They Are A Fine Race Of
People, Far Superior To The Cingalese.
They are supposed to be descended
from Arabian origin, and they hold the Mohammedan religion.
The
Rhatamahatmeya, or head man of the district, resides at Doolana, and he
had received us in a most hospitable manner. We therefore started direct
from his house.
Passing through a belt of low thick jungle, exactly in front of the
village, we entered upon the plain which formed the border of the tank.
This lake is about three miles in length, but is not more than a mile in
width in its widest part, and in some places is very much less. The
opposite side of the tank is fine open forest, which grows to the
water's edge, and is in some parts flooded during the wet season. At
this time the soil was deep and muddy.
This was not a place visited by sportsmen at that period; and upon
arriving at the margin of the lake, an exciting view presented itself.
Scattered over the extent of the lake were `thirteen rogue elephants;'
one was not a quarter of a mile from us; another was so far off he could
hardly be distinguished; another was close to the opposite jungle; and
they were, in fact, all single elephants. There was an exception to
this, however, in one pair, who stood in the very centre of the tank,
side by side; they were as black as ebony, and although in view with
many brother rogues, they appeared giants even among giants. The Moormen
immediately informed us that they were a notorious pair, who always
associated together, and were the dread of the neighbourhood. There were
many tales of their ferocity and daring, which at the time we gave
little heed to.
Crossing the tank in a large canoe, we arrived in the open forest upon
the opposite shore. It was a mass of elephant tracks; which sank deep in
the soft earth. They were all so fresh and confused that tracking was
very difficult. However, we at length fixed upon the tracks of a pair of
elephants, and followed them up. This was a work of considerable time,
but the distant cracking of a bough at length attracted us to their
position, and we shortly came up with them, just as they had winded us
and were moving off. I fired an ineffectual shot at the temple of one,
which separated him from the other, after whom we started in chase at
full speed. Full speed soon ended in a stand-still in such ground; it
was deep, stiff clay, in which we sank over our ankles at every step,
and varied our struggles by occasionally flying sprawling over the
slippery roots of the trees.
The elephants ran clean away from us, and the elephant-catchers, who
knew nothing of the rules for carrying spare guns, entering into the
excitement of the chase, and free from the impediments of shoes, ran
lightly along the muddy ground, and were soon out of sight as well as
the elephants.
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