Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1868-07-03
Adventure with an Elephant-About
"Rogues."

'Rogues."
! Wild elephants travel in families. Every
member of family is q blood relative. These
herds, as they are called, contain from ten tc
twenty individuals, although sometimes there
arc moro than that oven. In tho depths o.
the forests of India and Ccylon, large nun
bcrs of elephants travel in company, from
place to place. in search Of water, or browse
together in the fricndiest way, and any one
who Glanced to sec them, if he did not know
their habits, would suppose they wcro n sin
gle herd. But, on the first sign of danger,
no would note tho fact that the clcphantinc
regiment was made up of family companies,
who would ut once form into an ndepcs-lcnt
body, and cboy each its own chosen lcad}r,
These leaders arc said to be elected By i'm
partial suffrage" There is no distinction on
account of +" sex or color for tho females
are eligible to THIS high Office, if they show
themselves fit for the position
The family pride Of the elephant is cxccs.
sivc. One would, as he reads about them,
think that they must imagine that they
"camc over in the Mayaowcr," and had
grand fathers who fought at Bunker Hill,
aud that each of them was ,lucatcd at lIar-
ward College; they arc SO exclusive in their
manners and treat the rest Of the elephant
kind with such cool and distinguished consid
oraton."
"1f,' writes Sir Emmcrsou Tenant, "by
any accident, an elephant becomes hopclessy
separated from his own band, hc is not per-
mittcd to attach himself to any other He
may browse i'll their vicinity, OF resort tor!hc
same place to drink or battle, but the inter
| course is only on distant and conventional
footing, and no familiarity or intimate asso>
ciation is, under any circumstances permit
ted. There can be no reasonable doubt that
this jealous and exclusive policy not only con-
tributes to produce, but mainly serves to per-
pctuatc the class of solitary elephants, which
are known by the term goondahs in India,
and which, from their vicious propcnsitcs
and predatory habits, arc called IIora> or
Rogues, in Ceylon. 8
a rogue elephant is like rogue amonA us
an outcast; aud like the human namcsAkc,
he rvongcs limsclf'by giving up his li0 to
Wischief: In sCeylon ",tbey. .spspd, >'deeiiii Iii.
nights in marauding." They desla ;SrWan
tatious; they tread down gardens, tGhAfluin
rice fields and cocoa-nut trees They Didc
in the forests in the day time, but sonirsimcs
they will venture out, and boldly carry of
booty from tho fields, or suddenly rush on the
traveller in the thick woods, and murder hin,
without mercy. They seem to hate mon, }and
no doubt have causes enough to do so from,
their point of view The natives are glad
when an English sportsman arrives, and ca
gcry offer to guide him, in the hope that lie
may slay one Of these truly ccphantinc foes
The natives tell many interesting stories
Of their adventures with rogue elephants and
from these narratives, as written BY . Sing
halcsc gentleman, | will select one of the
| best
The superintendent Of cocoanut planta-
tion near Ncgombo told story of an advcn.
turc with an elephant, which shows that four.
legged "rogues" arc addicted to "sport,"
as well as twolcggcd hunters.
y "roguo elephant" had done so much
injury to the plantation that the owners de-
tcrmincd to kill it. They made up party
of ten persons, who carried six loaded rifles
The leader was Mr.. Lindsay, an Englishman,
who was then living at Ccyon.
AS they were quietly walking along the
path which led to the spot where the elephant
had been seen an hour before, tho native who
was in advance shouted wildly "Therc
there" and took to his hcols The brute
at this time was only thirty or forty yards
from the hunters Every ono of thdsl at
once followed the example of tho natl 4, and
ran for his life. Tho elephant gave chase,
screaming at the top of his shrill voice. The
Englishman succeeded in reaching the
branches Of a tree in safety; the rest quickly
initiated his example.
"As for myself" said the gentleman who
told me the story, although l made one or
two suporhuman efforts, could not climb
the tree. But there was no time to be lost.
The elephant was running at me with his
trunk bent down in curve toward the ground.
At this critical moment Mr.. Lindsay held
out his foot, by the help Of which, and then
of the branches, which wcro thrco or four
feet above my head, [ managed to crnnblo