SIR ULFVER AND FRU SILVERLIND.

FROM THE SWEDISH.

66

1.
Sir Ulfver he was a brave bold knight,
He wooed a maid like the sweet sunlight.
Gallant in mien, and noble in mind,
He wooed and won maid Silverlind.
For Sir Ulfver well we know.

2.
They lived together in gentle mirth,
And three little babes from her side had birth.
But intheeighth year came grim old Death,
And wither'd sweet Silverlind with his breath.

For, &c.

3. Sir Ulfver was long a sorrowful man, But to court maid Stineborg then he began. They lived together in blissful mirth, And three young babes from her side had birth.

For, &c.

4.
Wife Stineborg's children went out to play ;
Wife Silverlind's wept at home all day.
The youngest child so sadly wept,
That its mother woke where she coldly slept.

For, &c.

5. Wife Silverlind said to the Angel-band,

Oh, may I go back to my own dear land ?” “ To thine own dear land thou hast leave to go, But fly thou back ere the cock doth crow.”

THE OUT-STATION; OR, JAUNTS IN THE JUNGLE.

BY J. WILLYAMS GRYLLS, ESQ.

CHAPTER VI.

A FORTNIGHT'S EXCURSION AMONG THE ELEPHANTS.

AFTER having allowed yourself, like a good, docile, and accommodating reader as you are, to be so incontinently dragged, on our last excursion together after elk, over a wilderness of hard-hearted crags and yawning chasms, to the serious abrasion of your shins and the deterioration of your nether habiliments, you shall now have your reward by an introduction to the monarch of the forest—the leviathan of creation the elephant; and, in its slaughter, to the “crack sport of the Ceylon jungle.

There is something indescribably soul-stirring and exhilarating, however much we may be hacknied in the sport, when we see one of the kings of the jungle (which the elephant decidedly is, and the lion a mere pitiful usurper) sink dead upon the ground at the feet of such a speck on nature's face as man in comparison to the monster against whom, singlehanded, he enters the arena.

It is not the mere ordinary pleasure that one experiences in sport generally, such as running into a fox after a forty minutes' chase (and there are few excitements more enlivening or heart-thrilling than that), or the self-satisfied complacency that one feels on the eve of a first of September, when the spacious pockets are relieved of some thirty brace of birds ; but it must be the consciousness of the power of man over every beast of the field, and the pride of wielding it, that causes one to feel such intense gratification when an elephant is brought down in the midst of its own native wilds !

To such perfection has elephant shooting been carried in Ceylon, that I fear every

reader who had never witnessed those shores would consider the “ Jaunts” far too “ Munchausenish” if I related

every
anecdote

connected with the slaughter of the elephant that has fallen under my own immediate observation--in short, it is much better to keep all matters of wonderment to oneself rather than lose irretrievably a reputation by being the unlucky possessor of the knowledge of some extraordinary feat that could only produce incredulity in ninety and nine readers out of every hundred; in illustration of which I will relate an anecdote that actually occurred at a well-known club-house in London not very many years ago, where foreign sports becoming the topic of conversation, and amongst the rest elephant shooting, an officer, just returned from Ceylon, ventured to assert that, to his own individual knowledge, a brother officer had slain with his own gun alone fourteen hundred elephants ! This was too much to be endured, and the whole room, taking it as a joke, burst into a roar of laughter, which increased in

proportion with the vehemence of the unhappy sponsor of the assertion, who forthwith offered to bind himself by any quantity and quality of affidavits the company might choose to impose, as to the truth of what he adduced.

5 And now,"

Whilst in the midst of his discomfiture and indignation at his word being doubted, General C- entered the room, who had also lately returned from the same place and to whom the fact was perfectly well known, and to whom it had been well authenticated). exclaimed the discredited one in a “blaze of triumph,” “ if you

do not believe

me, here is General C-, who will vouch for the truth of the fact." The question was accordingly put to the general, who was about forthwith to answer in the affirmative, when a second burst of laughter at such an improbable and Major Longbow-ish event indicated to him the state of things, and, with the greatest composure and nonchalance in the world, he at once not only avowed himself perfectly ignorant of the marvellous occurrence, but further expressed his entire disbelief in it! Poor -, at being thus so unexpectedly left in the lurch, to stand the brunt and reputation of being gifted with certain inventive faculties (vulgarly called lying), endeavoured to mend matters by seizing his hat, rushing straightway to his chambers, and then and there concocting and transmitting a hostile billet-doux to the general for not supporting him in what he knew to be a fact.

