356 



THE ELEPHANT. 



[Part VIII. 



station?;, their fires were repleiiisliecl ; and all precautions 

 being thus taken, we returned to pass the night in our 

 bungalows by the river. 



As oiu" sleeping-place was not above two hundi^ed yards 

 from the corral, we were frequently awakened during the 

 early part of the night by the din of the multitude who 

 were bivouacking in the forest, by the merriment round 

 the watch-fires, and now and then by the shouts with 

 which the guards repulsed some sudden charge of the 

 elephants in attempts to force the stockade. But at day- 

 break, on going down to the corral, we found all still and 

 vio'ilant. The fires were allowed to die out as the sun 

 rose, and the watchers who had been reheved were sleep- 

 ing near the great fence, but the enclosure on all sides 

 was surrounded by crowds of men and boys "vvith spears 

 or white peeled wands about ten feet long, wliilst the 

 elephants Avithin were huddled together in a compact 

 group, no longer turbulent and restless, but exhausted 

 and calm, and utterly subdued by apprehension and 

 amazement, at all that had been passing around them. 



Nine only had been as yet entrapped ^, of wliich three 

 were very large, and two httle creatures but a few months 

 old. One of the larg;e ones was a " rog-ue," and beino; 

 unassociated with the rest of the herd, although per- 

 mitted to stand near them, he was not admitted to their 

 circle. 



Outside, preparations were making to conduct the 

 tame elephants into the corral, in order to secure the 

 captives. The nooses were in readiness ; and far 

 apart from all stood a party of the out-caste Eodiyas, 

 the only tribe who will touch a dead carcase, to whom. 



' In some of the elephant hunts 

 conducted in the southern provinces 

 of Ceylon by the earlier British 

 Governors, as many as 170 and 200 

 elephants have been secured in a 

 single eoiTal, of which a portion only 

 were taken out for the pu1)lic sem-ice, 

 and the rest shot, the aim being to rid 



the neighbourhood of them, and thus 

 protect the crops fi-om destruction. In 

 the present instance, the object being 

 to secure only as many as were re- 

 qiured for the Government stud, it 

 was not sought to entrap more than 

 could conveniently be attended to 

 and trained after capture. 



