Page:Natural History (1848).djvu/153

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ELEPHANTS.
143


tedious process. If the leader enters, however, the others all follow.

When once within the enclosure, fires are lighted round the entrance; and by shouts, beat- ing of drums, firing of guns, and all sorts of noises, the hunters endeavour to drive the en- snared herd onwards. ‘These, now infuriated, scream, and endeavour to return, but find the gateway strongly barricaded; and as the ditch which surrounds all the rest of the keddah is interrupted here, a line of fire is kept up within the fence, and fed from the top of the palisade with dried grass and bundles of reeds. Finding but one opening, they at length essay this, and pass into the second inclosure, the gateway of which is instantly shut by beams dropped from above. In the same way as before they are urged onward into the last inclosure, in which they must remain several days. The animals now appear desperate; in their fury they rush towards the ditch in order to break down the palisades, inflat- ing their trunks, screaming shrilly, or growling like the hollow muttering of distant thunder. Water is supplied to this part of the ditch, that the exhausted creatures may quench their thirst, and cool their bodies by spouting it from their trunks. ‘They remain angry, and vigilant, ever seeking to escape; but the fires and clamours of the people repel their attacks at every point.

After two or three days the door of the narrow passage is opened; and one of the elephants is enticed to enter by food thrown down before him. When quite in, the gate is suddenly shut, and two stout beams that stood, one on each side, are dropped across each other in a diagonal po-