134 ^^^^ Wild Elephant. 



remarkable as their sagacity ; there was no hurrying, no 

 confusion, they never ran foul of the ropes, were never in 

 the way of the animals already noosed ; and amidst the 

 most violent struggles, when the tame ones had frequently 

 to step across the captives, they in no instance trampled 

 on them, or occasioned the slightest accident or annoy- 

 ance. So far from this, they saw intuitively a difficulty 

 or a danger, and addressed themselves unbidden to 

 remove it. In tying up one of the larger elephants, he 

 contrived before he could be hauled close up to the tree, 

 to walk once or twice round it, carrying the rope with 

 him ; the decoy, perceiving the advantage he had thus 

 gained over the nooser, walked up of her own accord, 

 and pushed him backwards with her head, till she made 

 him unwind himself again ; upon which the rope was 

 hauled tight and made fast. More than once, when a 

 wild one was extending his trunk, and would have inter- 

 cepted the rope about to be placed over his leg, Siribeddi, 

 by a sudden motion of her own trunk, pushed his aside, 

 and prevented him ; and on one occasion, when succes- 

 sive eftbrts had failed to put the noose over the fore-leg of 

 an elephant which was already secured by one foot, but 

 which wisely put the other to the ground as often as it 

 was attempted to pass the noose under it, I saw the 

 decoy watch her opportunity, and when his foot was again 

 raised, suddenly push in her own leg beneath it, and 

 hold it up till the noose was attached and drawn tight. 



One could almost fancy there was a display of dry 

 humour in the manner in which the decoys thus played 

 with the fears of the wild herd, and made light of their 



