THE KING'S MAHOUT 19 



Elephant catching in Siam differs quite mate- 

 rially in procedure and in difficulties from catch- 

 ing elephants in India, where also its economical 

 value is appreciated. The Indian Government 

 maintains an official department, with men well 

 paid to study the ways of elephants and the best 

 method of catching and subsequently training 

 them ; which means training schools scattered over 

 the country. In India no systematic attempt is 

 made to consolidate two or more wild herds, but 

 when the scouts have discovered one it is stealthily 

 surrounded, and held together by a ring of men, 

 two about every forty feet, who keep the elephants 

 intact, as well as in control, by days of exploding 

 guns, and nights of crashing gongs and blazing 

 fires. Meanwhile a log keddah (corral) is build- 

 ing close at hand with all the speed possible to be 

 got out of several hundred natives by a terribly 

 earnest white headman who sleeps neither day nor 

 night. In fact no one sleeps much in the few 

 anxious days between surrounding the herd and 

 constructing the corral. From two to four days 

 are required to build the keddah, which when com- 

 pleted is an eight to ten foot high stockade formed 

 of good-sized logs, one end planted firmly in the 

 ground, and the whole securely bound together by 

 rattan, thus enclosing about an acre of partially 

 cleared jungle, with the big trees left standing. 



