no mistake; and that if Sawmy did not protect him, why he must give up." Sawmy on the spot granted his prayer, and immediately put the spectacles on his hood, the sight of which deters the kite, however hungry, from regaling himself on the cobra or his friends.

The coolies were sickening fast; and, notwithstanding a most liberal allowance of castor oil, and opium, chalk and ginger, one poor fellow seemed getting worse, and his state was anything but satisfactory. We had some strong soup made of the turtle for him, but he refused to take it on account of his caste. We insisted on his doing so, calling it physic; but he would not swallow it, returning it from his mouth almost immediately.

CHAPTER XVIII.

ELEPHANT SHOOTING.

DURING the night the elephants were roaring and the peacocks crying; the latter noise somewhat resembling the cry of a pack of wolves.

We had sent trackers out over night, and having heard the elephants comparatively near, we were very sanguine as to finding them, so we gobbled up our breakfast as quickly as possible, and prepared our fire-arms. We had just completed our labours, and were soothing our impatience with the calumet of peace, when in came the trackers, and reported a herd close at hand. We were off immediately, and after riding for about two miles down the stream, dismounted, and entered the jungle.

The etiquette of elephant shooting is very strict, and the necessity of its observance quite palpable, for where three or four sportsmen and twenty or thirty natives are all eager and excited, confusion and accident would inevitably occur but for some preconcerted understanding or arrangement. At

the beginning of a campaign lots are drawn for the first shot, and the others follow in succession; the man who is first one day being last the next, and working up till his turn comes again. It happened to be my first shot, so when we approached the jungle where the animals were supposed to be, I went to the front, and followed close in the footsteps of the leading tracker.

The stealthy way in which the natives creep through jungle is astonishing: I am not a very heavy party, but I felt myself more like a young elephant following a fawn than anything else. I was so intent upon following my guide as quietly and as quickly as I could, that I did not perceive my companions had stayed behind, till at the end of ten or twelve minutes, I found myself alone with the tracker. His dress, although well adapted for running away from the game, was scarcely elegant; his head was closely shaven, and his copper-coloured skin utterly divested of all covering, but that of the smallest of all cloths about his waist. He imitated the various cries of elephants, peacocks, and other wild denizens of the forest, in order to attract the attention of my companions, but in vain; so we proceeded on our course alone. After we had tracked about ten minutes longer, the Moorman suddenly stopped, as if shot, and pointed me out a huge mass at

a distance of about sixty yards, which I could not at first quite distinguish as an elephant: however, on creeping nearer, I made out my friend; he was standing with his back towards me, fanning himself with his long ears. It is not always wise to attack an elephant quite alone, especially when you cannot depend upon your gun-carrier remaining by you in extremity. From this man's bumptious, swaggering manner when in camp, and from his having displayed unmistakable symptoms of alarm when engaged with the "rogue" some days before, I felt convinced that " my pretty gentleman," as the gipsies say, would run at the slightest appearance of danger. However, I had not much time to consider, for the elephant turned lazily round, and commenced moving in my direction. This was a great deal too tempting to be resisted, so, following the bent of my inclination, I advanced to meet him; he did not see me, I think, till I was about six yards from him, when he stopped and prepared to turn, — rather a

long business sometimes with individuals of his species. I immediately gave him a shot in the centre of the forehead, about three inches above the root of the trunk. The effect was instantaneous; he subsided like a great hayrick, without a groan or a struggle of any kind, falling exactly in the position he was standing, with one leg

advanced, in the act of turning. I had never seen an animal die so immediately, and I felt almost startled at witnessing the power of one small ounce of lead in destroying so effectually the vitality of such a huge mass.

My tracker, who had retreated as I advanced, now came up, and while he was engaged in securing the tail-the only thing a sportsman has to show for his danger and trouble—I was contemplating my handiwork, really more than half sorry for what I had done, and more than half ashamed of having destroyed one of the most sagacious of God's creatures, without any object whatever but that of saying I had done so. I had, indeed, half resolved to return to camp and not wantonly commit any more murder, when suddenly I heard the jungle crashing quite close at hand, and had just time to turn, when I met another elephant "mooning" right up to where his deceased friend was being deprived of his caudal honours; he had evidently heard the shot, and was now about to fall a victim to his curiosity. All my humane regrets, philelephantine sentiments, I am ashamed to say, vanished in a second, and I advanced to meet him with much more excitement than I did the first. He did not see me till I was quite close, when he stopped short, and, without showing any desire to retire, eyed me in rather a fierce'