ELEPHANT HUNTING, ETC. ^15 



are driven through a strong gateway, the gate being studded 

 on the inside with iron spikes. Passing through this gate- 

 way and a passage flanked by stout pahsades, they find 

 themselves in a small enclosure, where, after the tame ele- 

 phants have separated them one by one from the rest of 

 the herd, each individual has its hind legs securely tied 

 together, and a rope attached to its neck so that the animal 

 can be led out to the forest, where it is picketed and kept 

 until it is believed to be sufiiciently tamed, so that it can 

 safely be freed from restraint. It but rarely happens, how- 

 ever, that the largest and boldest male elephants in the herd 

 can be captured by this method. These are generally 

 secured by using female elephants as decoys, several of 

 the latter being ridden out to graze in the vicinity of the 

 bulls; the hunters riding on the decoys are so muffled up 

 as to be effectually concealed from the eyes of the suspicious 

 males. When the bulls have been enticed to close prox- 

 imity, their legs are hobbled and the attaching ropes wound 

 around the trunk of a tree.* 



The Siamese elephants are effectively protected from 

 the greed of ivory hunters by stringent restrictions, these 

 animals being regarded as too valuable to be placed at the 

 mercy of the hunter. All Siamese ivory, therefore, is 

 provided by the tusks of elephants which have died of old 

 age or disease, many falling victims to anthrax, and some 

 to the deadly poison of the hamadryad, or "king cobra."t 



The theft of an elephant would seem to be an exploit 

 requiring unusual opportunities on the part of the thief 

 for the removal and subsequent concealment of his unwieldy 

 prize. However, in the Kingdom of Siam, where the Gov- 

 ernment owns large herds of trained elephants, there has 



*Consul Henry D. Baker, of Bombay, India, "Report on Ivory and Elephants in India," 

 June 8, 1914. 



fCommunication of Dr. Charles S. Braddock, Jr. 