The answer to this pugnacious missive followed immediately in the appearance of the general's good-humoured physiognomy, and on being upbraided for his treachery in thus " backing his friend," he replied,

“ Pooh, pooh! my dear fellow, don't be so savage! I am well aware that what you said was perfectly true, but seeing that every body in the room was fully persuaded that you were telling a falsehood, I had no ambition to appear in the same light!"

Captain --- never showed his face again at that club during his furlough in England, but his story was perfectly a matter of fact, and the gentleman who had shot that amazing quantity of elephants was the commandant of that particular district of the jungle in which I was myself located, one of the most excellent of men that ever lived, whose exceedingly polished and unassuming manners would rather indicate him the destroyer of fourteen hundred hearts than the same number of elephants ! If you ever had, reader, the good fortune to make the acquaintance of poor Tom Rogers, major in her majesty's Ceylon rifles, you knew the man alluded to.

These pages, I regret, can never reach the eye that never missed its aim, for after having escaped (how miraculously? Heaven alone knows) for twelve years, every danger of the jungle, in one continued war against the elephant tribe, he was not long ago struck dead by lightning when engaged in his favourite pursuit! (A glorious day that in the elephantine calendar!) The fate of one whom the united brute creation could not touch, the flash of the mountain-storm, as if jealous of his supremacy, at last accomplished! A small black spot on his foot, and the lost lustre of that soft blue eye as he sank upon the mountain, alone indicated the finale of the existence of the most extraordinary elephant slayer that ever lived on the earth!

The fate of the unfortunate brute that was shot some years since at Exeter 'Change, when half an army was drawn up to pepper away at its carcase for hours, is certainly sufficient to make one sceptical on the point, that one little ounce ball, properly administered, will as effectually demolish an elephant as it will a bluebottle, but so it is ; the animal's skull in some particular spots is not much thicker, if at all, than that of a man, and the brain is quite as accessible (much more so, perhaps, than some men's) and should any of the tribe hereafter take it into their heads to take leave of their senses, I hereby most disinterestedly and charitably offer my services to the whole imported fraternity from the Drury Lane Jenny Lind downwards, to put them out of their misery with a single shot, or to keep them in rum and rice for the remainder of their natural lives. To make certain of accomplishing this feat only requires a certain degree of practice and a thorough knowledge of the internal formation of the animal's head, which must be acquired by splitting one transversely, and thoroughly anatomising the numerous honeycombs or square receptacles of which it is composed.

But now, hey for the jungle !

Although the information of the vicinity of a herd of elephants to one's bungalow, (particularly if there happens to be a tusk elephant among them, the possession of whose “ ivories" will compensate a man for his risk and trouble by furnishing him with the means of procuring two excellent fowling-pieces, ivory fetching, I believe, five shillings a pound), induces one to sally forth at all times to enter the lists single-handed against the invaders, still to enjoy the sport of elephant shooting in perfection, it is necessary to form a party of four or five people (quite a sufficient number for comfort and safety) and these jungle re-unions are principally concocted at head-quarters, from which place intimation is sent to the out-station nearest to which the anticipated campaign is to be carried

on, constituting no small treat to the lonely dweller thereat, as he then comes in for a share of all the good things furnished from a more civilised part of the globe than that in which he himself vegetates.

