344 THE ELErHA^s'T. [rARx VIII. 



the Avater. The funnel-shaped outlet is usually dis- 

 pensed with, as the animals are hable to bruise and 

 injure themselves against the narrow stockade, and 

 should one of them die in it, as is too often the case in 

 the midst of the struggle, the difficulty of removing so 

 great a carcase is extreme. The noosing and secu- 

 ring them, therefore, takes place in Ceylon witliin the 

 area of the first enclosm-e into which they enter, and 

 the dexterity and daring displayed in this portion of 

 the work far surpasses that of merely attaching the rope 

 tlu^ough the openings of the pahng, as in an Indian 

 keddah. 



One result of this change in the system is manifested 

 in the increased proportion of healthy elephants which 

 are eventually secured and trained out of the number 

 originally enclosed. The reason of this is obvious : 

 under the old arrangements, months were consumed in 

 the preparatory steps of surrounding and driving in the 

 herds, which at last arrived so wasted by excitement and 

 exhausted by privation that numbers died "vvithin the 

 corral itself, and still more died during the process of 

 training. But in later years the labour of months being 

 reduced to weeks, the elephants are driven in fresh and 

 fuU of \TLgour, so that comparatively few are lost either 

 in the enclosure or the stables. A conception of the 

 whole operation from commencement to end will be 

 best conveyed by describing the progress of an elephant 

 corral as I witnessed it in 1847 in the great forest on 

 the banks of the Alligator Eiver, the Kimbul-oya, in 

 the district of Kornegalle, about thirty miles north-west of 

 Kandy. 



Kornegalle, or Kiuunai-galle, was one of the ancient 

 capitals of the island, and the residence of its kings 

 from A.D. 1319 to 1347.^ The dwelhng-house of the 

 principal civil officer in charge of the district now oc- 

 cupies the site of the former palace, and the ground 



* See ante, Vol. I. Pt. III. cli. xii. p. 41o. 



