephants broke up in complete disorder. The large elephant Hogg, who had been seized, was scaring riderless at mad speed over the plain; a number of others had bolted in all directions, and during this time a continual succession of horrible roars and angry growls told that the tiger was tearing the man to pieces. A cloud of dust marked the spot within 70 paces of my position. It was like a dreadful nightmare; my elephant seemed turned to stone. In vain I seized the mahout by the back of the neck and nearly dislocated his spine in the endeavour to compel him to move forward; he dug his pointed hook frantically into Thompson's head, but the animal was as rigid as a block of granite. This lasted quite fifteen seconds; it appeared as many minutes. Suddenly my servant shouted "Look out, master, another tiger come; two tigers, master, not one!" I looked in the direction pointed, and I at once saw a tiger crouching as though preparing for a charge, about 40 yards distant: the animal was upon my right, and the elephant had not observed it. I fired exactly below the nose, and the tiger simply rolled upon its side stone-dead, the bullet having completely raked it. Leaving the body where it lay, my elephant now responded to the driver's hook, and advanced steadily towards the spot where we had seen the cloud of dust which denoted the attack upon the mahout. Fully expecting to see the tiger upon the man's body, I was standing ready in the howdah prepared for a careful shot. We arrived at the place. This was cleared of grass by the recent struggle, but instead of finding the man's body, we merely discovered his waist-cloth lying upon the ground a few yards distant. About 15 yards from this bloody witness we saw the unfortunate mahout lying apparently lifeless in the grass. We immediately carried him to the river and bathed him in cool water. He had been seized by the shoulder, and was terribly torn and clawed about the head and neck, but fortunately there were no deep wounds about the cavity of the chest. We bandaged him up by tearing a turban into long strips, and having made a good surgical job, I had him laid upon a pad elephant and sent straight into camp. We then loaded an elephant with the tiger, which we proved to be the same and only animal (a tigress) which had charged the elephant after my first shot. The bullet had struck the thigh bone, causing a compound fracture, and that accounted for the escape of Thompson without being boarded from the rear, as she could not spring so great a height upon only three legs. The furious beast had then attacked the elephant named Hogg, which, falling upon its knees, had thrown the unready driver. We subsequently discovered that he had a boil upon his right foot, which had prevented him from using the rope stirrup; this accounted for the fall from his usually secure seat. The tigress, having mauled her victim and left him for dead, was prepared for an onset upon Thompson had I not settled her with the .577 bullet in the chest. On arrival at the camp the man was well cared for, and on the following morning we forwarded him by boat to the hospital at Dhubri in charge of the keddah doctor. It was satisfactory to learn that after a few months he recovered from his wounds, and exhibited his complete cure by absconding from the hospital unknown to the authorities, without returning thanks for the attention he had received. This incident was an unfortunate example of the panic that can be established among elephants. It is a common saying that the elephant depends upon the mahout; this is the rule for ordinary work, but although a staunch elephant might exhibit nervousness with a timid mahout, no driver, however determined, can induce a timid animal to face a tiger, or to stand its onset. Thompson had behaved so badly that I determined to give him one more chance, and to change him for another elephant should he repeat his nervousness. A few days after this occurrence, the natives reported a tiger to be in a thicket of wild rose. We had changed camp to a place called Kikripani, about eight miles from Rohumari, and I immediately took the elephants to the wild-rose jungle, which was about two miles distant. The usual arrangements were made, and I took up a position upon Thompson in a narrow opening of fine grass which cut at right angles through the wild-rose thicket. As the elephants approached in close order, I was certain, from the peculiar sounds emitted, that a tiger or some unbeloved animal was before them, and upon the advance of the line to within 30 yards of the open ground a rustling in the bush announced the presence of some animal which could not much longer remain concealed. Suddenly a large panther bounded across the open, and I took a snap shot, which struck it through the body a few inches behind the shoulder. It rolled over to the shot, but immediately disappeared in the thick jungle a few paces opposite. I called the line of elephants, and we lost no time in beating the neighbouring bush in the closest order, as I fully expected the panther would be crouching beneath the tangled mass of foliage. In a short time the elephants sounded, and without more ado the panther forsook its cover and dashed straight at Thompson, seizing this large elephant by the shoulder joint, and hanging on like a bull-dog with teeth and claws. Away went Thompson through the tangled rose-bushes, tearing along like a locomotive! It was impossible to fire, as the panther was concealed beneath the projecting pad below the howdah, and I could not see it. In this manner we travelled at railway pace for about 100 yards, when I imagine the friction of the thick bush through which we rushed must have been too much for the resistance of the attacking party, and the panther lost its hold; in another instant it disappeared in the dense jungle. I now changed my elephant, and rode a steady female (Nielmonne), and the

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