HOW ELEPHANTS ARE CAPTURED IN SIAM.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1286, 22 October 1896, Page 8

HOW ELEPHANTS ARE CAPTURED IN SIAM.

There is only one place in the whole wide world where it is possible to breakfast comfortably in a well-appointed hotel, and yet, after a few hours' travel by rail or river, view a free circus comprising some three hundred real ramping, raging, wild elephants. Even in the place I mention the spectacle is to be seen but once a year for a week in the sp ing ; when, the elephantine fancy *' lightly turning," &j., the increased sociability of the herds leads them to their own undoing at the hands of their fellow-elephants. It is a sight no. like'.y to be seen by another generation if there is any further dividing up of Further India by England and France, for the loca'e is that distressful country which is rapidly becoming a mere guographical expression—Siam. It would turn anybody but an Asiatic grey haired to spend wee after week shoving a ship load of elephants along at the rrite of two miles a day and night, but it just suits the Siamese temperament. That is about his distance. The only time he ever bustles is when he discovers that his herd has a mud coloured beast with weak eyes and an abnormal number of toes, and a few other marks which die tinguish a white elephant, and then he breaks his neck pretty well to secure it (it is never very old when it is coma upon —the look out is too keen),, because he knows that its capture will procure him not only his freedom, but a peerage and a reward as well. . . By the appointed day fifty herds or more will have been collected on the eastward plain, within an area of a few miles, and twenty or thirty trained bulls sent out to form a cordon on their rear. . . At last they are all inside the great yard, wifch a heavy log barring the gate through which they have just passed, and a general reconnaissance is promptly organised with a view to 6nding the exit. It is not far away —to the left of the grand stand—but unfortunately the person in charge seems always to have forgotten to unbar it, and they all start investigating the surrounding fence with a view to either sctling" it or shoving it down. The shoving down idea is always the favourite, and it ought to succeed, considering the state of decay the posts are in, but the captives do not s'jem to grasp fhe fact that combination is necessary. ... It is all very well for

the presiding nobleman to tell his men to " catch that one," but the order is not easy to execute. The one indicated is alwaya in tho bosom of his family, and sensible enough to 3top there as long as he cm. To extricate him the mochang skilfully breaks up the circling drove time after time, heading them off in the moat fearless way until they have got their prey in the rear rank. Once clear of tho ruck the doom of the quarry is soon sealed. Darting out of the inner chain of posts two or three half-naked fellows drag along a rattan cable, not particularly thick, but strong as wire. The end is looped into a running noose, which it is their business to placd so th*t the beast upon which they have designs will put one of his feet into it in his struggles to get back into the scrimmage. The men are so cool and active and dcdge so smartly that they rarely get stepped on. When the elephant has got his foot noosed he drags the cable along for a few steps and then suddenly brings up in a surprised way, owing to the other end of the rope being belayed around a post. The rest of the procession keep callously moving on, and in a few seconds he finds himself alone, hauling vainly at his moorings, and at the same time trying to untie himself with his trunk. For the first few minutes he screams and swears, his ears stand out a yard or so on either side, and his trunk reaches out »s if he wanted to hook on to a star. Meanwhile the rest of the herd are headed off into a corner, so as not to interrupt, and after a short interval the process of removal to gaol begin*. A couple of tame tuskers move alongside the young whirlwind, and begin to lean heavily against him to indicate that he had better shut off steam. He soon

quietens down, and then the mahouts i begin the most dangerou* bit of their work. Leaning from their lofty perches over the head of the captive, within easy reach of his trunk, they pass a rope cellar around what may euphemistically be called I his neck, and then lash tint to similar necklets on their own animals. On occasion, though, they '* handcuff" their prisoner instead. He is h:»uled away towards the exit, protesting vigorously. It takes him many a day to get over his sulks, and di-cover that hi 3 perpetual efforts to pull the place down only half choke him, but after a period he earns the confidence of his future driver sufficiently to justify some relaxation of his bonds and so, month by month, his behaviour improves until in A eouple of years or so he is ready in his turn to go forth and help to decoy and entrap his family and kindred, or to be sold for three or four thousand pieces of silver, and pile teak.— Ludgate Monthly.