A medical officer, in a recent letter from Hambantotti says, I have just
returned from beholding a sight, which, even in this country, is of rare
occurrence, viz. an elephant hunt, conducted under the orders of
government. A minute description (though well worth perusal) would be far
too long for a letter; I shall therefore only give you what is usually
called a faint idea.
Imagine 2,000 or 3,000 men surrounding a tract of country six or eight
miles in circumference, each one armed with different combustibles and
moving fires; in the midst suppose 300 elephants, being driven towards the
centre by the gradual and regular approach of these fires, till at last
they are confined within a circle of about two miles; they are then driven
by the same means into a space made by the erection of immense logs of
ebony and other strong wood, bound together by cane, and of the shape (in
miniature) of the longitudinal section of a funnel, towards which they
rush with the greatest fury, amidst the most horrid yells on the approach
of fire, of which they stand in the greatest dread. When enclosed they
become outrageous, and charge on all sides with great fury, but without
any effect on the strong barricado; they at last gain the narrow path of
the enclosure, the extreme end of which is just large enough to admit one
elephant, which is immediately prevented breaking out by strong bars laid
across. To express their passion, their desperation, when thus confined,
is impossible; and still more so, to imagine the facility and admirable
contrivance by which they are removed and tamed. Thus it is:--A tame
elephant is placed on each side, to whom the wild one is fastened by ropes;
he is then allowed to pass out, and immediately on his making the least
resistance, the tame ones give him a most tremendous squeeze between their
sides, and beat him with their trunks until he submits; they then lead him
to a place ready prepared, to which he is strongly fastened, and return to
perform the same civility to the next one.
In this way seventy wild elephants were captured for the purpose of
government labour. The tame elephants daily take each wild one singly to
water and to feed, until they become quite tame and docile. The remaining
elephants were shot by the people.
I took possession of a young one, and have got him now tied up near my
door; he is quite reconciled, and eats with the greatest confidence out of
my hand; he is, however, too expensive to keep long, and I fear I must
eventually shoot him. Some idea of the expense may be supposed, when I
tell you that in one article alone, milk, his allowance is two gallons per
day.
I was at this scene with thirty other officers and their ladies, and we
remained in temporary huts for nearly ten days.--_Asiatic Journal._
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