THE FATE OF THE ANNA Y PA YEE. 171 



all had been tried, but without effect. It 

 had been wounded several times and had now 

 become so wary that it lay concealed during 

 the day and made its attacks only on the 

 darkest nights. It was so cunning that imme- 

 diately after destroying the buffaloes in a village 

 it would leave that locality at once, and be next 

 heard of twenty or thirty miles away. Another 

 peculiarity about it was that it never travelled the 

 same path twice, as if it were aware that danger 

 was most likely to be met along those tracks. The 

 Government reward for its destruction was high, so 

 that many native shikarees from the neighbouring 

 districts had been attracted to Kollegal in hopes 

 of securing it ; but all their efforts had proved 

 fruitless. The elephant was seldom seen ; yet the 

 damage went on all the same. The Tamil inhabitants 

 of the district called it the Ahnay Payee (elephant 

 devil), and offered sacrifices of cocks and sheep to 

 appease its wrath. Captain Godfrey, the famous 

 elephant-killer from the Wynaad, spent a month 

 in search of the brute but never once caught sight 

 of it. Such was the animal Theobald was now 

 directed to destroy. 



His first measures were to collect all the native 

 shikarees of note and find out from them what had 

 been done and what plans were left untried. As 

 the beast showed such a strong antipathy to 

 buffaloes, it was thought it might be got at 

 by the hunters being concealed in a cattle-pen 

 among buffaloes. An open kraal was accordingly 

 selected, and a pit sunk in the centre. This 



