368 THE ELEPHANT. [Part VIII. 



their protection behind whicli to retreat. Apart from 

 the services which from their prodigious strength the 

 tame elephants are alone capable of rendering in drag- 

 ging out and securing the captives, it is perfectly 

 obvious that without their co-operation the utmost 

 prowess and dexterity of the hunters would not avail 

 them, to enter the corral unsupported, or to ensnare 

 and lead out a single captive. 



Of the two tiny elephants which were entrapped, 

 one was about ten months old, the other somewhat 

 more. The smallest had a httle bolt head covered 

 with woolly brown hair, and was the most amusing 

 and interesting miniatui'e imaginable. Both kept con- 

 stantly with the herd, trotting after them in every 

 charge ; when the others stood at rest they ran in and 

 out between the legs of the older ones ; not their own 

 mothers alone, but every female in the group, caressing 

 them in turn. 



The dam of the youngest was the second elephant 

 singled out by the noosers, and as she was dragged 

 along by the decoys, the httle creature kept by her side 

 tiU she was drawn close to the fatal tree. The men at 

 first were rather amused than otherwise by its anger ; 

 but they found that it wx)uld not permit them to place 

 the second noose upon its mother ; it ran between her 

 and them, it tried to seize the rope, it pushed them 

 and struck them with its httle trunk, till they were 

 forced to drive it back to the herd. It retreated slowly, 

 shouting all the way, and pausing at every step to look 

 back. It then attached itself to the largest female 

 remaining in the herd, and placed itself across her fore- 

 legs, whilst she hung down her trunk over its side and 

 soothed and caressed it. Here it contiiuied moanini? 

 and lamenting, till the noosers had left oil securing the 

 mother, when it instantly returned to her side ; but as 

 it became troublesome again, attacldng every one who 

 passed, it was at last secured by a rope to an adjoining 

 tree, to which the other young one was also tied up. 

 The second little one, equally with its playmate, exhi- 



