l88 The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon. 



ticity of the hide threw him upon his head, and the 

 sudden contraction after the fall jerked his leg back to 

 its full length, 



After many vain but tremendous efforts to free him- 

 self, he turned his rage upon his pursuers and charged 

 every one right and left ; but he was safely tied, and 

 we took some little pleasure in teasing him. He had 

 no more chance than a fly in a spider's web. As he 

 charged in one direction several nooses were thrown 

 round his hind legs ; then his trunk was caught in a 

 slipknot, then his fore legs, then his neck, and the 

 ends of all these ropes being brought together and 

 hauled tight, he was effectually hobbled. 



This had taken some time to effect (about half an 

 hour), and we now commenced a species of harness to 

 enable us to drive him to the village. 



The first thing was to secure his trunk by tying it to 

 one of his fore legs ; this leg was then fastened with a 

 slack rope to one of his hind legs, which prevented him 

 from taking a longer stride than about two feet ; his 

 neck was then tied to his other fore leg, and two ropes 

 were made fast to both his fore and hind legs ; the ends 

 of these ropes being manned by thirty men. 



Having completed these arrangements, he was re- 

 leased from the ties which hobbled him, and we com- 

 menced the arduous task of driving him toward the 

 village, a distance of five miles. The only method of 

 getting him along was to keep two men to tease him in 

 front, by shouting and waving cloths before his face; 

 he immediately charged these fellows, who, of course, 

 ran in the right direction for the village ; and by this 

 repeated manoeuvre we reached the borders of the tank 

 by nightfall. We were still at least two miles from the 



