68 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 
rage the elephants. If the beasts suddenly took 
it into their heads to charge the wall in a body, 
some of the posts might give way. I could hear 
them milling around inside the trap, bellowing and 
tearing up the jungle in an effort to find a way out. 
Through the remainder of the night the natives 
danced, ate and drank. Then, when dawn was 
beginning to light up the sky, I climbed to the plat- 
form again and looked down into the trap. There 
were sixty elephants! 
The men, armed with long, spiked poles, mounted 
to the running platform on the top of the posts, 
and the celebration was renewed. I stood there, 
breathless, wondering how many of them, in their 
excitement, would fall off the platform into the 
trap. But none did fall, and they fended off the 
charges of the elephants by sticking them in the 
heads and bodies with their spikes. 
Omar immediately sent a messenger to the Sultan 
with the good news, and the word passed from vil- 
lage to village. Natives poured in to inspect the 
catch, and the messenger returned with the news 
that the Sultan was on his way. It was a historic 
occasion in Trengganu. The Sultan had never been 
in the interior of his own country before, and never 
had there been such an elephant hunt in the state. 
Omar busied himself with the details of the royal 
reception while I cared for the catch. 
We cut holes in the rattan webbing between the 
posts and enticed the small elephants to come out. 
