176 
MAMMALIA. 
[Chap. V. 
At length the breaking of the branches and the 
crackling of the brushwood announced their close ap- 
proach, and the leader bursting from the jungle rushed 
wildly forward to within twenty yards of the entrance 
followed by the rest of the herd. Another moment 
and they would have plunged into the open gate, when 
suddenly they wheeled round, re-entered the forest, and 
in spite of the hunters resumed their original position. 
The chief headman came forward and accounted for 
the freak by saying that a wild pig 1 , an animal which 
the elephants are said to dislike, had started out of the 
cover and run across the leader, who would otherwise 
have held on direct for the corral ; and intimated that 
as the herd was now in the highest pitch of excitement ; 
and it was at all times much more difficult to effect a 
successful capture by daylight than by night when the 
fires and flambeaux act with double effect, it was the 
wish of the hunters to defer their final effort till the 
evening, when the darkness would greatly aid their 
exertions. 
After sunset the scene exhibited was of extraordinary 
interest ; the low fires, which had apparently only smoul- 
dered in the sunlight, assumed their ruddy glow amidst the 
darkness, and threw their tinge over the groups collected 
round them ; while the smoke rose in eddies through 
the rich foliage of the trees. The crowds of spectators 
maintained a profound silence, and not a sound was per- 
ceptible beyond the hum of an insect. On a sudden the 
stillness was broken by the distant roll of a drum, fol- 
1 Fire, the sound of a horn, and Tlvp 5e irroelrai /cat icpibp K€paff<p6pov, 
the grunting of a boar are the three Kal tuu fioviuv tt]v /8oV t V a6p6av. 
things which the Greeks, in the _ P Expositio de Elegante, 
middle ages, believed the elephant i 177 
specially to dislike : 
