Kondawataweny. 181 



him, very few would have sufficient courage and 

 strength to hold him, unless slipped two brace at a 

 time, which would immediately spoil the sport. A 

 brace of grayhouuds to one buck is fair play, and a 

 good strong horse will generally keep them in view. 

 In two weeks' coursing in the Park we killed seventeen 

 deer with three grayhouuds ; at the expiration of which 

 time the dogs were so footsore and wounded by the 

 hard, burnt stubble of the old grass that they were 

 obliged to be sent home. 



When the grayhounds had left, I turned my attention 

 to elephants. There were very few at this season in 

 the Park, and I therefore left this part of the country, 

 which was dried up, and proceeded to Kondawataweny, 

 in the direction of Batticaloa. Kondawataweny is a 

 small village, inhabited by Moormen, situated on the 

 edge of a large lake or tank. Upon arrival, I found 

 that the neighborhood was alive with game of all kinds, 

 and the Moormen were excellent hands at elephants. 

 There was accordingly no difficulty in procuring good 

 gun-bearers and trackers, and at 4 p.m. of the day of 

 our arrival we started to make a circuit of the tank in 

 quest of elephants. At about 5 p.m. we observed 

 several tank rogues scattered in various directions 

 around the tank ; one of these fellows, whose close ac- 

 quaintance I made with the telescope, I prophesied 

 would show some fight before we owned his tail. This 

 elephant was standing some distance in the water, feed- 

 ing and bathing. There were two elephants close to 

 the water's edge between him and us, and we deter- 

 mined to have a shot at them en passant, and then try 

 to bag the big fellow. 



Although we stalked very cautiously along the edge 



16 



