DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12673#0348
LIFE OUTSIDE OOTY. 327
the matter, ride up to them, and use your heavy
horsewhip as well as you can : if you endeavour
to get away they will generally feel inclined to
follow you, and as for escaping from them on horse-
back, it is morally impossible.
Another animal—though not a wild one — of
which we bid you beware, is the Neilgherry buf-
falo, especially the fine fawn-coloured beasts, be-
longing to the Todas. Occasionally, as you are
passing along the base of some remote hill, you will
be unpleasantly surprised by a sudden and im-
petuous charge of a whole herd. Unless you have
a gun with you, you must ride for it. And how
you must ride will probably surprise you. We
well recollect a kind of adventure which once
occurred to ourselves, when quietly excursionizing
in the vicinity of Ooty. Excited by the appear-
ance of our nag's red saddle-cloth, some twenty
huge beasts resolved to dispute with us the right
of passage through one of the long smooth lawns,
which run down the centre of the woodlands. At
first they looked up curiously, then fiercely. Pre-
sently they advanced, snorting rabidly, in a rude
line, a huge black bull the leader of the movement.
The walk soon broke into a trot, the trot became
a gallop, the intention of the gallop, was clearly
the matter, ride up to them, and use your heavy
horsewhip as well as you can : if you endeavour
to get away they will generally feel inclined to
follow you, and as for escaping from them on horse-
back, it is morally impossible.
Another animal—though not a wild one — of
which we bid you beware, is the Neilgherry buf-
falo, especially the fine fawn-coloured beasts, be-
longing to the Todas. Occasionally, as you are
passing along the base of some remote hill, you will
be unpleasantly surprised by a sudden and im-
petuous charge of a whole herd. Unless you have
a gun with you, you must ride for it. And how
you must ride will probably surprise you. We
well recollect a kind of adventure which once
occurred to ourselves, when quietly excursionizing
in the vicinity of Ooty. Excited by the appear-
ance of our nag's red saddle-cloth, some twenty
huge beasts resolved to dispute with us the right
of passage through one of the long smooth lawns,
which run down the centre of the woodlands. At
first they looked up curiously, then fiercely. Pre-
sently they advanced, snorting rabidly, in a rude
line, a huge black bull the leader of the movement.
The walk soon broke into a trot, the trot became
a gallop, the intention of the gallop, was clearly