156 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Instances of re-taking elephants. 



It has been asserted, that the elephant's me- 

 mory is so retentive, that when once he has been 

 in bondage and afterwards' escaped, it is utterly 

 impracticable again to entrap him. But this 

 opinion has proved erroneous ; as will appear from 

 the following instances recorded in the Philoso^ 

 phical Transactions for 1799- 



" A female elephant was first taken in the year 

 1765, by Rajah Kishun Maunick, who, six months 

 afterward gave her to Abdoor Rezah, a man of 

 some rank in the district. In 1767, the rajah 

 sent a force against this Abdoor Rezah, for some 

 refractory conduct, who, in his retreat to the 

 hills, turned the afore-mentioned animal into the 

 woods, after having used her above two years as 

 a riding elephant. She was afterwards retaken ; 

 but broke loose in a stormy night, and again 

 escaped. In the year 1782, above ten years after 

 her second escape, she was driven by the ele- 

 phant-hunters belonging to Mr. Leeke, of Long- 

 ford-hall, in Shropshire, into the inclosure in 

 which the elephants are secured ; and the clay 

 following, when Mr. Leeke went to see the herd 

 that had been taken, this elephant was pointed 

 out to him by the hunters, who well recollected 

 her. They frequently called to her by name ; to 

 which she seemed to pay some attention, by im- 

 mediately looking towards them when it was ren 

 peated; nor did she appear like the wild ele- 

 phants, who were constantly running about th 





