192 
MAMMALIA. 
[Chap. VI. 
They manifested the utmost enjoyment in what was 
going on. There was no ill-humour, no malignity in 
the spirit displayed, in what was otherwise a heartless 
proceeding, but they set about it in a way that showed 
a thorough relish for it, as an agreeable pastime. 
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 the animals already 
noosed ; and amidst the most violent struggles, when 
the tame ones had frequently to step across the captives, 
they in no instance trampled on them, or occasioned 
the slightest accident or annoyance. So far from this, 
they saw intuitively a difficulty or a danger, and ad- 
dressed themselves unbidden 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 accord, and pushed him 
backwards with her head, till she made him unwind him- 
self again ; upon which the rope was hauled tight and 
made fast. More than once, when a wild one was ex- 
tending his trunk, and would have intercepted the rope 
about to be placed over his leg, Siribeddi, by a sudden 
motion of her own trunk, pushed his aside, and pre- 
vented him ; and on one occasion, when successive efforts 
had failed to put the noose over the fore-leg of an 
elephant which was already secured by one foot, but 
which wisely put the other to the ground as often as it 
was attempted to pass the noose under it, I saw the 
decoy watch her opportunity, and when his foot was 
again raised, suddenly push in her own leg beneath it, 
and hold it up till the noose was attached and drawn 
tight. 
