ELEPHANTS 297 



used as executioners. No particular elephants were 

 reserved for the purpose. The condemned were made 

 over to any of the elephants that happened to be in 

 attendance. The severity of the punishment was 

 adapted to the offence. If merely death was adjudged, 

 the criminal was laid on the ground and the elephant 

 with his forefoot crushed in his head or his chest, 

 according as the Emperor directed. Death must have 

 been instantaneous, but the sight must have been 

 very sickening. If to death torture was to be added, 

 then the elephant, guided by his mahowt, broke only 

 the bones of the limbs of the condemned man in 

 succession, and now, incapable of movement, he was 

 left, while life continued, to linger in agony. These 

 executions were frequently performed in the palace 

 and before the Emperor himself, his nobles and 

 courtiers, and the crowds of spectators. 



Terry mentions a case where the ordinary mode of 

 execution was varied. A man had been convicted of 

 killing his own mother. For such a crime the Emperor 

 considered that a punishment more terrible than usual 

 should be inflicted. The man, by the Emperor's direction, 

 was fastened by a long chain to the hind leg of the 

 elephant, and so dragged along the road, as the Emperor 

 set out on his march to Mando. Terry describes seeing 

 the body in the course of the third march. There was 

 then, he says, little left of it but the skeleton ; almost 

 all the flesh had been torn off as the body had been 

 dragged along over the rough surface of the road. 



The male elephants occasionally become savage, or as 

 it is termed, " must." When in this state they are more 



