54 NIGHT SCENE. 



rice-fields, unbroken by fences, trees stood here and there, in which nestled 

 the watchers' platforms. The smoke of fires near each showed that the men 

 were cooking their evening meal ; and when darkness came on, the lights 

 dotted over the plain both at the foot of, and on the platforms up in, the 

 trees, with the voices of the watchers, made the scene a cheerful one. 



I had just finished dinner, and was enjoying a smoke before the blazing 

 camp-fire, which lit to their topmost branches a pair of magnificent tamarind- 

 trees under which my tent was pitched, when I heard a distant shout of 

 " anay " (elephants). At once lights began to flit over the plain, moving 

 towards one point ; tom-toms were beaten, and rattles, made from split bam- 

 boos, sounded. An elephant trumpeted shrilly, the men yelled in defiance, till 

 the intruders retreated to the jungle. The cover bordering the cultivation 

 was so dense as to afford secure shelter to elephants close at hand even 

 during the day. After some little time, when the tom-toming and noise had 

 ceased, a similar commotion took place at another point ; again the Will-o'- 

 the-wisp lights moved forward with a repetition of the shouting and trum- 

 peting. The villagers who were keeping up my camp-fire told me it was 

 only on occasional nights that the elephants visited the cultivation. The 

 watchers were evidently in for it now, and they became thoroughly alert at 

 all points. 



Once the elephants came within 200 yards of my camp, and long after 

 I went to bed I heard the shouting and rattling of the watchers. These men 

 were Sh51agas from the hills ; they were hired annually for a month or two 

 at a fixed payment in grain for watching their crops by the low-country 

 cultivators, who are themselves less able to stand the exposure in a rice-flat, 

 and less bold in interfering with the elephants. The watchers provide 

 themselves with torches of light split bamboos in bundles about eight feet 

 long and eight inches in diameter. These are lighted at one end when 

 required, and make a famous blaze. Armed with them the men sally forth 

 to the spot where the elephants are feeding. Some carry the torches, the 

 others precede them, so as to have the light behind them. The elephants 

 can be seen in open ground at 1 yards, should they wait to let the lights 

 get so close. Sometimes troublesome rogues get beyond caring for this, 

 though the men are very bold and approach to within 40 or 50 yards. 

 Natives have frequently told me of particular elephants letting them get to 

 within a few yards, and then putting their trunks into their mouths, and, 

 withdrawing water, squirting it at the lights ! I need hardly say the latter 

 part of the statement is entirely imaginary ; the idea, doubtless, arises from 

 the attitude elephants often assume when in uncertainty or perplexity, put- 

 ting the trunk into the mouth, and holding the tip gently between the lips. 



