Chap. V.] 



THE ELEPHANT. 



167 



either in the enclosure or the stables. A conception of 

 the whole operation from commencement to end will be 

 best conveyed by describing the progress of an elephant 

 corral as I witnessed it in 1847 in the great forest on 

 the banks of the Alligator Kiver, the Kimbul-oya, in 

 the district of Kornegalle, about thirty miles north-west 

 of Kandy. 



Kornegalle, or Kurunai-galle, was one of the ancient 

 capitals of the island, and the residence of its kings 

 from a.d. 1319 to 1347. 1 The dwelling-house of the 

 principal civil officer in charge of the district now oc- 

 cupies the site of the former palace, and the ground 

 is strewn with fragments of columns and carved stones, 

 the remnants of the royal buildings. The modern town 

 consists of the bungalows of the European officials, each 

 surrounded with its own garden ; two or three streets 

 inhabited by Dutch descendants and by Moors ; and a 

 native bazaar, with the ordinary array of rice and curry 

 stuffs and cooking chattees of brass or burnt clay. 



The charm of the village is the unusual beauty of 

 its position. It rests within the shade of an enormous 

 rock of gneiss upwards of 600 feet in height, nearly 

 denuded of verdure, and so rounded and worn by time 

 that it has acquired the form of a couchant elephant, 

 from which it derives its name of Aetagalla, the Rock 

 of the Tusker. 2 But Aetagalla is only the last eminence 

 in a range of similarly-formed rocky mountains, which 

 here terminate abruptly ; and, which from the fantastic 

 shapes into which their gigantic outlines have been 



1 See Sib J. Emehson Tennent's resemblance in shape to the back 

 Ceylon,Y o\.I. Pt. in.ch. xii. p. 415. of that insect, and hence is said 



2 Another enormous mass of to have been derived the name of 

 gneiss is called the Kuruminia- the town, Kuruna-galle or Korne- 

 galla, or the Beetle-rock, from its galle. 



m 4 



