No. 39.— 1889.] account of ceylon. 



251 



between the two tame elephants, just as in our country a 

 wild bull is led between oxen.* 



"We now hurry to the place where it is to be tamed, and 

 have the privilege (provided he is a tusker, otherwise it 

 is not allowed) to claim from the peasants in all the villages 

 passed through enough to eat and drink. Should they 

 refuse, the natives who ride on the tame elephants take the 

 wild one into the rice fields and thoroughly lay them waste. 

 Therefore, if the natives know that we are out elephant- 

 catching, they keep in all the villages some one to watch and 

 to look out for us twice a day, near some tall tree, such as 

 are in the villages, surrounded by stones, so that one can sit 

 under it : they call it " peschar^ tree," and offer to the demons 

 under it. 



When a peasant takes rice from the field, before carrying 

 it home and eating any of it, he boils a chattyful and offers 

 it to the demon, that he may again allow a good crop the 

 following year.f 



As soon as the elephant reaches the place where it is to be 

 tamed, the drivers stop at the peschar tree, with all three 

 elephants, until the billaher^ arrive. These are two dancers 

 in fancy dress with masks, and quite covered with bells. 

 They dance and caper about in front of the wild elephant, and 

 at last stand still and speak to it in their language, bidding it 

 not to try and make believe that it was wild ; instead of being 

 forced, as hitherto, to stay in the jungle in rain and wind, it 

 was now to stand in a house, and under a roof ; instead of 

 being compelled to go several miles for water to drink, it 

 would now be taken twice a day to the river to drink • 

 instead of not always finding food as heretofore, or not 

 enough, it would now have plenty to eat every day. The 



* For full particulars regarding the present mode of kraaling elephants 

 in Ceylon, see Tennent, The Wild Elephant, 1867. It may be noted that 

 elephants are nownoosed in the ordinary kraal enclosure without resorting- 

 to the narrow cul de sac. 



f ? Tamil, pis as u, demon. 



X Sin., akyala, or deviyanne-vi (C. A. S. Journal, No. 26, 1883, p. 55). 

 § ? Port. bailJiador, dancer. 



