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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 210 of 343
Words from 55822 to 56084
of 91283
