Cuapr. V.] THE ELEPHANT. 
157 
Kwyox describes with circumstantiality the mode 
adopted, two centuries ago, by the servants of the King 
of Kandy to catch elephants for the royal stud. He 
says, “ After discovering the retreat of such as have 
tusks, unto these they drive some she elephants, which 
they bring with them for the purpose, which, when 
once the males have got a sight of, they will never 
leave, but follow them wheresoever they go; and the 
females are so used to it that they will do whatsoever, 
either by word or a beck, their keepers bid them. And 
so they delude them along through towns and coun- 
tries, and through the streets of the city, even to the 
very gates of the king’s palace, where sometimes they 
seize upon them by snares, and sometimes by driving 
them into a kind of pound, they catch them.” ! 
In Nepaul and Burmah, and throughout the Chin- 
Indian Peninsula, when in pursuit of single elephants, 
either rogues detached from the herd, or individuals 
caution with which the elephant 
is supposed to reconnoitre suspi- 
cious ground, it has the further 
disadvantage of exposing him to 
injury from bruises and disloca- 
tions inhis fall. Still it was the 
mode of capture employed by the 
Singhalese, and so late as 1750 
Worr relates that the native chiefs 
of the Wanny, when capturing ele- 
phants for the Dutch, made “ pits 
some fathoms deep in those places 
whither the elephant is wont to 
go in search of food, across which 
were laid poles covered with 
branches and baited with the food 
of which he is fondest, making to- 
wards which he finds himself taken 
unawares, Thereafter being sub- 
dued by fright and exhaustion, he 
was assisted to raise himself to the 
surface by means of hurdles and 
earth, which he placed underfoot 
as they were thrown down to him, 
till he was enabled to step out on 
solid ground, when the noosers and 
decoys were in readiness to tie him 
up to the nearest tree.”—See 
Wotrs Life and Adventures, p. 
152. Shakspeare appears to have 
been acquainted with the plan of 
taking elephants in pitfalls: Decius, 
encouraging the conspirators, re- 
minds them of Cesar’s taste for 
anecdotes of animals, by which he 
would undertake to lure him to his 
fate: 
“ For he loves to hear 
That unicorns may be betrayed with trees, 
And bears with glasses; elephants with 
holes.” 
JoLivs Czsar, Act ii. Scene I. 
' Kyox’s Historical Relation of 
Ceylon, A.D. 1681, part i. ch. vi. 
p. 21. 
