720 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



the rope about to be placed over his leg, the decoy, by a sudden motion of her own 

 trunk, pushed his aside and prevented him ; and on one occasion, when successive ef- 

 forts had failed to put the noose over the leg of an elephant who was already secured 

 by one foot, but who wisely put the other to the ground as often as it was attempted to 

 pass the noose under it, he 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. Apart from the services which from their prodigious strength 

 the tame elephants are alone capable of rendering, in dragging out and securing the 

 captives, it is perfectly obvious that, without their sagacious cooperation, the utmost 

 prowess and dexterity of the hunters would not avail them to enter the enclosure un- 

 supported, or to ensnare and to lead out a single captive. 



It must not be supposed, however, that every elephant thus corraled is secured. 

 Sometimes one will, by the use of a little "Head-work," try to get free from the cords 

 which have bound his legs. His buttings and pitchings are a sight to behold. At other 

 times an obstinate brute " will lie down, refuse to take food, and in a short time die 



AN OBSTINATE BRUTE. 



without any perceptible disease. The natives say that he dies of a broken heart, and 

 that the animal thus lost is likely to be the very finest of the whole herd. 



It may easily be imagined that the passage from a life of unfettered liberty in the 

 cool and sequestered forest to one of obedience and labor, must necessarily put the 

 health of the animal to a severe trial. Official records prove that more than half of 

 the elephants employed in the public departments of the Ceylon government die in 

 one year's servitude, and even when fully trained and inured into captivity, the work- 

 ing elephant is always a delicate animal, subject to a great variety of diseases, and 

 consequently often incapacitated from labor. Thus, in spite of his colossal strength, 

 which can not even be employed to its full extent, as it is difficult to pack him with- 

 out chafing the skin, and wagons of corresponding dimension to his muscular powers 



