Period of the year. 1 1 1 



watch-fires and watchers, and conducting all the labo- 

 rious operations of the capture. Since the abolition of 

 raja-kariya, however, no difficulty has been found in 

 obtaining the voluntary co-operation of the natives on 

 these exciting occasions. The Government defrays the 

 expense of that portion of the preparations which in- 

 volves actual cost, such as the skilled labour expended 

 in the erection of the corral and its appurtenances, 

 and the providing of spears, ropes, arms, flutes, drums, 

 gunpowder, and other necessaries for the occasion. 



The period of the year selected is that which least 

 interferes with the cultivation of the rice-lands (in the 

 interval between seed time and harvest), and the people 

 themselves, in addition to the enjoyment of the sport, 

 have a personal interest in reducing the number of ele- 

 phants, which inflict serious injury on their gardens and 

 growing crops. For a similar reason the priests en- 

 courage the practice, because the elephants destroy 

 their sacred Bo-trees, of the leaves of which they are 

 passionately fond ; besides which it promotes the faci- 

 lity for obtaining elephants for the processions of the 

 temples : and the Rate-mahat-meyas and headmen have 

 a pride in exhibiting the number of retainers who 

 follow them to the field, and the performances of their 

 tame elephants which they lend for tlie business of 

 the corral. Thus vast numbers of the peasantry are 

 voluntarily occupied for many weeks in putting up 

 the stockades, cutting paths through the jungle, and 

 relieving the beaters engaged in surrounding and driving 

 in the elephants. 



