THE ELEPHANT. 39 



in the merghee castes. The long-tusked males are termed 

 Dauntelahs (or toothed males); the short-tusked ones, Mook- 

 nahs (or face- males). 



The animal figured at the commencement of the present 

 Number is a mooknah of the koomereah variety, and is hardly 

 to be distinguished by his head from a female of the same kind. 



Notwithstanding the difference in the appearance of a 

 mooknah and a dauntelah, yet if they are of the same caste, 

 size, and disposition, and free from any defect or blemish, 

 there is scarcely any difference in their price. 



The dauntelah is generally more daring and less manage- 

 able than the mooknah : for this reason, until the temper 

 and disposition of the two species are ascertained, Europeans 

 will prefer the mooknah; but the natives, who are fond of 

 show, generally take their chance and prefer the dauntelah, 

 which, when known to be of a mild and gentle disposition, 

 will always be preferred both by Europeans and natives. 



It is obvious that particulars similar to those above recited, 

 could only have been ascertained after a long and intimate 

 association of the elephant with the wants and luxuries of 

 civilized man : and as this stupendous quadruped is not, like 

 the ordinary domesticated animals, a born slave, but in every 

 instance must be withdrawn by fraud and force from its 

 native swamps and forests, our readers we are sure will ex- 

 cuse our digressing from the strictly descriptive account to 

 which we had proposed to limit ourselves in the present Num- 

 ber, in order to lay before them a brief sketch of the modes 

 in which the elephant is entrapped. 



The rudest of these contrivances, and probably the one 

 which was earliest adopted, is to dig a pit, and cover the 

 mouth over with a light wooden platform, concealed by 

 branches of trees, grass, and herbs of which the elephant is 

 fond. A trap of this kind must however have rarely proved 

 successful, in consequence of the intuitive caution which the 

 elephant uniformly manifests when treading upon insecure 

 and suspicious ground. In the event of one being thus cap- 

 tured, he is left in the pit until his violence subsides, and he 

 is rendered sufficiently tractable by starvation; and he is 

 liberated, by throwing in sheaves of jungle grass, which the 

 sagacious animal treading under foot, at length attains, as 

 they accumulate, an elevation which enables him to step out 

 of the pit. Thus subdued, the captive elephant is soon made 

 the instrument of enslaving his species ; ^and in this he ex- 

 ercises considerable ingenuity, courage, and perseverance. 



Mr. Corse observes*, "In the month of November, when the 

 * Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. 



