Young Elephants. 137 



eye in watching the shghtest movement of the elephant, 

 and great expertness in flinging the noose over its foot 

 and attaching it firmly before the animal could tear it off 

 with its trunk ; but in all this they had the cover of the 

 decoys to conceal them ; and their shelter behind which 

 to retreat. Apart from the services which, from their 

 prodigious strength, the tame elephants alone are capable 

 of rendering, in dragging out and securing the captives, 

 it is perfectly obvious that without their co-operation the 

 utmost prowess and dexterity of the hunters would not 

 avail nor embolden them, unsupported, to enter the corral 

 and ensnare and lead out a single captive. 



Of the two tiny elephants which were entrapped, one 

 was about ten months old, the other somewhat more. 

 The smaller one had a little bolt head covered Avith 

 woolly brown hair,- and was the most amusing and interest- 

 ing miniature imaginable. Both kept constantly with the 

 herd, trotting after them in every charge ; when the 

 others stood at rest they ran in and out between the legs 

 of the older ones ; and not their own mothers alone, but 

 every female in the group, caressed them in turn. 



The dam of the youngest was the second elephant 

 singled out by the noosers, and as she was dragged along 

 by the decoys, the little creature kept by her side till she 

 was drav/n close to the fatal tree. The men at first were 

 rather amused than otherwise by its anger ; but they 

 found that it would not permit them to place the second 

 noose upon its mother ; it ran between her and them, it 

 tried to seize the rope, it pushed them and struck them 

 with its little trunk, till they were forced to drive it back 



