Naked Man and Beast (1929)

[Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] we are now on our way to Northern India our pulman car is at the end of the train we arrived at the little Way Station of sathana early in the morning and soon transferred the baggage from our private car to Bullock carts that were waiting to transport us to our camp some miles further away it was slow traveling in these carts and very jolty but we eventually arrived at the government rest house around which we pitched our tents and made ourselves at home it was a busy life here in Camp we had men to do every conceivable job men to do the sweeping and although a low cast man he was certainly one of the most aristocratic looking people in the place the cook was a lazy fellow he did nothing but cook he was very proud he would do nothing else we had to have men to fetch water for him and do nothing else but fetch water then again we had men to collect firewood they went out every day and brought in cartloads of wood to keep the campfires burning we had many elephant men to look after the elephants and these fellows could be seen in the early morning crouching by the fire trying to keep their bones warm it's a cold life here at this time of the year in the mornings although during the day it gets very hot indeed we had elephants and elephants you know must be fed here comes in breakfast for one elephant an elephant I must tell you eats very nearly a ton of food a day and he keeps quite a fleet of other elephants busy providing for those are used during the [Music] shoot when it came to traveling about we sat on what we call a pad elephant or possibly a howder elephant if you had a rifle and wanted to stand up a pad elephant you see on the screen now with his pad on his back and the mahout or elephant driver standing beside him he drives his elephant by means of the anchus an iron bar with a hook and one point which he Jabs behind the ears of the elephant to make him go right or left when the anchus is not in use he hangs it on the ear of the elephant now look at the elephant's eye that eye has looked out upon a 100 years of life what a wise old eye it is when it comes to mounting the elephant the mahout takes the front elevator and up he goes and once on the head he must arrange his blanket so that he can seat there seat himself comfortably behind the ears in that position he cannot possibly fall off now how is the sport man going to mount he has to go up by the back staircase somebody holds the tail and he steps on the tail and then clambers a loft takes his rifle and off he goes now a howder elephant is generally mounted by means of a ladder up it goes in you get and then up you go and hold on otherwise you may get thrown out and now we're ready to start off goes one of the Sportsman on a pad elephant the rest follow in a long line you notice the Howers are empty because it's more comfortable riding on the pad a line of elephants stretches back of us and the country goes up and down many people get seasick riding on the back of an elephant in front of us other elephants streak away into the jungle in quest of gone or swamp deer soon we come to the swamps and our great Mammoth animals are pling their way through wading through feet of deep water and we sit there comfortably on their backs enjoying the sunshine and the fresh morning air see how they plow through that water waving their trunks back and forth and the howder swaying to and fro and the Man in the howder just as if he was at Sea on board a ship [Music] soon we come to the locality where the swamp deer are to be found a line is formed through the grass and gradually we beat up before long there is a flash ahead of us and we will see a swamp deer dashing off through the water there go a couple of do we will not shoot those we let them go there are some more close behind them the line still advancing other specimens Dash forth but they are not worthy to be mounted in a museum they are small ones but wait we're going to get a big fellow before long here goes one now look out for the man on the howder he's ready with his gun there he goes again a second shot and forward hurry the line forward now and there's our prize a wonderful specimen antlers measuring something like 38 in the men soon gather around and he's hoisted up onto the back of the old elephant securely tied and then back to Camp he goes that evening when we get back to camp we measure up the antlers that is a fine pair and you will see them in the museum of natural history in New York [Music] City in order to reach the habitat of the great one horn rhinoceros we traveled by boat up the gandak river we did not employ motor-driven craft all we had was Manpower and only one man at the that after a Day's Journey we camped and the following morning we encountered some elephants sent down to the bank of the river by His Highness the Maharaja of Napal on the backs of these great beasts we traveled over Hill Andale with our bag and baggage and late that evening we arrived once more on the banks of the gandak river to the sun setting across its ever moving Waters in a lovely stream early next morning our baggage was brought up from the boat and placed in Camp hot on the track