NO. 49.— 1898.] THE CEYLON ELEPHANT. 



189 



elephant is tied to two hunting elephants and brought to the 

 stalls and tamed. These nooses are made of strips of deer 

 hide, which being twisted when damp and soft are found to 

 become afterwards very strong and almost unbreakable. But 

 in ancient times even in the Company's dominion there was 

 another way of catching elephants, viz., by pits expressly 

 dug for the purpose and carefully covered with thin sticks, 

 leaves, and sand, in consequence of which the elephants can- 

 not be aware of these pits when they are quietly driven to 

 them until they fall into them. They are left in there some 

 days until they are (reduced to submission, through hunger 

 and thirst, after which they are taken out of the pits and 

 brought to the stalls. But as many beasts died in con- 

 sequence of the heavy fall into the pits, this way of catching 

 elephants was disapproved, and as a consequence has been 

 given up these many years. 



To take an elephant out of the trave one must first tie to 

 each side of his neck a hunting elephant with five to six 

 strong ropes, so that the ropes reach the extreme limits of the 

 aforesaid stall, and thereafter the cross-beams at the end of 

 the stall are drawn out and, as before, a rope is tied to each 

 hind leg of the beast, which ropes are fastened to two high 

 posts with three or four coils. The beast is then drawn out 

 by veering out the rear ropes gradually, the two ropes behind 

 slackened from outside, at the same time tying the beast 

 close to the hunting elephant. And after it is brought to 

 the stall, where there are two supports so far apart from 

 each other that an elephant can easily put his head between 

 them, and also a cross-beam which hangs close to the 

 aforesaid supports, about two cobidos or less from the 

 ground. 



After an elephant has with the help of the hunting 

 elephant been thus brought into the stall, and afterwards 

 behind the aforesaid supports, he is allured with grass and 

 other leaves so far forwards that he comes to put his neck 

 between the aforesaid two posts. The cross-beam is then 

 drawn up to touch the lower part of the neck, and at the 



28—98 H 



