DECOY ANIMALS 169 



decoy. Bullocks are there called "bogeys" for some 

 unexplained reason, and the decoy bogey is as necessary 

 at a station as a stationmaster. It leads each lot of 

 cattle into the small loading pen next the truck which 

 is to be filled, and having taken them in, backs out, 

 stern foremost, at the word of command, when down 

 goes the slip rail and the " lot " are driven on board. 



It may be, that the most intelligent and astonishing 

 of all animal collaborators with man in the work of 

 reducing their kind to be his servants, are now as rare 

 as the decoy-men's dogs in England. So little has been 

 heard of the old system lately that it is quite possible 

 that it is no longer in use in India, and that keddah 

 work has entirely taken its place. We allude to the 

 method of capturing single wild male elephants by 

 means of trained female decoys. The wild elephants 

 were not necessarily savage or outcasts, but were 

 usually pursued when away from the herd. The 

 decoys carried coils of rope attached to their necks. 

 Their owners rode them till near the scene of action, 

 and they were used whether by day or night. Night 

 was preferred, for the wild elephant was less suspicious, 

 and was easily found by the noise he made when feed- 

 ing, and by the sound of his striking the grass which 

 he pulled up against his forelegs to get rid of the earth 

 which clung to it. If discovered by day, the tame 

 animals slipped their riders at some distance, and then 

 fed up to the wild one until they could approach and 

 caress him. Then they " kept him in tow " while the 

 noosers slipped up and got the rope fastened to the 

 decoy's neck round the leg of the wild elephant, the 



