60 Wild Beasts 



as the situation is revealed, they become helpless ; their 

 resources of every kind are at an end. They stand still 

 in stupid despair, break out in transient and impotent fits 

 of rage, make pitiable demonstrations of attack upon points 

 where they could not be opposed for an instant if the 

 assault was made in earnest, and at length suffer them- 

 selves to be driven into an enclosure that would no more 

 hold them against their will than if it had been made of 

 gauze. 



An elephant corral or keddah is a stout stockade with 

 a shallow ditch dug around it inside, and slight fences of 

 brush diverging for some distance from its entrance. In- 

 credible as it may seem, single elephants frequently break 

 out of these places, but a herd hardly ever ; they have not 

 enterprise, pluck, and presence of mind enough to follow the 

 example when it is set them. Sometimes, as we have 

 seen, elephants may be fierce and determined ; despera- 

 tion has been shown to be among the possibilities of their 

 nature. But whereas an exceptional individual will, from 

 pure ferocity, brave wounds and death, nothing can so 

 move the race as to cause a display of ordinary self- 

 possession. It is quite true that whenever the imprisoned 

 band comes rushing down upon any part of the keddah, 

 they are met with fire-brands, the discharge of unshotted 

 guns, and an infernal clamor ; but if that be urged in ex- 

 planation of their hesitation, it may be replied that if the 

 whole herd had as much resolution as a single lion brought 

 to bay, they would sweep away everything before them 

 as the fallen leaves of their forests are swept away by a 

 gale. 



