116 THE ELEPHANT OF INDIA. 



animal to fall and become a captive. He is 

 afterwards led to his picket, sometimes with the 

 utmost difficulty and danger, but is almost always 

 at last overcome, temporary strangulation being 

 again resorted to. 



They are also taken in pitfalls, made soft at 

 the bottom, in which they are allowed to remain, 

 and starved into subjection. When sufficiently 

 subdued to come out, they are relieved by the pit 

 being gradually filled up, on which the animal, as 

 if aware of the object, raises his feet, preventing 

 himself from being buried, and patiently waits 

 until he can step out. This method, however, 

 is the most disliked, for the prodigious weight 

 of the animal falling, often maims or disfigures 

 him externally, or gives inward bruises which he 

 feels when afterwards put to hard work.* 



Among the ancients, Elephants became known, 

 and were used in the wars of the Greeks and 

 Romans ; they were also often exhibited at their 

 public shows and triumphs, and at their contests 

 of wild animals. They were most probably pro- 

 cured both from India and Africa, as the distinc- 

 tive character, in the form of the head and size of 

 the ears, is plainly to be traced on some of the 

 representations of ancient sculpture. The natives 



"* Williamson's Oriental Field Sports, i. p. 147. 



