brushwood.  It was about five o’clock in the evening, or a little later, and we had hardly cleared the foot of the hill and got to the plain below, when a rustling of leaves and a crackling of dry brushwood were heard on our right, followed immediately by the trumpeting of a hora allia[4], which was making towards us.  We all fled, followed by the elephant.  I, who was in the rear of the party, was the first to take to flight; the coolies threw away their pingoes, and my brother-in-law his umbrella, and all ran in different directions.  I hid myself behind a large boulder of granite nearly covered by jungle:  but as my place of concealment was on high ground, I could see all that was going on below.  The first thing I observed was the elephant returning to the place where one of the pingoes was lying:  he was carrying one of the coolies in a coil of his trunk.  The body of the man was dangling with the head downward.  I cannot say whether he was then alive or not; I could not perceive any marks of blood or bruises on his person:  but he appeared to be lifeless.  The elephant placed him down on the ground, put the pingo on his (the man’s) shoulder, steadying both the man and the pingo with his trunk and fore-legs.  But the man of course did not move or stand up with his pingo.  Seeing this, the elephant again raised the cooly and dashed him against the ground, and then trampled the body to a very jelly.  This done, he took up the pingo and moved away from the spot; but at the distance of about a fathom or two, laid it down again, and ripping open one of the bundles, took out of it all the contents, somans[5], camb[=a]yas[6], handkerchiefs, and several pieces of white cambrick cloth, all which he tore to small pieces, and flung them wildly here and there.  He did the same with all the other pingoes.  When this was over the elephant quietly walked away into the jungle, trumpeting all the way as far as I could hear.  When danger was past I came out of my concealment, and returned to the place where we had halted that morning.  Here the rest of my companions joined me soon after.  The next morning we set out again on our journey, our party being now increased by some seven or eight traders from Salpity Corle:  but this time we did not meet with the elephant.  We found the mangled corpse of our cooly on the same spot where I had seen it the day before, together with the torn pieces of my cloths, of which we collected as fast as we could the few which were serviceable, and all the brass utensils which were quite uninjured.  That elephant was a noted rogue.  He had before this killed many people on that road, especially those carrying pingoes of coco-nut oil and ghee.  He was afterwards killed by an Englishman.  The incidents I have mentioned above, took place about twenty years ago.”

[Footnote 1:  Yokes borne on the shoulder, with a package at each end.]

[Footnote 2:  The tutelary spirit of the sacred mountain, Adam’s Peak.]