During a recent religious festival at Alvartirunagari, on the banks of the Tambramini, a terrible tragedy was enacted by an elephant. Like most large temples this has its periodical festivals, one of which has just been celebrated. Certain elephants were brought down from Nunguneri and Tinnevelly for the festivities of the occasion. All went smoothly till, unfortunately, the large elephant of Nunguneri, being in a rut, run amuck. The mahout unwittingly took up a little child (son of the Temple Darmakartha) and placed it in front of him on the neck of the elephant. Alarmed at the state of the elephant, the mahout endeavored to quietly pass the child out of danger by handing it to somebody behind. He was not quick enough to elude the sagacity of the elephant, which snatched up the child, put it into his mouth, and began munching it. The mahout, horrified at the sight, jumped down and tried to extricate the child, which he succeeded in doing, but not before the child was well nigh dead. Indeed, it only breathed for a few minutes afterward, and then expired. Enraged beyond all bounds, the animal became furious, and in its mad rage seized the mahout, dashed him to the ground, and then trampled out any little breath that might have still remained in the body. And here comes a strange and touching incident. Repenting seemingly of his awful misdeed, the elephant gathered up what was the moment before his master, proceeded to his (the mahout’s) house, and, depositing his mournful burden at his door, passed on. The people generally, in great dread, closed their doors and windows. The elephant wildly rushed along the streets and came to the temple, the door of which, too, had been closed. It thereupon battered the door, and passing into the enclosure, furiously attacked the little elephant of Tinnevelly, which it pierced with its tusks and soon killed. Emerging thence, the elephant rushed madly along the river close by, where it began throwing mud and sand all over itself. In the meantime, the police constables had got their muskets loaded, and, climbing out of danger, took potshots at the furious animal, which they eventually succeeded in disabling and ultimately killing.
[tags]Ann Arbor Register, September, 1895[/tags]