19 



CHAPTER IV. 



A MYSORE VILLAGE. 



THK VILLAGE OF MORLAT — ADVANTAGES OF NEIGHBOURHOOD FOR ELEPHANT-CATCHING — 

 ATTRACTIONS TO THE SPORTSMAN — THE VILLAGERS — THEIR TENURE OF LANDS — 

 EXPERIENCE IN HUNTING — NETTING GAME — CRUELTY OF THE MORLAYITES TO AN 

 ELEPHANT — THEIR HOUSES — FOOD — CLOTHING — TEMPERANCE — WOMEN — INFIDELITY 

 AMONGST — CASTE RULES ON THE SUBJECT — MATRIMONY IN MORLAY — THE VILLAGE 

 HEADMAN — TRAINING THE MORLAYITES — MY TRACKERS — REMARKS ON NATIVE 

 SHIKARIES. 



WHEN I commenced the work of elephant -catching I left Mysore for 

 the neighbourhood of a village called Morlay, in the Chamraj -Nuggar 

 talooh, in the south-eastern corner of Mysore, where I was forty-one miles 

 from the city of Mysore, and within eight of the foot of the Billiga-rungun 

 hills, where wild elephants abound. Morlay was an excellent place for my 

 object, as the elephants had been in the immemorial habit of visiting the 

 cultivation around it and adjacent villages at certain seasons, and of remain- 

 ing at such times in the jungles close at hand for weeks together. Thus 

 there was no necessity for following them into their hill fastnesses, where 

 much hardship would have had to be undergone by all engaged in their 

 pursuit. I lived in a civilised and accessible country, dotted about in 

 which were plenty of villages from which labourers could be obtained when 

 required. This relieved Government of the cost of keeping up a large 

 permanent establishment. 



Morlay is a charming place.""" The views of the Billiga-rungun hills 

 and the more distant Neilgherries, the splendid sheets of water close at 

 hand and the stretches of green rice-fields which they nourish, the groves 

 of date-trees and cocoanut-gardens fringing the borders of artificial lakes for 



* My home and headquarters in India are still there. During my absence in England a reduced 

 establishment is maintained for the up-keep of the kheddahs. 



