480 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



supplied with blank ammunition. Near this fence the jungle 

 is cleared, so that at any point the elephants make for, they 

 are at once visible, and when they are seen approaching, 

 a rush of men occurs to the threatened locality with an 

 immense shouting and firing of matchlocks. This has the 

 effect of driving the herd back, and as it is at night that 

 these efforts are chiefly necessary, they entail much watchful- 

 ness and labour. In fact, at night the whole circle is, as 

 it were, a blaze, for each party has lighted a grand pile of 

 wood. These fires surround the elephants in a ring of light, 

 which they believe themselves powerless to break through, 

 especially as they are assailed with all the din of battle if 

 they approach too near, so that it is a sheer case of despera- 

 tion or gross carelessness, or a weak establishment, if they 

 succeed in getting out. From a neighbouring camp the scene 

 is exciting enough, for the hill-side resounds with shouting, 

 and the discharge of blank ammunition seems incessant, 

 partly from necessity, and partly from the inherent affection 

 an Asiatic has for noise. All this time the stockade is pro- 

 gressing, made of immense piles of wood, capable of standing 

 any charge, and enclosing a few hundred square yards of 

 ground. The elephant runs are clearly marked-out tracks, to 

 which they usually keep. The stockade is on one of them 

 with an open gate at one extremity, from which an immense 

 arm of piled logs stretches on either side, so that the rush 

 may be, once the arms are entered, into the single opening 

 that has been left. The first day after the stockade is finished 

 the driving commences. If fortune smiles, once the herd is 

 started by shouting and firing in their rear, they make a rush 

 for the stockade run and are enclosed without further trouble ; 

 if not, they require to be driven several times a service 

 often of difficulty and danger. When enclosed, the decoy 



