192 



MAMMALIA. 



[Chap. VI. 



They manifested the utmost enjoyment in what was 

 going on. There was no ill-humour, no malignity in 

 the spirit displayed, in what was otherwise a heartless 

 proceeding, but they set about it in a way that showed 

 a thorough relish for it, as an agreeable pastime. 

 Their caution was as remarkable as their sagacity ; there 

 was no hurrying, no confusion, they never ran foul of 

 the ropes, were never in the way of the animals already 

 noosed ; and amidst the most violent struggles, when 

 the tame ones had frequently to step across the captives, 

 they in no instance trampled on them, or occasioned 

 the slightest accident or annoyance. So far from this, 

 they saw intuitively a difficulty or a danger, and ad- 

 dressed themselves unbidden to remove it. In tying 

 up one of the larger elephants, he contrived before he 

 could be hauled close up to the tree, to walk once or 

 twice round it, carrying the rope with him ; the decoy, 

 perceiving the advantage he had thus gained over the 

 nooser, walked up of her own accord, and pushed him 

 backwards with her head, till she made him unwind him- 

 self again ; upon which the rope was hauled tight and 

 made fast. More than once, when a wild one was ex- 

 tending his trunk, and would have intercepted the rope 

 about to be placed over his leg, Siribeddi, by a sudden 

 motion of her own trunk, pushed his aside, and pre- 

 vented him ; and on one occasion, when successive efforts 

 had failed to put the noose over the fore-leg of an 

 elephant which was already secured by one foot, but 

 which wisely put the other to the ground as often as it 

 was attempted to pass the noose under it, I saw the 

 decoy watch her opportunity, and when his foot was 

 again raised, suddenly push in her own leg beneath it, 

 and hold it up till the noose was attached and drawn 

 tight. 



