me, if not from
death, at least from disagreeable and perhaps dangerous bruises. This is
how it happened.

As the difficult task of ascending a steep mountain lay before us,
we decided to hire elephants. The best couple in the town was brought
before us. Their owner assured us "that the Prince of Wales had ridden
upon them and was very contented." To go there and back and have them in
attendance the whole day--in fact the whole pleasure-trip--was to cost
us two rupees for each elephant. Our native friends, accustomed from
infancy to this way of riding, were not long in getting on the back of
their elephant. They covered him like flies, with no predilection for
this or that spot of his vast back. They held on by all kinds of strings
and ropes, more with their toes than their fingers, and, on the whole,
presented a picture of contentment and comfort. We Europeans had to use
the lady elephant, as being the tamer of the two. On her back there
were two little benches with sloping seats on both sides, and not the
slightest prop for our backs. The wretched, undergrown youngsters seen
in European circuses give no idea of the real size of this noble beast.
The mahout, or driver, placed himself between the huge animal's ears
whilst we gazed at the "perfected" seats ready for us with an uneasy
feeling of distrust The mahout ordered his elephant to kneel, and it
must be owned that in climbing on her back with the aid of a small
ladder, I felt what the French call chair de poule. Our she-elephant
answered to the poetical name of "Chanchuli Peri," the Active Fairy, and
really was the most obedient and the merriest of all the representatives
of her tribe that I have ever seen. Clinging to each other we at last
gave the signal for departure, and the mahout goaded the right ear of
the animal with an iron rod. First the elephant raised herself on her
fore-legs, which movement tilted us all back, then she heavily rose on
her hind ones, too, and we rolled forwards, threatening to upset the
mahout. But this was not the end of our misfortunes. At the very
first steps of Peri we slipped about in all directions, like quivering
fragments of blancmange.

The journey came to a sudden pause. We were picked up in a hasty way,
replaced on our respective seats, during which proceeding Peri's trunk
proved very active, and the journey continued. The very thought of the
five miles before us filled us with horror, but we would not give up
the excursion