Chap. VI.] 
THE ELEPHANT. 
193 
One could almost fancy there was a display of dry 
humour in the manner in which the decoys thus played 
with the fears of the wild herd, and made light of their 
efforts at resistance. When reluctant they shoved them 
forward, when violent they drove them back ; when the 
'wild ones threw themselves down, the tame ones butted 
them with head and shoulders, and forced them up 
again. And when it was necessary to keep them down, 
they knelt upon them, and prevented them from rising, 
till the ropes were secured. 
At every moment of leisure they fanned themselves 
with a bunch of leaves, and the graceful ease with 
which an elephant uses his trunk on such occasions is 
jj very striking. It is doubtless owing to the combination 
of a circular with a horizontal movement in that flexible 
limb; but it is impossible to see an elephant fanning 
himself without being struck by the singular elegance 
; of motion which he displays. The tame ones, too, in- 
■ dulged in the luxury of dusting themselves with sand, 
by flinging it from their trunks ; but it was a curious 
illustration of their delicate sagacity, that so long as the 
mahout was on their necks, they confined themselves to 
flinging the dust along their sides and stomach, as if 
\ aware, that to throw it over their heads and back would 
cause annoyance to their riders. 
One of the decoys which rendered good service, and 
was obviously held in special awe by the wild herd, was 
a tusker belonging to Dehigame Eata-mahatmeya. It 
was not that he used his tusks for purposes of offence, 
but he was enabled to insinuate himself between two 
elephants by wedging them in where he could not force 
his head; besides which they assisted him in raising 
up the fallen and refractory with greater ease. In some 
o 