trying to drive them out the tiger is probably the least concerned animal in the ring we're all Des desperately excited and now suddenly with a woof and a roar woo here he comes big tiger followed quickly by a second the ring is broken out comes the tiger here over the Nery goes into the jungle and disappears he's quickly followed by a second an enormous fellow great massive Limbs and in he goes following the other tiger for go the elephants with the shakaris on their backs hastening off to see in what direction the Tigers take they see them one of them at least going up on the bank on the corner of the screen we return to the ring pandemonium exists everybody is talking there's another tiger there and there he is right in the center of the screen now he's barely 30 ft from the camera and he's moving here comes an elephant to drive him out here you see the tiger looking out wondering what's going to happen next but his day has come watch the man on the right in the Hur he has a shot then he takes a second shot and then the ring converge in they go to the center everybody talking and wondering what has happened we want to see that tiger is it a big tiger is it a little tiger is it a tiger or is it a tigress everybody's asking questions the jungle people collect about and in they crowd everybody Dismounts and goes in on foot to see see what the prize looks like the first thing to do is to get the tiger out into the open so that we can get a picture of him a place is cleared a litter is made and a is brought into the daylight where you can see him to good Advantage the jungle people are crowding about only to delighted to assist in this affair another Tiger has gone to his doom and like life will be safer for them in the future congratulations are offered to the Sportsman who laid the tiger low we must now hurriedly get one of the elephants to load the tiger and carry him away a big fellow is brought in but he is very reluctant about carrying the load elephants do not like tigers when they're alive they don't even like them when they are dead and don't want to have anything to do with them you see how this elephant gets up and refuses to carry the tiger another elephant is then brought in but he likewise is very reluctant about sitting down and taking the load the Mout hits him on the head but an elephant's head is over a foot thick so it takes more than a little tap like that to give him a headache the tiger is soon loaded up and off we hasten in pursuit of those other two tiger that broke the ring and escaped to another portion of the [Music] Jungle a tiger never runs far even after such an experience as this he is a Fearless creature the two that broke the ring were located not far off and soon our 100 elephants were encircling them for a second time the ring spread to the right through a sea of tall neret grass and to the left against a dense patch of jungle where the animals were bound to retreat if disturb in the trees we had men and I also was up in the branches of a tree so as to get a better view in the ring slight diversion was caused at the start by the presence of a snake in the grass a large [Music] python the head Shar got it by the tail and pulled it out [Music] n [Music] la [Music] vultures were collecting they sensed food human vultures also were on hand but they had to work if they were going to get any food so we sent them to the Jungle to collect sticks and boughs branches in order that we might fashion a lean tool under which we could place the skin of our Rhino there are no pockets in this part of the world although one man had a wooden one in rather a curious position they worked with very primitive tools that curious sickle-shaped knife and Stakes sharpened to a point with the latter they dug holes in the ground and in the holes they put the uprights and then leaves and branches on top and finally a nice shelter was made at noon time everybody had to stop work and so we went with them to the Village to make their acquaintance there we found some of the villagers in Curious poses this one for instance standing on one leg we were introduced to some of the small children and we watched this small boy teaching his younger brother how to use these curious sickle-shaped knives then we met older members of the community [Music] couple of girls on the left and then the boys what fine upstanding fellows they are bright and cheerful and young girls again I must tell you that young girls in this part of the world marri very early the same way they do in India look at this smiling girl here look at that chubby baby and this one with a ring in her nose and a hoop in her neck and the boys here with their shiny faces covered with coconut oil to keep the Sun from burning them let us look at two of the younger ladies what cheerful faces they have and a young girl with a big future ahead of her [Music] news soon came in of rhino track seen on the sand a big three-toed Mark unmistakable off we went on foot elephants were sent but they took a different route and we established ourselves near an open patch of jungle one of the men in the jungle brush signal to me that he heard Rhino approaching Vernie got annoyed and threw a stick at him to tell him to be quiet otherwise