450 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1790. 



Chittigong, being then on a visit at Comillah, accompanied me and several others, 

 to see a herd of elephants which had been lately taken. Our visitors then pro- 

 posed a trial being made, of tying the wild elephants immediately, in the keddah, 

 in the manner practised at Chittigong, instead of waiting till they were enticed, 

 one after another, into the narrow outlet, there to be secured, and led out in the 

 usual manner*. This mode they recommended so earnestly, from a conviction of 

 its superior utility-}-, that Mr. John Buller, to whom the keddah belonged, as- 

 sented to the trial being made, and gave orders for the trained females, and proper 

 assistants, to go directly within the inclosure. Having but few trained females 

 present, it was judged advisable to send in a fine male elephant, taken many years 

 before, and thoroughly broke in, to assist them, as well as to keep the herd in awe. 

 He had no sooner entered the inclosure, and been brought near the herd, than, 

 discovering one of the females to be in heat, impelled by desire, and eager to cover 

 her, he dashed through the herd, regardless of the orders and severe discipline of 

 the driver, and had nearly accomplished his purpose. The driver, being alarmed 

 for his own safety, exerted in vain all his strength, to turn him, and bring him 

 from among the wild elephants; but the drivers of the trained females, coming 

 speedily to his assistance, soon surrounded this furious animal, and separated him 

 from the herd. In resentment however of his disappointment, he attacked a small 

 koomkee, with such violence as completely overturned her and her rider; and had 

 he not been of a particular species, called mucknah, which have only small tusks, 

 he most probably would have transfixed, and killed her on the spot: fortunately, 

 neither she nor her driver received any considerable hurt. This accident prevented 

 the trial being then made, to tie the wild elephants in the manner proposed. 



Reflecting on the disobedience shown by an elephant remarkably docile, and 

 which had been domesticated for many years, when his passions were excited, and 

 recollecting also, that a wild elephant had covered a female, in Feb. 1778, before 

 many spectators, just after the herd had been secured in the inclosure, I was as- 

 sured in my own mind, that it was not from any sense of modesty, either wild or 

 tame elephants did not gratify their passions in public; but no opportunity offered 

 of prosecuting this inquiry, till 1792. Having then taken on myself the manage- 

 ment of the elephant hunters, a very fine male was caught in Nov.: he was both 



* Vide Asiatic Researches, vol. 3, article, " Method of catching wild Elephants ;" where this pro- 

 cess is particularly described. + Though fully convinced of this, I could not bring the hunters to 



adopt the Chittigong method, till the year 1794. After this, during the last 3 years I remained at 

 Tiperah, I did not lose 1 elephant in 20; whereas, by the former method, of tying them in the roomee, 

 near one-third of those taken died in less than a year, in consequence of the hurts they received from 

 their violent efforts to get free, before they could be properly secured. The natives of Tiperah, and in- 

 deed of most parts of India, are extremely attached to old customs j and it was with the utmost diffi- 

 culty I prevailed on the hunters to deviate from the practice of their ancestors, though the method 

 recommended was followed at Silhet, as well as at Chittigong. The method was, simply to sunound a 

 herd, in the first convenient place, with a ditch and palisade j and when this was finished, to send in 

 the koomkees, and proper persons to tie the wild elephants on the spot, and then conduct them, one by 

 one, through an opening in the palisade, from the keddah, as soon as they were tied. — Orig. 



