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 8e irro^Tai koI Kpibv KepaortySpov, 



the grunting of a boar are the three Kal rcov ijlovioov tV /3oV rrju adpoau. 



things which the Greeks, in the _ Ph Expositio de Elephante, 



middle ages, believed the elephant i 177 

 specially to dislike : 



