CHAP. I. DECOY ELEPHANTS. 27 



thing further is requisite, after these measures have 

 been taken, than to leave the captured elephant to ex- 

 pend his strength in vain efforts to regain his liberty. 

 Awakening, as it would seem, to a full sense of the 

 deceit that has been practised upon him, his fury be- 

 comes ungovernable : he destroys whatever may be in 

 his way; tears up the tufts of grass by the roots ; rends 

 from the tree such branches as he can reach ; and, 

 eventually, straining to throw down the tree itself by 

 his weight, or to pull it up with his trunk. In short, 

 his whole powers are in action on this occasion ; and it 

 is only on being completely overcome with fatigue, and 

 nearly dead from thirst, that he subsides into a sort of 

 tranquillity." * We may pass over much that has been 

 said on the preparatory measures adopted for recon- 

 ciling the captive to his new situation, where he re- 

 mains until he is sufficiently tamed to be led or driven 

 to the premises occupied by the tame elephants. The 

 same females and keepers who ensnared him are em- 

 ployed in this, preliminary process. At first, he will 

 only partake of water ; but the impulse of nature soon 

 operates, and he is thus induced to pick at tender 

 branches of plantain trees, sugar canes, &c. Thus sub- 

 dued, he is taken, under charge of other elephants,-^-ge- 

 nerally superior to himself in strength and bulk, to the 

 dwelling he is in future to occupy. Sometimes, how- 

 ever, when he is on his way, or, perhaps, on his legs 

 being liberated, he will make a last and desperate effort 

 to regain his liberty. When this happens, the con- 

 ducting elephants, extending to the length of their tow 

 ropes, urge forward as fast as may be practicable, while 

 one or more sturdy males goad him behind with their 

 tusks. This latter circumstance is not the least extra- 

 ordinary part of the narrative; for animals to be 

 driven into confinement by those of their own species 

 is unexampled, we believe, except in the case of the 

 elephant. 



(31.) Out of the many other curious anecdotes which 



* Williamson's Indian Sports. 