he would frighten the game we did not wait long the next moment big Rhino trundled out of the Jungle like an Express train with a baby rhino behind I cranked the camera busily for such a sight had seldom been seen before and no camera had ever recorded it we sent Peters in immediately to see if they could not drive the Rhino out again at a more favorable point for to be photographed and sure enough out they came within barely 50 ft the camera a rhino is very blind and the Rhino fortunately did not see the camera or myself behind it I don't think I've ever seen such a gr test animal as that Rhino and as I cranked the camera I almost laughed to myself at the sight you will notice the enormously thick hide the great cracks in the armor plate the concertina effect around the neck and the huge batlike ears and the single horn on the nose shortly after this we came across tracks of another Rhino we followed him up and good shot from Vernie's rifle and he was laid out once again the tedious operation of measuring had to be gone through in order that the animal might be mounted in an absolutely natural and perfect position at the Museum of Natural History in New York look at that hide did you ever see anything so rough is discovered with lumps and bumps and cracks and crevices there is nothing smooth about it around the neck you will see that conatiner effect look at that enormous foot with the great big [Music] toes those three toes make an unmistakable Mark in the sand the Tusk with which he does so much damage the small eye the single horn on the nose no and the big batti here our Rhino is out in the sun we must turn him over roll him into the shade because our taxidermist is not ready to start skinning operations to turn a rhino over is no Child's Play but the natives help willingly for they realize that there's to be a banquet at the end of it after some effort he rolls over and now we must cover him up we must get branches and leaves so that the sun will not shine on him so that the jackals won't come after him and especially so that the vultures overhead will not seek their prayer [Music] and on the edge of the Jungle we saw a small somber deer come out and feeding as it went it a lovely creature he seemed to be quite unconscious of us we watched him feeding for a little time his lovely big ears then he seemed to feel a little uneasy and walked back into the thicket and we continued our way through some tall grass and then down into a very dark patch of jungle we heard noises ahead of us so we sent bothering ner up a tree to look out to see what it was that was responsible for those sounds up the tree he went just like a monkey these people live in the jungle and they're just as much at home in the trees as they are on the ground below then it didn't take him long to scale that sapling and then transferred himself to the trunk of the other tree and out upon a branch but the further extremity of which he stopped and he looked out amongst a hole in the Treetops he stepped back a few paces and looked again and there in an open grassy patch he saw the backs of elephants moving through the grass he hurriedly descended from his lofty perch and told us all about it in characteristic manner he pointed with his chin not with his arm we left one or two men up in trees to tell us if elephants passed by and as we went ahead we heard crashing in the branches and there we saw a cow elephant with her carves pushing them ahead and then others following evidently they sensed danger and were trying to get away before it was too late in an open place we came across this male elephant by himself a small tusker he seemed quite unconcerned he wasn't bothering about any members of his family he was wandering about by himself probably wondering what sort of life it was he was leading then came out a cow elephant she looked if she was going out shopping she was starting out and evidently going somewhere but then came the sensation out from the thicket came this tusker elephant towards us he evidently had a bad and evil disposition we could see it in his eye he kep came right up towards where the camera stood we began to get nervous we didn't want to shoot him Vernie you'll have to shoot look out and away he went just in time that was a lucky thing for us the next moment an elephant Came Crashing through the branches and one shot from Bernie laid him out and we came up to him one shot through the brain and he sat down just as if he had been alive first thing to do was to examine the tusks they were a fine pair and then his ears we wanted to see how old he was but you will notice that the ears are quite flat and have no turnover at the top he must be about 30 years old that fellow no more and who would have thought that such a benign looking elephant could have ever been a rogue elephant or had a bad disposition but yet we know that he had and the people were glad that we had shot him we looked at his foot five times twice the diameter of the foot gives the height of the animal at the shoulder the circumference in that case was 5 ft which gives us 10 ft when the elephant was standing the taxidermist soon arrived and with tape measure started to take measurements most important that the elephant