Chap. VI.] 



THE ELEPHANT. 



187 



crowd, they turned in utter discomfiture, and after an 

 objectless circle or two through the corral, they paced 

 slowly back to their melancholy halting place in the 

 shade. 



The crowd, chiefly comprised of young men and boys, 

 exhibited astonishing nerve and composure at such 

 moments, rushing up to the point towards which the 

 elephants charged, pointing their wands at their trunks, 

 and keeping up the continual cry of whoop ! whoop ! 

 which invariably turned them to flight. 



The second victim singled out from the herd was 

 secured in the same manner as the first. It was a 

 female. The tame ones forced themselves in on either 

 side as before, cutting her off from her companions, 

 whilst Eanghanie stooped under them and attached the 

 fatal noose, and Siribeddi dragged her out amidst un- 

 availing struggles, when she was made fast by each leg 

 to the nearest group of strong trees. When the noose 

 was placed upon her fore-foot, she seized it with her 

 trunk, and succeeded in carrying it to her mouth, where 

 she would speedily have severed it had not a tame ele- 

 phant interfered, and placing his foot on the rope 

 pressed it downwards out of her jaws. The individuals 

 who acted as leaders in the successive charges on the 

 palisades were always those selected by the noosers, and 

 the operation of tying each, from the first approaches of 

 the decoys, till the captive was left alone by the tree, 

 occupied on an average somewhat less than three- 

 quarters of an hour. 



It is strange that in these encounters the wild ele- 



the Carthaginians in Sicily, and operariis hastas prsepilatas haben- 

 driven round the area by workmen tibus, per circum totam actos." — 

 holding blunted spears, — " Ab Lib. viii. c. 6. 



