HERD OF WILD ELEPHANTS. 
89 
footed besiegers was such as strongly to excite their 
curiosity, and they therefore watched their proceed- 
ings with intense anxiety. The two spectators were 
so completely screened by the foliage of the tree to 
which they had resorted for safety, that they could 
not be perceived by the elephants, though they could 
see very well, through the little vistas formed by the 
separated branches, what was going on below. Had 
there been a door to the granary, all difficulty of 
obtaining an entrance would have instantly vanished, 
but four thick brick walls were obstacles which seemed 
at once to defy both the strength and sagacity of these 
dumb robbers. Nothing daunted by the magnitude 
of the difficulty which they had to surmount, they 
successively began their operations at the angles of 
the building. A large male elephant with tusks of 
immense proportions, laboured for some time to make 
an impression, but after a while his strength was 
exhausted, and he retired. The next in size and 
strength then advanced, and exhausted his exertions 
with no better success. A third then came forward, 
and applying those tremendous levers with which his 
jaws were armed, and which he wielded with such 
prodigious might, he at length succeeded in dislodging 
a brick. An opening once made, other elephants ad- 
vanced, when an entrance was soon obtained suffi- 
ciently large to admit the determined marauders. As 
the whole herd could not be accommodated at once, 
they divided into small bodies of three or four. One 
of these entered, and when they had taken their fill 
they retired, and their places were immediately sup- 
plied by the next in waiting, until the whole herd, 
i 3 
