40 



THE ELEPHANT. 



weather has become cool, and the swamps and marshes 

 formed by the rains in the five preceding months are lessened, 

 and some of them dried up, a number of people are employed 

 to go in quest of elephants. 



" At this season the males come from the recesses of the 

 forest into the borders and outskirts thereof, whence they 

 make nocturnal excursions into the plains in search of food, 

 and where they often destroy the labours of the husbandman, 

 by devouring and trampling down the rice, sugar-canes, &c. 

 that they meet with. A herd or drove of elephants, as far as 

 I can learn, has never been seen to leave the woods ; some of 

 the largest males often stray to a considerable distance, but 

 the young ones always remain in the forest under the protec- 

 tion of the Palmai (or leader of the herd), and of the larger 

 elephants. The Goondahs (or large males), come out singly 

 or in small parties, sometimes in the morning, but commonly 

 in the evening, and they continue to feed all night upon the 

 long grass that grows amidst the swamps and marshes, and 

 of which they are extremely fond. As often, however, as they 

 have an opportunity, they commit depredations on the rice- 

 fields, sugar-canes, and plantain-trees that are near, which 

 oblige the farmers to keep regular watch, under a small cover, 

 erected on the tops of a few long bamboos about fourteen feet 

 from the ground ; and this precaution is necessary to protect 

 them from the tigers, with which this province abounds. 

 From this lofty station the alarm is soon communicated from 

 one watchman to another, and to the neghbouring villages, 

 by means of a rattle, with which every one is provided. With 

 their shouts and cries and noise of the rattles, the elephants 

 are generally scared, and retire. It sometimes, however, hap- 

 pens that the males advance even to the villages, overturn 

 the houses, and kill those who unfortunately come in their 

 way, unless they have had time to light a number of fires ; — 

 this element seems to be the most dreaded by wild elephants, 

 and a few lighted wisps of straw or dried grass seldom fail to 

 stop their progress. 



" To secure one of the males, a very different method is em- 

 ployed from that which is taken to secure a herd : the former 

 is taken by Koomkees, (or female elephants trained for the 

 purpose), whereas the latter is driven into a strong inclosure 

 called a Keddah. As the hunters know the places where the 

 elephants come out to feed, they advance towards them in 

 the evening with four koomkees, which is the number of 

 which each hunting party consists ; when the nights are dark, 

 — and these are the most favourable nights for their purpose, 

 — the male elephants are discovered by the noise they make in 



