Chap. VI.] THE ELEPHANT. 193 



One could almost fancy there was a display of dry 

 humour in the manner in which the decoys thus played 

 with the fears of the wild herd, and made light of their 

 efforts at resistance. When reluctant they shoved them 

 forward, when violent they drove them back ; when the 

 wild ones threw themselves down, the tame ones butted 

 them with head and shoulders, and forced them up 

 again. And when it was necessary to keep them down, 

 they knelt upon them, and prevented them from rising, 

 till the ropes were secured. 



At every moment of leisure they fanned themselves 

 with a bunch of leaves, and the graceful ease with 

 which an elephant uses his trunk on such occasions is 

 very striking. It is doubtless owing to the combination 

 of a circular with a horizontal movement in that flexible 

 limb; but it is impossible to see an elephant fanning 

 himself without being struck by the singular elegance 

 of motion which he displays. The tame ones, too, in- 

 dulged in the luxury of dusting themselves with sand, 

 by flinging it from their trunks ; but it was a curious 

 illustration of their delicate sagacity, that so long as the 

 mahout was on their necks, they confined themselves to 

 flinging the dust along their sides and stomach, as if 

 aware, that to throw it over their heads and back would 

 cause annoyance to their riders. 



One of the decoys which rendered good service, and 

 was obviously held in special awe by the wild herd, was 

 a tusker belonging to Dehigame Eata-mahatmeya. It 

 was not that he used his tusks for purposes of offence, 

 but he was enabled to insinuate himself between two 

 elephants by wedging them in where he could not force 

 his head; besides which they assisted him in raising 

 up the fallen and refractory with greater ease. In some 



o 



