ELEPHANT — GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. 
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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 un- 
wind himself again ; upon which the rope was hauled tight and 
made fast. More than once, when a wild one was extending 
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 prevented 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. 
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 move- 
ment 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 theii 
heads and back would cause annoyance to their riders . 1 
Sir E. Tennent has also some observations on other 
uses to which tame elephants are put, which are well 
worth quoting. Thus, speaking of the labour of piling 
timber, he says that the elephant 
1 Natural History of Ceylon , pp. 181-94. 
