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They marched forward in regular array until within a couple of hundred yards of my position; then suddenly I heard a trumpet, trunks were thrown up in the air, the line wavered, and a succession of well-known sounds showed that a tiger was before them. The mahouts steadied their animals, brought them again into a correct line, and the advance continued.
Neela Deo staggered and swayed ever so slowly forward, with his head low and his trunk resting heavy and inert on Kudrat Sharif's shoulder; but he got in. After that no man saw him for sixteen weeks save the mahouts of his own stockades. But every morning the flower merchants sent huge mounds of flower garlands to comfort him.
"Yes," said Little Toomai, "he is afraid of me," and he took long strides up to Kala Nag, called him a fat old pig, and made him lift up his feet one after the other. "Wah!" said Little Toomai, "thou art a big elephant," and he wagged his fluffy head, quoting his father. "The Government may pay for elephants, but they belong to us mahouts.
The mahouts suggested that we should not disturb him, but give him time to sleep, and then beat for him in the afternoon.
After this we went crashing home, regardless of the thick jungle through which we passed, as the impending boughs were snapped, at the word of the mahouts, by the obedient and sagacious animals they bestrode.
It is probable that a portion of the broken tooth remained in the flesh, as the leg festered, and became so bad that the elephant could not travel for nearly a fortnight afterwards. The mahouts are very obstinate, and insist upon native medicines, their famous lotion being a decoction of Mhowa blossoms, which in my opinion aggravated the inflammation of the wound.
"We have hit upon a plan of escape, my lord. As I told you my friend and I are in the stable with the elephants, our duties being to carry in the forage for the great beasts, and to keep the stables in order. We have taken one of the Indian mahouts into our confidence, and he has promised his aid; the elephant of which he is in charge is a docile beast, and his driver has taught him many tricks.
This was the moment when Neela Deo charged him and he ran, dodging far beyond the range of the fighting arena down the khud valley. Everyone followed; the wild elephants running by themselves screaming in harsh tones; the caravan trumpeting in clear, full tones; the mahouts, calling the name of the King beside themselves with delight.
It totalled 473, including mahouts and elephant-tenders, grooms, armourers, taxidermists, tailors, shoemakers, a native doctor and a dispenser, and boatmen, not to mention the Viennese conductor and the thirty-five members of the orchestra, cooks, bakers, and table-waiters. The Maharajah certainly did things on a grand scale.
Along with these, and concealed behind them, the headman of the "cooroowe," or noosers, crept in, eager to secure the honour of taking the first elephant, a distinction which this class jealously contests with the mahouts of the chiefs and temples.
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