Note AF — Front matter (continued 4)

For the purpose of hunting the elephant, they have at a little distance from Luovo, a kind of amphitheatre, surrounded with high walls, where those are placed who wish to see the sport. In the middle of these walls a palisade is formed, with strong stakes fixed in the ground; a pretty large opening is left on the side next the forest, and a smaller one towards the city, into which the elephant cannot enter without difficulty. Upon the day fixed upon for the chace, the hunters go into the forests upon some female elephants covering themselves with leaves to prevent being seen; having reason to suppose there are wild ones near, they make the females utter certain cries, and which the wild males instantly answer; the hunter then drives the female back to the above amphitheatre, whither the male constantly follows her, and being entered the large opening is immediately shut. At the one we were present, the females went out on the other side, but from the smallness of the size the wild one refused to enter; the females repeated their cries, and some of the Siamese began to irritate him, by clapping their hands, and crying pat, pat, while others struck him with long poles that had sharp points, all of whom he pursued, but they escaped by slipping between the palisades, sufficient spaces being left for that purpose; at length he fixed upon one whom he pursued with great fury, and the man running into this narrow passage the elephant followed him, but the moment he entered, the bars, before and behind, were let fall, and he no sooner found himself in the snare than he made the most violent efforts, and raised the most hideous cries. The hunters then endeavoured to sooth him by flinging quantities of water upon his body and trunk, rubbing him with leaves, putting oil on his ears, and bringing tame elephants, who seemed to caress him with their trunks, one of which, properly trained, was mounted by a man who made him go backwards and forwards to shew as it were the stranger that he had nothing to fear. Ropes were thrown round his hind legs and body, and then the bar was taken away from the further end, where being come he was tied to two tame elephants one of each side of him these led him the way while another pushed him behind with his head until they came to a kind of shade where he was fastened to a large post, like the capstan of a ship, and there left till the next day. While here, one of the Bramins, or priests, dressed in white, and mounted on another elephant, goes to him and sprinkles him with consecrated water, which they imagine has the power of divesting him of his ferocity. Next day he is marched off with the other elephants, and by the end of the fifteenth, they are in general perfectly tame. Premier Voyage du P. Tachard.

In Ethiopia they take great numbers of these animals by forming an inclosure in the thickest parts of the forests, leaving a sufficient opening, with a door lying flat on the ground; the hunters sit to watch for the elephant on a tree and as soon as he enters they draw up the door with a rope, then descend and attack him with arrows, but if by any chance he gets out of his confinement, he kills every man that he can come near. L’Afrique de Marmol.

At Ceylon they take the elephant by digging deep ditches lightly covering them over, in places frequented by these animals, who coming on this covering in the night, unavoidably fall in and are unable to get out again; here the slaves supply them with food, to whom they, in a short time, are so accustomed, and familiar, as to be led up to Goa perfectly tame. They have also a mode of hunting them with two tame females, whom they take into the forests, and coming near a wild elephant, they let them loose; these go up to the strange one on each side, press so closely against him as to force him their way, and render it impossible for him to escape. Memoir es touchant les Indes Orientales. Voyages de P. Philippe, Thevenot, &c.