121 



CHAPTER II. 



THE CAPTIVES. 



As our sleeping-place was not above two hundred yards 

 from the corral, we were awakened frequently during the 

 night by the din of the multitude who were bivouacking 

 in the forest, by the merriment round the watch-fires, and 

 now and then by the shouts with which the guards re- 

 pulsed some sudden charge of the elephants in attempts 

 to force the stockade. But at daybreak, on going down 

 to the corral, we found all still and vigilant. The fires 

 were allowed to die out as the sun rose, and the watchers 

 who had been relieved were sleeping near the great fence, 

 the enclosure on all sides being surrounded by crowds of 

 men and boys with spears or white peeled wands about 

 ten feet long, whilst the elephants within were huddled 

 together in a compact group, no longer turbulent and 

 restless, but exhausted and calm, and utterly subdued by 

 apprehension and amazement at all that had been passing 

 around them. 



Nine only had been as yet entrapped,' of which three 



' In some of the elephant hunts con- which a portion only were taken out 



ducted in the southern provinces of for the public service, and the rest 



Ceylon by the earlier British Cover- shot, the motive being to rid the neigh- 



nors, as many as 170 and 200 elephants bourhood of them, and thus protect 



were secured in a single corral, of the crops from destruction. On the 