should be measured carefully so that when he appeared in the museum he would be true to life when an elephant puts his foot down he means something and look at that taale what an interesting taale to have with those bristles at the end of it skinning operations were soon in full swing and the shigar carried it back to camp and we left them dancing they were glad that their rogue elephant had been killed and life in the jungle would now be secured for a Time [Music] a week later we found ourselves back in Civilization shipping our magnificent trophies to New York and preparing for further efforts [Music] the local taxi C or EA is not a comfortable vehicle to ride in they are used extensively by the Indian people if we wander about the streets we will see many amusing sites such as this for instance where a Young musician is pouring out his heart and soul soul to some ladies on the opposite side of the street in India we find many women wearing veils here is one dressed up in her long white garment we see them in the bazaars purchasing material we will also see them being carried along the streets in litters they travel sometimes in closed letters such as you see on the screen now not all women are in perder or veiled here is a pretty indian girl whom we are glad to look at and her small brother who is evidently a lover of dogs in the brass Bazar we will take a stroll and it's amusing to see the man switching away the flies from off his big brass jars whereas if we look at him close range we will see flies sited on his head and also on the faces of the boys round about [Music] him there are no free deliveries is here and if you buy a jar you must carry it home and if you don't like it you'll have to carry it back again you see everybody carrying bundles and under such conditions you would think traffic should be regulated here is a perspective applicant for a traffic cop I'm sure he would make an excellent one he [Music] up from the contemplation and enjoyment of such scenes let us go and see a NCH girl dancing NCH [Music] girls are well known to every traveler in India although I must admit but the dancing so far as it goes is rather disappointing nevertheless the orchestra is interesting especially the man with the drums which he plays with extraordinary [Music] [Music] Vigor these n girls carry all their money they own in the world on their backs in the form of jewelry she puts no money in the bank but invests it in ornaments which she wears in her dancing back once more now into the streets and we see men impersonating women and the laughter which they provoke on all sides is [Music] tremendous as usual we have the orchestra playing vigorously in the rear and frequently singing as they play [Music] let us now visit a still poorer quarter of the town and see the barber shops in full swing all along the streets you're apt to see Beggars of some sort or another and if they are not Beggars or people selling odds and ends they are holy men asking arms from the passer [Music] by India is is a land full of religion there are many sects and every 3 days one of which is devoted to some form of religious ceremony outside of Kolkata for instance are the Batu Caves and here members of the community repair once or twice a year to repent of their sins the most extraordinary very things take place and the individuals who are appointed to represent their Community inflict the most terrible tortures on themselves in order to atone for the sins of Those whom they represent here is a man who has starved himself for 3 months before attending the [Music] ceremony this man is dancing in circles round and round until he reaches the shrine a few days later one of the shakaris brought in a baby cheetle or spotted here to Camp to a lovely little animal and that reminded us that we must go out and get some photographs of them we mounted our elephants and with many men on foot we set out we employed the lame the Halt and the blind because it was difficult to get jungle people here in this part of the world at first we mounted the camera on the back of the elephant but unfortunately the only pictures we got were of the deer running by as we approached they were interesting however as studies in motion [Music] then comes a wild pig you see him bowling along like a ton of bricks what a fat fellow he is and here come some Neil Guy these are not of the dear family they are bines rather awkward [Music] fellows we then transferred the camera to the stump of a tree and covered it with leaves and branches and were more successful in our photographic efforts on one occasion a whole herd of cheetle came up towards the camera they approached very cautiously and then hearing the noise the were they suddenly stopped and up with their heads this was a strange sound they had never heard the like of it before and rather than run any risks they decided to go off and take another another direction away from the camera now instead of getting pictures of that kind let us try a water hole I know a little water hole far off in the jungle so let us mount a pad elephant or two and go off to this spot and see what luck we have on our way there we passed through some dense forest thickets and the Elephant had to