THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
539 
over its trunk and lent it sympathy and support. When the second elephant 
had achieved the summit, the two linked trunks and executed a short dance of 
joy. In proceeding to the banks of a stream, the commander-in-chief will halt 
his family at some distance, while he assumes the dangers and responsibilities 
of a scout. Having satisfied himself that there is no danger from pitfalls or 
from any enemy, he will return to the edge of the jungle and call forth a 
number of elephants which he posts as sentinels. After another and final scout¬ 
ing expedition he will give a signal, and the herd will rush tumultuously to 
the water’s brink. The elephant shows great fortitude under suffering caused 
by its driver, or under necessary pain inflicted by a doctor. It has been known 
when being treated with nitrate 
of silver for an affection of the 
eyes to lie unresisting, content¬ 
ing itself with suppressed moans, 
and to voluntarily submit itself 
to further treatment. In at least 
one instance a cow caught its 
badly wounded and crazy calf and 
held it firmly while its wounds 
were being dressed. In another 
case the elephant stood patiently 
while a surgeon cut out an ulcer¬ 
ated spot on its back. The pos¬ 
sible longevity of the elephant 
has been ascertained only approxi¬ 
mately, for the East Indian gov¬ 
ernment had in its daily employ 
one elephant whose services it 
had used for a full century, and 
another which had been on its 
pay-roll for fifty years. The de¬ 
coy elephants seem to learn from 
man a love of cunning, and ap¬ 
pear to enjoy the sport of cap¬ 
turing their kind. As in India 
the capture of elephants is a 
regular and fully-organized in¬ 
dustry, the devices of the decoys are infinitely varied: Two decoy female 
elephants having selected the most magnificent tusker approached him, 
Delilah-like, and once having separated him from the herd, guarded him on 
each side until the natives had slipped the noosed rope over one of his hind 
legs. They now divided their efforts, one of them keeping off the rest of 
the herd while the other wound the free end of the rope around a tree so as 
to get the advantage of a capstan. The captive having himself circled about 
the tree so as to prevent the failure of the plot, the elephant which was no 
longer occupied with the herd, drove it back while the other decoy carried out 
its original scheme. The captive finally resisting any attempt to pull it nearer 
to the tree, the elephant not busy with the rope deliberately butted it back inch 
by inch, and foot by foot, while its companion “hauled in the slack.” If cap- 
A HEAD SHOT. 
