After Many Vain, But Tremendous Efforts To Free Himself, He Turned His
Rage Upon His Pursuers, And Charged Everyone Right And Left; But He Was
Safely Tied, And We Took Some Little Pleasure In Teasing Him.
He had no
more chance than a fly in a spider's web.
As he charged in one
direction, several nooses were thrown round his hind legs; then his
trunk was caught in a slip-knot, then his fore legs, then his neck, and
the ends of all these ropes being brought together and hauled tight, he
was effectually hobbled.
This had taken some time to effect (about half an hour), and we now
commenced a species of harness to enable us to drive him to the village.
The first thing was to secure his trunk by tying it to one of his fore
legs; this leg was then fastened with a slack rope to one of his hind
legs, which prevented him from taking a longer stride than about two
feet; his neck was then tied to his other fore leg, and two ropes were
made fast to both his fore and hind legs; the ends of these ropes being
manned by thirty men.
Having completed these arrangements, he was released from the ties which
hobbled him, and we commenced the arduous task of driving him towards
the village, a distance of five miles. The only method of getting him
along, was to keep two men to tease him in front, by shouting and waving
cloths before his face; he immediately charged these fellows, who, of
course, ran in the right direction for the village, and by this repeated
manoeuvre we reached the borders of the tank by nightfall. We were still
at least two miles from the village, and we were therefore obliged to
tie him to a tree for the night. The next morning we succeeded in
driving him to the village. He was a fine elephant, but not full grown,
and for this reason he had been selected from the herd for capture, as
they are more valuable at this particular period of their growth, being
easily rendered docile. He was about sixteen years of age; and by
starving for two days, and subsequent gentle treatment, the natives
mounted and rode him on the third day of his capture, taking the
precaution, however, of first securing his trunk. This elephant was then
worth fifteen pounds to be sold to the Arabs for the Indian market.
After a stay of a few days in this neighbourhood, during which we had
good sport in elephant-shooting, we returned to the Park country. The
first evening of our return, we heard elephants roaring in the jungle
within a short distance of the tent. At daybreak the next morning we
were on their tracks, and after a walk of five miles we found them in
thick thorny jungle, and only killed three. We had a long day's work,
and we were returning home in the afternoon when we suddenly observed a
herd of deer grazing in the beautiful park.
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