In This Country They Have A Curious Device For Hunting Or Taking
Elephants, Which Is Erected About Two Miles From The Capital.
At that
place there is a fine palace gilded all over, within which is a
sumptuous court, and all round the outside there are a great number of
places for people to stand upon to see the hunting.
Near this place is a
very large wood or forest, through which a great number of the king's
huntsmen ride on the backs of female elephants trained on purpose, each
huntsman having five or six of these females, and it is said that their
parts are anointed with a certain composition, the smell of which so
powerfully attracts the wild males that they cannot leave them, but
follow them wheresoever they go. When the huntsmen find any of the wild
elephants so entangled, they guide the females towards the palace, which
is called a _tambell_, in which there is a door which opens and shuts by
machinery, before which door there is a long straight passage having
trees on both sides, so that it is very close and dark. When the wild
elephant comes to this avenue, he thinks himself still in the woods. At
the end of this avenue there is a large field, and when the hunters have
enticed their prey into this field, they immediately send notice to the
city, whence come immediately fifty or sixty horsemen, who beset the
field all round. Then the females which are bred to this business go
directly to the entry of the dark avenue, and when the wild male
elephant has entered therein, the horsemen shout aloud and make as much
noise as possible to drive the wild elephant forward to the gate of the
palace, which is then open, and as soon as he is gone in, the gate is
shut without any noise. The hunters, with the female elephants and the
wild one, are all now within the court of the palace, and the females
now withdraw one by one from the court, leaving the wild elephant alone,
finding himself thus alone and entrapped, he is so madly enraged for two
or three hours, that it is wonderful to behold. He weepeth, he flingeth,
he runneth, he jostleth, he thrusteth under the galleries where the
people stand to look at him, endeavouring all he can to kill some of
them, but the posts and timbers are all so strong that he cannot do harm
to any one, yet he sometimes breaks his teeth in his rage. At length,
wearied with violent exertions, and all over in a sweat, he thrusts his
trunk into his mouth, and sucks it full of water from his stomach, which
he then blows at the lookers on. When he is seen to be much exhausted,
certain people go into the court, having long sharp-pointed canes in
their hands, with which they goad him that he may enter into one of the
stalls made for the purpose in the court, which are long and narrow, so
that he cannot turn when once in.
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