352 



THE ELEPHAXT. 



[rART YIII. 



to be made, each person spoke to his neighbour in 

 wliispers, and such was the silence observed by the 

 muhitude of the watchers at their posts, that occasionally 

 we could hear the rusthno; of the branches as some of 

 the elephants stripped off thek leaves. 



Suddenly the signal was made, and the stillness of 

 the forest was broken by the shouts of the guard, the 

 rolhno; of the di'ums and tom-toms, and the discliaro;e 

 of muskets ; and beoiinninf; at the most distant side of 

 the area, the elephants were urged forward towards 

 the entrance into the corral. 



The watchers along the hne kept silence only tiU the 

 herd had passed them, and then joining the cry in their 

 rear they ch'ove them onward with redoubled shouts 

 and noises. The tumult increased as the terrified rout 

 drew near, swelling now on one side now on the other, 

 as the herd in their panic dashed from point to point in 

 their endeavom^s to force the hne, but were instantly 

 driven back by screams, guns, and drums. 



At length the breaking of the branches and the 

 crackhng of the brushwood announced their close ap- 

 proach, and the leader bm'sting from the jungle rushed 

 wildly forward to within twenty yards of the entrance 

 followed by the rest of the herd. Another moment 

 and they would have plunged into the open gate, when 

 suddenly they wheeled round, re-entered the jungle, 

 and in spite of the hunters resumed their origmal 

 position. The chief headman came forward and ac- 

 counted for the freak by saying that a wild pig\ an 

 animal wdiicli the elephants are said to dishke, had 

 started out of the cover and run across the leader, who 

 would otherwise have held on chrect for the corral ; and 

 he mtimated that as the herd was now in the liiG;hest 



* Fire, the sound of a horn, and 

 the gruntinfr of a boar are the three 

 things which the Greeks, in the 

 middle ages, believed the elephant 

 specially to dislike ; 



ITiip Zi. iTTOHrai Kai Kpibv Kipaa<p6povj 

 Kal rihv fioviwv ri/v fiotjv ri]V aOpoav. 



PmLE, Expositio de Elephante, 1. 177. 



