He Sat On The Head Of The Beast, Sometimes Cross-Legged,
And Sometimes With His Legs Behind The Huge Ear Covers.
Mr. Maxwell
assured me that he would not send me into a region without a European
unless it were perfectly safe, which I fully believed, any doubts as to
my safety, if I had any, being closely connected with my steed.
This mode of riding is not comfortable. One sits facing forward with
the feet dangling over the edge of the basket.* This edge soon produces
a sharp ache or cramp, and when one tries to get relief by leaning back
on anything, the awkward, rolling motion is so painful, that one
reverts to the former position till it again becomes intolerable. Then
the elephant had not been loaded "with brains," and his pack was as
troublesome as the straw shoes of the Japanese horses. It was always
slipping forward or backward, and as I was heavier than the Malay lad,
I was always slipping down and trying to wriggle myself up on the great
ridge which was the creature's backbone, and always failing, and the
mahout was always stopping and pulling the rattan ropes which bound the
whole arrangement together, but never succeeding in improving it.
[*See Frontispiece.]
Before we had traveled two hours, the great bulk of the elephant,
without any warning, gently subsided behind, and then as gently in
front, the huge, ugly legs being extended in front of him, and the man
signed to me to get off, which I did by getting on his head and letting
myself down by a rattan rope upon the driver, who made a step of his
back, for even when "kneeling," as this queer attitude is called, a
good ladder is needed for comfortable getting off and on.
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