, :ll CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



liivitiii" clnim-i and playing di.-conlant instruments, so bewilder the poor animals, that they allow 

 themselves to be insensibly driven, by some thousands more Indians, into the narrow part of the 

 iiirlc.suiv, into which they are decoyed by tame female elephants, trained to this service. At the 

 extreme end of the large area is a small inclosure, very strongly fenced in, and guarded on all sides, 

 into which the elephants pass by a long narrow defile. As soon as one enters the strait, a strong bar 

 is thrown across the passage from behind. He now finds himself separated from his neighbours, and 

 goaded on all sides by huntsmen, who are placed along this passage, till he reaches the smaller area, 

 where two tame female elephants are stationed, who immediately commence to discipline him with 

 their trunks, till he is reduced to obedience, and Buffers himself to be conducted to a tree, to which he 

 is bound by the leg, with stout thongs of untanned elk, or buck-skin. The tame elephants are again 

 conducted to the inclosure, where the same operation is performed on the others, till all are subdued. 

 Thev are kept bound to trees for several days, and a certain number of attendants left with each 

 animal to supply him with food, by little and little, till he is brought by degrees to be sensible of kind- 

 ness and caresses, and thus allows himself to be conducted to the stable. So docile and susceptible of 

 domestication is the elephant, that, in a general way, fourteen days are sufficient to reduce the animals 

 to perfect obedience. During this time they are fed daily with cocoa-nut leaves, of which they are 

 excessively fond, and are conducted to the water by the tame females. In a short time the elephant 

 becomes accustomed to the voice of his keeper, and at last quietly resigns his freedom and great 

 energies to the dominion of man. 



After detailing the preliminary proceedings of the native hunters, Sir E. Tennent to whom we 

 referred, page 191, and to whose graphic work on Ceylon we are indebted for many new and 

 interesting particulars about the elephant * proceeds as follows : 



" Two months had been spent in these preparations, and they had been thus far completed, on the 

 clay when we arrived and took our places on the stage erected for us, overlooking the entrance to the 

 corral. Close beneath us, a group of tame elephants, sent by the temples and the chiefs to assist in secur- 

 ing the wild ones, were picketed in the shade, and lazily fanning themselves with leaves. Three distinct 

 herds, whose united numbers were variously represented at from forty to fifty elephants, were inclosed, 

 and were at that moment concealed in the jungle within a short distance of the stockade. Not a sound 

 was permitted to be made each person spoke to his neighbour in whispers and such was the silence 

 observed by the multitude of the watchers at their posts, that occasionally we could hear the rustling 

 r>f the branches as some of the elephants stripped off their leaves. 



" Suddenly, the signal was made, and the stillness of the forest was broken by the shouts of the 

 guard, the rolling of the drums and tomtoms, and the discharge of muskets ; and, beginning at the 

 nio.-st distant side of the area, the elephants were urged forwards towards the entrance into the corral. 



"The watchers along the line kept silence only until the herd had passed them, and then, joining 

 the cry in their rear, they drove them onward with redoubled shouts and noises. The tumult increased 

 as the terrified rout drew near, swelling now on one side, now on the other, as the herd, in their panic, 

 dashed from point to point in their endeavours to force the line, but were instantly driven back by 

 screams, guns, and drums. 



"At length, the breaking of the branches and the crackling of the brushwood announced their 

 close approach ; and the leader, bursting from the jungle, rushed wildly forward to within twenty 

 yards of the entrance, followed by the rest of the herd. Another moment, and they would have 

 plunged into the open gate, when suddenly they wheeled round, re-entered the jungle, and, in spite of 

 the hunters, resumed their original position. The chief herd-man came forward, and accounted for the 

 freak by saying that a wild pig an animal which the elephants are said to dislike had started out of 

 the cover, and had run across the leader, who would otherwise have made direct for the corral^ and he 

 intimated, that as the herd was now in the highest state of excitement and it was at all times much 

 in' ire diflicult to effect a successful capture by daylight than by night, when the hunters' fires and the 

 tlaml.eaiix a ct with double effect it was the wish of the hunters to defer their final effort till the 

 evening, when the darkness would lend a ]>owerful aid to their exertions. 



"After sunset the scene exhibited was of extraordinary interest. The low fires, which had appa- 

 rently only smouldered in the sunlight, assumed their ruddy glow amidst the darkness, and threw their 

 Ceylon. By Sir James Emtreon Tennent, K.C.S., LL.D., &c. Longman and Co. S 



