3i5 



CHAP. IV. 



AN ELEPHANT CORRAL. 



So long as the elephants of Ceylon were merely 

 requked in small numbers for the pageantry of the 

 native princes, or the sacred processions of the Buddliist 

 temples, their capture was effected either by the instru- 

 mentality of female decoys, or by the artifices and 

 agihty of the individuals and castes who devoted 

 themselves to their pursuit and training. But after 

 the arrival of the European conquerors of the island, 

 and when it had become expedient to take advantage 

 of the strength and intelhgence of these creatures in 

 clearing forests and making roads and other works, 

 estabhshments were organised on a great scale by the 

 Portuguese and Dutch, and the supply of elephants 

 kept up by periochcal battues conducted at the cost 

 of the government, on a plan similar to that adopted 

 on the continent of India, when herds varying in num- 

 ber fi'om twenty to one hundred and upwards are 

 driven into concealed enclosures and secured. 



In both these processes, success is entirely dependent 

 on the skill with which the captors turn to advantage 

 the terror and inexperience of the wild elephant, since 

 all attempts would be futile to subdue or confine by 

 ordinary force an animal of such strength and sagacity.^ 



' Tlie device of taking them by 

 means of pitfalls, in addition to tlie 

 difficidty of provjding- against that 

 caution -vvith which the elephant 

 always reconnoitres suspicious or 

 insecm-e gi-ound, has the further 

 disadvantage of exposing him to 

 injmy from bruises and dislccitions 

 in his ffdl. Still it wms the mode of 

 captm-e employed by the Singhalese, 

 and so late as 1750 AVolf relates 

 that the native chiefs of the Wanuy, 

 when captiuino; elephants for the 

 Dutch, made "pits some fathoms deep 



in those places whither the clopliant 

 is wont to go in search of food, across 

 which were laid poles covered with 

 branches and baited with the food of 

 which he is fondest, making towards 

 which he finds himself taken un- 

 awai-es. Thereafter being subdued 

 by fright and exhaustion, he was 

 assisted to raise himself to the sur- 

 face by means of hurdles and eartli, 

 which he placed underfoot as they 

 were thrown dovm to him, till he was 

 enabled to step out on solid ground, 

 when the noosers and decovs were 



