148 The Wild Elephant. 



shield the arm of its rider, and ward off the trunk of 

 the prisoner, who resisted the placing the rope round his 

 neck. This done, the nooses were removed from his 

 feet, and he was marched off to the river, in which he 

 and his companions were allowed to bathe ; a privilege 

 of which all availed themselves eagerly. Each was then 

 made fast to a tree in the forest, and keepers being 

 assigned to him, with a retinue of leaf-cutters, he was 

 plentifully supplied with his favourite food, and left to 

 the care and tuition of his new masters. 



Returning from a spectacle such as I have attempted 

 to describe, one cannot help feeling how immeasurably 

 it exceeds in interest those royal battues where timid 

 deer are driven in crowds to unresisting slaughter ; or 

 those vaunted " wild sports " the amusement of which 

 appears to be in proportion to the effusion of blood. 

 Here the only display of power was the imposition of 

 restraint ; and though considerable mortality often occurs 

 amongst the animals caught, the infliction of pain, so 

 far from being an incident of the operation, is cautiously 

 avoided, from its tendency to enrage, the policy of the 

 captor being to conciliate and soothe. The whole scene 

 exhibits the most marvellous example of the voluntary 

 alliance of animal sagacity and instinct in active co- 

 operation with human intelligence and courage ; and 

 nothing else in nature, not even the chase of the whale, 

 can afford so vivid an illustration of the sovereignty of 

 man over brute creation even when confronted with force 

 in its most stupendous embodiment. 



Of the two young elephants which were taken in the 



