180 



MAMMALIA. 



[Chap. VI. 



CHAP. VI. 



THE ELEPHANT. 



The Captives. 



As our sleeping-place was not above two hundred 

 yards from the corral, we were frequently awakened by 

 the din of the multitude who were bivouacking in the 

 forest, by the merriment round the watch-fires, and now 

 and then by the shouts with which the guards repulsed 

 some sudden charge of the elephants in attempts to 

 force the stockade. But at daybreak, on going down to 

 the corral, we found all still and vigilant. The fires 

 were allowed to die out as the sun rose, and the watchers 

 who had been relieved were sleeping near the great 

 fence, the enclosure on all sides being surrounded by 

 crowds of men and boys with spears or white peeled 

 wands about ten feet long, whilst the elephants w T ithin 

 were huddled together in a compact group, no longer 

 turbulent and restless, but exhausted and calm, and 

 utterly subdued by apprehension and amazement at all 

 that had been passing around them. 



Nine only had been as yet entrapped l 9 of which 



1 In some of the elephant hunts hood of them, and thus protect 



conducted in the southern provinces the crops from destruction. In the 



of Ceylon by the earlier British present instance, the object being 



Governors, as many as 170 and to secure only as many as were 



200 elephants were secured in a required for the Government stud, 



single corral, of which a portion it was not sought to entrap more 



only were taken out for the public than could conveniently be attended 



service, and the rest shot, the to and trained after capture, 

 motive being to rid the neighbour- 



