326 NATURAL HISTORY READER. 



tame one, perceiving the difficulty, returned from the herd, 

 confronted the struggling prisoner, pushed him shoulder 

 to shoulder and head to head, and forced him backward, 

 while at every step Siribeddi hauled in the slackened rope 

 till she brought him fairly up to the foot of the tree, where 

 he was made fast. A second noose was then passed over 

 the other hind leg and secured like the first, both logs 

 being afterward " hobbled " together by ropes. 



13. The second elephant singled out from the herd was 

 secured in the same manner as the first. It was a female. 

 When the noose was placed upon her forefoot she seized 

 it with her trunk and succeeded in carrying it to her 

 mouth, where she would speedily have severed it had not 

 a tame elephant interfered, and, placing his foot on the 

 rope, pressed it downward out of her jaws. It is strange 

 that in these encounters the wild elephants made no at- 

 tempt to attack or dislodge the mahouts who rode on the 

 tame ones. 



14. The conduct of the tame elephants during all these 

 proceedings was truly wonderful. They seemed to under- 

 stand every movement, both the object to be attained and 

 the means of accomplishing it. They showed the utmost 

 enjoyment in what was going on. Their caution was as 

 remarkable as their sagacity ; there was no hurrying, no 

 confusion, they never ran foul of the ropes, were never in 

 the way of those noosed, and, amid the most violent strug- 

 gles, when the tame ones had frequently to step across the 

 captives, they in no instance trampled on them, or occa- 

 sioned the slightest accident or annoyance. So far from 

 that, they saw for themselves a difficulty or a danger, and 

 tried at once to remove it. In tying up one of the larger 

 elephants, he contrived, before he could be hauled close up 

 to the tree, to walk once or twice round it, carrying the 

 rope with him ; the decoy, perceiving the advantage he 

 had thus gained over the nooser, walked up of her own 