clear a path in order that we might follow an elephant understands over 100 distinct words of command he is rather blind he cannot see very clearly and he depends largely upon the mahout on the top of his head to direct him if a tree is in the way the mahout tells him to bring his imposing personality to Bear upon it and you will watch the results if a log is in the way then the how tells him to lift up his feet when we got through this dense Thicket we found the little water hole that we were looking for and on the bank was a big crocodile signing himself but we shouted to drive him away cuz we wanted to get the spotted deer shortly after the camera was put up a Sounder of wild pigs came down to drink they were dirty fellows we were glad to see them go later on some jungle foul came these are the progenitors of all domesticated fowls and as such are extremely interesting at last the rustling in the grass proclaimed the spotted deer that we were hoping to get photographs of they came out from the jungle One By One The Hinds and the babies first they are very nervous they think a leopard may be lurking in the thicket ready to spring out upon them last of all comes the Stag himself the father of the family to take his drink eventually even he goes away and the only one left behind was a small and graceful hind the lovely shiny coat but she's very nervous and off she goes like a flesh within a few [Music] moments beneath my own tree stood the elephant with his trunk up in the air got wind of a tiger and I told the Mout to carry on back into the line off he went and none too soon for out came a tigress and stood quite unconcernedly under a patch of dense jungle they were not in the least bit alarmed probably a little annoyed at being disturbed a tusker in the ring was beating about and each time the tiger appeared up went the trunk of the elephant the elephant has a keen sense of smell and was quick to detect the presence of the Tiger in comes the ring drawing closer and closer the tiger is going to be doomed on this occasion the elephants will be standing so close that there will be no chance of Escape out in the grass another elephant is barging about in all the TSE patches so as to disturb the tiger if it is possibly in that [Music] area while I'm in the tree I again see a tiger come out showing signs of agitation by its quick movements in comes the ring closer and closer all the time up go the elephant's trunk and right ahead of me there's a tiger looking out of the Jungle snarling and making a demonstration I nod to the man in the howder alongside of me and he brings the ring out into the grass and draws it up into the position that I indicate he knows there's a tiger in that grass he's waving his rifle in the direction the mahout must take with his elephant the elephant smells the tiger and there he comes right between the eyes and wonderful shot as the tiger was claing the elephant's trunk made a bad gash but with those teeth and those claws the tiger can do a tremendous amount of damage on the unders surface of the poe it is soft and it is on those soft pads that the tiger steals stealthly about the jungle here comes the second tiger out [Music] the elephants are aware of it tiger snarling there and the Man in the hter sees it he has a shot and again pleas missed tiger comes on and G [Music] shoots the Tiger has breathed his last and the elephants crowd round to see what he looks like but the elephants don't like the tiger and again they hedge off to one side refusing to go near him watch them now how they object to going near the dead tiger in the grass up in my tree I take a final view of the scene enacted some of the Sportsman standing round admiring the kill he's a magnificent specimen in the trees the vultures are waiting I leave them there and get down from my own perch it's a hot day and I want to get some closeups of the Tiger on the ground what a wonderful animal that is a litter had to be made to carry him he weighed nearly 600 lb and it was all 20 men could do to lift him on the back of the elephant he measured 10 ft 2 in from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail the jungle people crowded around about delighted to help whenever it was possible for here the tiger is dead and life in the jungle will once more be safe for them and their animals until other Tigers come and take the place of those that have been shot [Music] we must now return to Camp we've been out on a long day shoot we have got three fine Tigers here is the prize and then back to camp we go the second tiger seen falling on another elephant and the people in the camp move off to one side as the elephant approaches bearing the results of the day [Music] sport the first thing to be done is to attend to the wounds of the elephants this elephant has been bitten in the tail by a tiger the wound has to be washed with perm magnate a potes so that it will not turn septic and the Elephant die the elephant stands or kneels down patiently three fine tigers and so our great adventure came to an end and we turned our faces homewards we carried with us some wonderful specimens of jungle animals but above all memories of jungle life in India that will remain with us all our lives [Music]