VOL. XXIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. tJ4 1 



Account of the taking and taming of Elephants * in Ceylon. By Mr. Strachan, 

 a Physician, tvho lived 17 Years there. N° 277, p. 1051. Foi. X.XlII.-\- 



All the natives within 20 miles of the sea-coast between Matura and Ne- 

 gumbo, are subject to the Dutch ; when therefore orders are given by the East 

 India Company to hunt the elephants, they choose a convenient place for a 

 warren or park, which is broad at the entrance, and within so narrow, that an 

 elephant cannot turn about, yet long enough for 20 to stand one behind another. 

 This being done, the inhabitants surround the woods, where the elephants re- 

 sort, for about 6o English miles in circuit. At first each man stands from the 

 other at the distance of about 5 poles, or 25 yards, and kindles a fire in 

 the intermediate space ; then by shouting, beating of drums, and sounding of 

 horns, they make the elephants retire towards the park, till the circumference 

 become so small, that they stand close by each other. The elephants, when 

 they find themselves enclosed within the park, make the more resistance, and 

 some of them turn on the men ; but posts are ready standing between them and 

 the elephants, and long stakes lying on the ground ; so that they have only to 

 lift these stakes, and make their ends fast to the posts, and thus the elephants 

 are enclosed. Then by following the elephants, and casting fire-brands, they 

 chase them still farther towards the end of the park, and close up the passage 

 behind them, with stakes placed across the posts. There are several sorts of 

 elephants, some a great deal higher before than behind, and many who never 

 have the two long teeth ; others are of a more savage nature, known by their 

 fierce looks , and these are of no service, even if kept for 10 years, but are 

 used by the king of Candy for punishing transgressors, for they kill all persons 

 that come within their reach. Such elephants being among the others in the 

 fore-mentioned park, are kept out of the narrow entrance by throwing fire- 

 brands at them when they draw near it, and by endeavouring to kill them with 

 guns, and cutting off their trunks, by which they take all their food ; and thus, 

 they perish for hunger when they escape ; for the natives, being very swift, come 

 very near them with their swords. When all the choice of the elephants have 



* For more particulars respecting the methods employed for taking and training wild elephants, 

 the reader is referred to Mr. Corse's paper, inserted in the third volume of the Asiatic Researches, 

 and to Percival's History of the Island of Ceylon. 



\ This vol. is dedicated for the first time to Isaac Newton, Esq. (afterwards Sir Isaac Newton) and 

 where he is first mentioned as the president of the Royal Society. He was elected a member Jan. 

 II, l6'71-2; and it is a curious fact that, by an order of council, Jan. 28, 1674-5, he was excused 

 from making the usual weekly payments (one shilling per week) on account of his low circumstances, 

 as he represented. 



VOL. IV. 4 N 