A party having been made up for a fortnight's shooting, in the first place about twenty coolies are collected together, and are forthwith laden with every imaginable article, edible and potable, that can be had for love or money-rounds of beef, hermetically sealed soups, hams, concentrated vegetables, buffalo humps, biscuits, and bread ad infinitum, added to each fellow's particular preference in the cellar department, constitute the commissariat. The particular fancies of this latter delectability are in no slight degree varied, par exemple :- A jolly John Bull of the party fancies he may again relish in the jungle the potent flavour of a fullbodied port. Another person prefers a six dozen case of Château Margaux, whilst a third, with a longer stretch of imagination and purse,

declares nothing will go down with him but Moet's sparkling Champagne, which, occasionally diluted with soda-water as a refresher after the toil and slaughter of the day, he has a very strong idea cannot easily be surpassed. On the subject of pale ale every body agrees, ditto on brandy pawnee and cheroots, so that when we commence unpacking the articles at their final destination, there really is every ostensible inducement to forego the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, at least until we are starved back to them again. The dweller at the out-station, from his situation, is always provided for by others, and to do him justice, he certainly makes the most of his time in laying in a stock to last (or at least the remembrance of it) till he is again summoned to the well-stocked board of another elephant party, and what is more delectable than all this, is the revived companionship of our old friends and associates, whose vivid recitals of what is going on in the world” makes one emulous of again shuffling off the coil of jungle-life, and exchanging the companionship of

Nov.-VOL. LXXXI. NO. CCCXXIII.

2 A

monkeys for that of men, the wilderness for the world, and of henceforth pursuing a Beauty instead of a Beast.

Although there are very many localities in different parts of Ceylon well adopted for a crusade against the elephants, the preference is usually given to a place called Neilgella, on the eastern part of the island, but, nevertheless, some distance inland. Neilgella is an extensive, undulating plain of

many miles circumference, bounded on all sides by mountains covered to their summit with verdure, whilst the ground itself is ornamented at regular distances by large clusters of forest trees, which in their regularity so perfectly resemble those of an English domain, that the place has long since been dignified by the sobriquet of “the Park." At some seasons of the

year the elephants (in former times) used literally to swarm here, whilst the myriads of red deer with which it abounds make it the scene of the ne plus ultra of the deerstalker's enjoyment.

The park was first discovered by the above-named officer, Major R., during one of his many rambles after elephants, and so supernaturally wild and beautiful was its appearance as it suddenly burst upon him after an uninteresting scramble through a monotonous description of jungle, that, to use his own words, he remained some minutes as if spell-bound, nor would he have been more entranced had he discovered a colony of those little demi-immortals, that came in and went out with the “ Arabian Nights,” in comfortable possession of the scene.

It was many years after its first discovery that I had an opportunity of visiting the place, and any thing more beautiful I certainly never beheld; its extent was incomprehensible to the eye, and one might wander on, on, on, from morn till eve, still there was the same ew before him, with the tall blue mountains in the distance; but if the prospect alone produced such an agreeable surprise to the discoverer, judge of his amazement and delight, when, on penetrating further into it, he found it actually dotted in all directions by innumerable herds of elephants; some reclining under the shade of the forest trees, whilst others were laving their huge carcases in a broad river that ran through the place.

“Here will I build unto myself an habitation," was his first ejaculation; and on that spot does the house stand to this very hour (that is to say, if the elephants have not wreaked their revenge on it since my departure), free and

open

for every person living in the island to make use of as his abode, as long as it is dedicated to the uses intended it by its proprietor, viz., a shelter for the “ enemy of the elephant;" so to this primitive abode, my dear reader, I will now conduct you, and promise you that you

shall return from it both a wiser and a browner man. The head-quarter party having picked us up at our outstation, some thirty or forty miles from the park, our route for the rest of the journey lies through the mountains, and we have no slight trouble to reach our destination by the following afternoon, just in time to arrange matters comfortably, both of a domestic and of a warlike nature, before darkness covers the scene. Threading our way through the lemon grass, and starting herd

upon herd of wild deer in every direction as we advance, we at last perceive in the distance the white-washed walls of a bungalow, about a mile a-head of us, welcome enough to us at present, although looking wretchedly cheerless and uninviting in itself.

On approaching nearer, unmistakeable symptoms of the continual visits it is in the habit of receiving from buffaloes and elephants do not impart to it a more hospitable appearance, nor does the interior tout ensemble