186 



MAMMALIA. 



[Chap. VI. 



some sudden impulse ; but at last the vain strife sub- 

 sided, and the poor animal remained perfectly motion- 

 less, the image of exhaustion and despair. 



Meanwhile Eanghanie presented himself in front of 

 the governor's stage to claim the accustomed largesse 

 for tying the first elephant. He was rewarded by a 

 shower of rupees, and retired to resume his perilous 

 duties in the corral. 



The rest of the herd were now in a state of pitiable 

 dejection, and pressed closely together as if under a 

 sense of common misfortune. For the most part they 

 stood at rest in a compact body, fretful and uneasy. 

 At intervals one more impatient than the rest would 

 move out a few steps to reconnoitre ; the others would 

 follow at first slowly, then at a quicker pace, and at last 

 the whole herd would rush off furiously to renew the 

 often-baffled attempt to storm the stockade. 



There was a strange combination of the sublime and 

 the ridiculous in these abortive onsets ; the appearance 

 of prodigious power in their ponderous limbs, coupled 

 with the almost ludicrous shuffle of their clumsy gait, 

 and the fury of their apparently resistless charge, con- 

 verted in an instant into timid retreat. They rushed 

 madly down the enclosure, their backs arched, their 

 tails extended, their ears spread, and their trunks raised 

 high above their heads, trumpeting and uttering shrill 

 screams, yet when one step further would have dashed 

 the opposing fence into fragments, they stopped short 

 on a few white rods being pointed at them through the 

 paling 1 ; and, on catching the derisive shouts of the 



1 The fact of the elephant ex- relates, that in order to inculcate 



hibiting timidity, on having a long contempt for want of courage in 



rod pointed towards him, was the elephant, they were introduced 



known to the Eomans ; and Pliny, into the circus during the triumph 



quoting from the annals of Piso, of Metellus, after the conquest of 



