The record-union., 1893-07-01


by their bIoodthirstiness; for such small
tmngs their powers of imbibing are Won
derful, land l wonder some savant has
not 'oxpiained'' it, This is just the sort
OF thing they explain SO well. They have
told us that only the male bites, that mos
qultoes are essentially vegetarians, and a
few startling truths of that sort; but l
should like to know how many quarts of
blue blood real vegetarian mosquito
can manage 10 ilnbibe in twelve hours,
and the result on the mosquito. These
little pests being quite too awful, we had
dlnner In our camp beds, the boy hand
ing III plate at a time, carefully raising
the curtains as little possible, and, be-
towel.
In this manner we managed to get
I through dinner with at least merriment,
the whir and hum outside the curtain
considerably adding TO it-a noise like
dozen flights OF bees on the wing. Very
pleasant indeed, outside. How thor
oughly we enjoyed our smoke; and, talk
ing away Of other hunts i'll which he had
participated, L." whiled away the time
until we dropped off to sleep.
agahata, nagahata, Mahatmya"
tGet up, get up, mastery, were the first
words l heard; and, rousing myself, |
made out old Bohomo hondi's form.
Twas quite dark and it was abomina-
bly, early. The boy was not even up.
hoy! boyW Whizz! went boot; whizz!
went another. ''Sar!'' yelled the boy.
Why" L said, 1--WE wanted early tea. at
o'clock, and here it is broad daylight
Ctwas as dark as pitch, mo fire lighted,
no water boiling, no toast ready; what
does it all mean?" me speak Moot
samy, he no wake" says the boy, dash
ing out to lay hands on Mootsamy, the
Kitchen coolie; and presently we hear an
uproar IN the Kitchen, in which the boys
voice and MoOtsamy's are blended, but
not in unison.
Bohomo hondi says the "rogue" was
there last night, and Rang hami had fired
a shot at him to frighten him away from
his paddy; hadn't we heard the shot?
es; now we came to think of it, we
thought we had-at about 9 o'clock, but
we were not positive, the mosquitoes had
been humnllng so, we said. 1t appeared,
on inquiry, that Rang hami's charge con-
sisted or an old nail, and, of course, fired
at distance Of a hundred yards or so.
Most rogue" elephants carry a lot of old
IRON about with them obtained in that
way-nails, stones, Jumps Of lead. etc
These things are fired into them by the
villagers, watching their paddy by night.
1t Is the most et1ectual way they have of
frightening the solitares away
In one night an elephant will wreck
the work OF years, leaving nothing be-
hlnd him but mass of uprooted plan
talns or broken-down cocoanut trees. a
trampled paddy field and few fallen
houses. A whole village probably con-
slsts Of not more than half dozen houses
the population, twenty to thirty people,
all one family, dying out not gradually.
but with most appalling rapidity. star
vatIon, fever, dysentery, dry seasons and
consequent famine, resulting in utter
want OF energy, are most surely eXter-
minating these people.
Tea ready, sarn' at last says the boy.
Eat as much as you can" says IL, >"
ic M L
get back"
With such an uncertainty ahead we
both tuck in heartily. and having thor
oughly fortified the inner man for long
siege, get our rifles and hand them over
to our gun n-bearers "L," takes one
coolle with him, giving one rifle to Bo-
homo hondi. | take two, both, like my
self, new to the sporty Gillian and Par
pen-giving them rifle each, with am
munition, and telling them not to speak
word on pain Of instant death, or make
the slightest sound. All coughing sneez-
ing or blasphemy they want to indulge
in they must do now, and not later on.
With few warnings of this kind, which
evidently begin to make them wish they
hadn't come, off we start; time about
O'Clock. Crossing the road, we go along
the edge Of the tank, which is very quiet
compared to what it was last night, the
numerous birds Just awaking. At the
far end of the tank Bohomo hondi stops
and points out the elephants tracks.
Yes, he had been down to the tank last
night. There were his tracks all about
in the soft mud. This is some hours
Old says Bohomo hondi.
Getting into single file we push on,
Bohomo hondi leading, then al. ;" then
myself, the three coolies, with very pro-
truding eyes, bringing up the rear. They
do not understand word of Cinghalese,
and, not knowing what the old tracker
] ha inn,
that the elephant is close at hand. l see
that 1t only requires a sudden movement
of monkeys among the trees and the
coolies will bolt. l therefore consider it
wise to secure rifle while l can. So tax
ing my 071, and telling Nellian in a
sepulchral whisper to keep close to me.
and if he runs awayiI will most certainly
shoot him, load both rifles and hurry
on and overtake " L." and Bohomo hondi
The tracks are fairly distinct, and l do
not think much OF the tracking difficulty,
50 far. The jungle, too, is fairly open and
the walking comparatively easv. We
must have been going on like this for
more than an hour, the "going' getting
more and more difficult, until at the end
of the second hour we We're all creeping
along with our bodies bent double, the
jungle mass OF "wait-a-bit'' thorns,
which stopped one at every step. The
heat was awful; | could see nothing but
'L.'s' back. l should never be able to
stand another hour of this | felt that if
| could only stand upright for ten min
utes and be allowed to swear freely /
should get all right; but no, the old chap
in front didn't show the slightest in
clinatiOn to stop-On, on, on! Not a
track could | see; and how an elephant
could have chosen such an abominable
| way could not understand. His talked
of sagacity was all nonsense, that was
certain.
Every now and again my hat would
| scrape against some branch, and then |
would give start and stop, for the noise
| thus made always gives one the idea that
something in the jungle has moved,
Whenever | did this, Nellian invariably
gave me ab in the back with the barrels
| OF the rifle he was carryiug-loaded.
This, of course, made me start round to
see what he wanted, thinking he had
touched me to attract my attention to
something. Turning sharply round, |
1 always found my face in his the ex-
preston of terror depicted on his count
enance being quite indescribable. Off
would go my hat, caught by some thorn:
thump would come Fellian's loaded rihe
right in the small of my back. Swish
would go my hat agaiSt something.
Whats that?" would be the unuttered
exclamation, quickly turning round, to
| find Nellian's nose in my mouth.
Oh, l would have given anything to
swear Never. till then, did l realize that
swearing was really necessary. 1t is a
safety-valve, and should be allowed to 20
off when steam gets beyond a certain
point.
1t must be 10 or II O'Clock. We have
crawled ten or twelve miles. ! can't 90
on much longer. Heat! why, persp spiration
was pouring out OF us; our clothes were
Wringing wet; the only thing that did not
lTfnt- NSrpr iv~fra H. IL