Dread of Fences. 65 



than lines of reeds loosely fastened together, they are 

 sufficient, with the presence of a single watcher, to pre- 

 vent the entrance of the elephants, who wait patiently till 

 the rice and coracan have been removed, and the watcher 

 withdrawn ; and, then finding gaps in the fence, they may 

 be seen gleaning among the leavings and the stubble ; 

 and they take their departure when these are exhausted, 

 apparently in the direction of some other chena, which 

 they have ascertained to be about to be cut. 



There is something still unexplained in the dread which 

 an elephant always exhibits on approaching a fence, and 

 the reluctance which he displays to face the slightest 

 artificial obstruction to his passage. In the area of the 

 fine old tank of Tissa-weva, close by Anarajapoora, the 

 natives cultivate grain, during the dry season, around the 

 margin where the ground has been left bare by the sub- 

 sidence of the water. These little patches of rice they 

 enclose witli small sticks an inch in diameter and five or 

 six feet in height, such as would scarcely serve to keep 

 out a wild hog if he attempted to force his way through. 

 Passages of from ten to twenty feet wide are left between 

 each field, to permit the wild elephants, which abound in 

 the vicinity, to make their nocturnal visits to the water 

 still remaining in the centre of the tank. Night after 

 night these open pathways are frequented by herds, but 

 the tempting corn is never touched, nor is a single fence 

 disturbed, although the merest movement of a trunk 

 would be sufficient to demolish the fragile obstruction. 

 Yet the same spots, the fences being left open as 

 soon as the grain has been cut and carried home, are 



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