PLATE X.
HUNTING THE ELEPHANT WITH SWORDS.
The elephant sportsman usually makes elaborate preparations for the sport, taking a sufficient number of natives, servants, and trackers, with provisions to stay in the field some time; and only after some practice can he approach a herd, and pick out his shot, with any feeling of confidence.
The true hunter disregards the females, seeking the old tuskers; and to approach a herd without giving the alarm requires great caution, and not a little experience. The great game is generally found moving gradually in a given direction, feeding as they go. If they are approached from the wind, they scent danger from afar: but the experienced hunter creeps up against the wind, and ordinary caution enables him to approach within thirty or forty feet,—quite near enough, my readers would think, when one knows, that, upon the first shot, the entire herd will charge madly in any and every direction. The old tuskers, the heads of the family, rarely cover the retreat of a herd when an attack is made, usually starting off on their own account, leaving the others to look out for themselves.
When the presence of the hunter is realized, the one who makes the discovery informs the rest by a “peculiar short, shrill trumpet,” understood by old hunters as well. The herd immediately cease feeding, all standing perfectly still, probably using their ears and scent, or perhaps making up their minds which way to go. The next movement differs in different cases. Sometimes the herd charge wildly in any direction; sometimes in a body; or, again, they move with such remarkable celerity and silence, that even old hunters have been deceived.
This peculiarity of the elephant, the largest of living land animals, is extremely remarkable. How such a huge body can make its way through bamboo and jungle so gently, is hard to imagine; but often, after the first rapid rush, there is absolute silence; and the novice comes to a stand-still, thinking that the game has followed suit. On the contrary, the headlong charge of the herd has been changed to a rapid walk, so silent, that persons in very close proximity to a band making off in this way, have failed to hear even the boughs and bushes scraping against the thick hide.
A charging herd will soon overtake a man, especially if he runs up-hill; and the appearance of a mass of bobbing heads and elevated ears moving forward through the jungle, is quite sufficient to unnerve the majority of men. When a charge is made, the natives rush for trees or clumps of bamboos, or often escape by standing still, so small an object being passed by in the fury of the rush.
Exactly what a herd will do when attacked, it is impossible to say. If they have never heard a shot before, they often huddle together in the greatest alarm, and do not break and charge until the continued firing and appearance of smoke thoroughly alarms them. They perhaps think the noise is thunder until the continued repetition disabuses them of the idea.