HUNTING PARTIES. 



71 



establishment, as it is useless to catch more than the tame ones can deal 

 with efficiently. Not only have the wild ones to be led out of the jungles, 

 and loosed from picket and taken to drink and bathe daily, but each 

 requires an elephant's load of fodder, which the tame ones have to bring. 

 Consequently two wild ones to each tame one is the maximum that can be 

 managed. 



No. 



1 



1 



1 



1 



2 



15 



20 



20 



280 



1 

 1 



14 



1 



4 



1 



4 



Remarks. 



To collect establishment and conduct operations. 



To Hillmen. 



To furnish reports, accounts, &c. 



To go in advance and ascertain the position and num- 

 ber of herds, and to lead the party in surrounding a 

 herd. 



To surround and guard the herd, construct enclosure, 

 or kheddah, and drive the elephants in. 



To keep a check on the circle of coolies by going round 



at short intervals ; also to mount guard at the 

 i superintendent's camp. These men are furnished 



with guns. 

 To bind the wild elephants when impounded in the 



enclosure. 

 These men are furnished with guns and take post at any 



point where the elephants show a determination to 



force the cordon of coolies. 



The hunting party proceeds to the forest at the commencement of the 

 dry weather — usually in December — equipped for two or three months, 

 and the scouts having found a herd (a large one is always sought, as there 

 is no more trouble in catching it than a small one), the hunters are 

 halted within a mile, when half of them file off to the right and half 

 to the left. Along these diverging lines, which are to meet beyond the herd 

 and enclose it, two men are left at every fifty yards or so as a guard. The 

 surround when completed is often six or eight miles in circumference, as if 

 the ground is favourable the men are posted more widely apart than two at 

 fifty yards. It is a rule in elephant-catching that, this circle being once 

 completed, the herd can only escape through great carelessness on the part 

 of the guard. In a couple of hours the hunters run up a thin fence of split 

 bamboos all round the ring, and make rough shelters of boughs for themselves. 

 Their only duty then is to see that the elephants do not break out of the circle. 

 The animals are seldom seen during the day : at night large fires are kept up, 

 and if they approach, shouts and shots are used to drive them back. The 



