docility of individuals of the same species which he has already subdued. Birds may be taught to assist in ensnaring other birds; but this is simply an effect of habit. The elephant, on the contrary, has an evident desire to join its master in subduing its own race; and in this treachery to its kind exercises so much ingenuity, courage, and perseverance, that we cannot find a parallel instance of complete subjection to the will of him to whom it was given to "have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

From some peculiar circumstances which have not been accurately explained, large male elephants are sometimes found apart from the herd. Sir Stamford Raffles says, speaking of the elephants that he met with in his journey through the southern presidencies to Passumah, "The natives fancy that there are two kinds of elephants, the gaja berkampong, those which always go in herds, and which are seldom mischievous, and the gaja salunggal, or single elephants, which are much larger and ferocious, going about either singly or only two or three in company. It is probable the latter kind are only the full-grown males."* They probably, in many cases, separate themselves from their companions in search of fresh pastures. But as they are sometimes found in a state of considerable irritation, doing much mischief wherever they pass, it has been thought that these have been driven away by the stronger males, and that they are suffering all the agonies of unavailing jealousy. Being the finest elephants, and, therefore, the best

Sir Stamford Raffles' Life and Correspondence, p. 315.

adapted for sale, the hunters soon mark them for their own. They follow them cautiously by day and by night, with two, and sometimes four trained females, called Koomkies. If it be dark, they can hear the animal striking his food, to clean it, against his fore-legs, and they then approach tolerably close; if light, they advance more cautious. ly. The females gradually move towards him, apparently unconscious of his presence, grazing with great complacency, as if they were, like him, inhabitants of the wild forest. It is soon perceived by them whether he is likely to be entrapped by their arts. The drivers remain concealed at a little distance, while the koomkies press round the unhappy goondah or saun (for so this sort of elephant is called). If he suffer himself to be cajoled by his new companions, his capture is almost certain. The hunters cautiously creep under him, and, while he is thus amused, fasten his fore-legs with a strong rope. It is said that the wily females will not only divert his attention from their mohouts, but absolutely assist them in fastening the cords. Mr. Howitt made a spirited drawing of this curious scene, from the descriptions of Captain Williamson.

The hind-legs of the captive being secured in a similar manner, the hunters leave him to himself, and retire to a short distance. In some cases he is fastened at once to a large tree, if the situation in which he is first entrapped allows this. But under other circumstances, in the first instance his legs are only tied together. When the females quit him he discovers his ignominious condition, and attempts to retreat to the covert of the forest. But he moves with difficulty, in consequence of the ropes which

have been lashed round his limbs. There are long cables trailing behind him; and the mohouts, watching an opportunity, secure these to a tree of suffi cient strength. He now becomes furious, throwing himself down, and thrusting his tusks into the earth. If he break the cables and escape into the forest, the hunters dare not pursue him; but if he is adequately bound, he soon becomes exhausted with his own rage. He is then left to the farther operation of hunger, till he is sufficiently subdued to be conducted, under the escort of his treacherous friends, to an appointed station, to which, after a few months' discipline, he becomes reconciled.*

In the kingdom of Ava all the elephants are caught by decoy females, though the process is somewhat different from that practised by the Koomkies of British India. Mr. Crawfurd informs us that the King of Ava "is possessed, in all, of about one thousand elephants, divided into two classes: those which are thoroughly broken in and tamed, consisting principally of males; and those that are employed as decoys, all females, and in a half-wild state. These decoys are generally kept in the neighbourhood of forests frequented by elephants; and when the herd is joined by a wild male, they are all driven into the capital, to a place called the elephant palace, "appropriated for exhibiting, for the king's diversion, the taming of the wild male elephant. This place is a square enclosure, surrounded everywhere by a double palisade, composed of immense beams of teak timber, each equal in diameter to the mainmast of a four-hundred-tun

* See Williamson's sports; and Mr. Corse's paper in the Asiatic Transactions, vol. iii.