"As soon as they have noosed his leg they dart from under his feet; if they are in the forest, one of them takes a quick turn of the rope around a tree, but if in the open country, they drop it and run toward the nearest woods. The elephant pursues them, trailing the rope after him, and as soon as they are in the shelter of the trees they manage to secure him in the way I have described. Then, while he is tied by the hind-leg, one of the men worries him and attracts his attention, while the other slips a noose around one of his fore-legs. Then he lies down and rolls in anger, and while he is doing it they bind him still more. "When he is tied up and safe they leave him, and he is subdued by the process that we learned about in Siam. Great numbers of elephants were formerly caught in this way and sent to India, where there has always been a good market for them, and they are also largely employed on public works in Ceylon. When the English obtained possession of this country, elephants were so numerous that as many as 200 could be taken at a single drive in a corral, and the beasts did great damage to the rice crops in the part of the country where they lived. A reward was offered for all elephants killed, and so great was the slaughter that the bounty was paid for 3500 killed in the north of Ceylon in the years 1846-'48, and for 2000 killed in the southern part in the five years previous to 1856. "This wholesale destruction made such a scarcity that not enough elephants could be obtained for the public works, and the Government not only took off the bounty but ordered that no more licenses to shoot elephants should be granted. [Illustration: ELEPHANTS UNDER A BANYAN-TREE.] "Elephants generally travel in herds varying from half a dozen to a hundred or more; but it is not unusual to find solitary elephants that have become separated from the herds from causes that are yet unknown to anybody. These solitary elephants are known as "rogues;" the name describes their character, and is an exact translation of the Cingalese 'hora-alliah' or thieving elephant. They don't even associate with other rogues, but travel singly, and do all the mischief they can; nearly all the damage to crops is caused by them, and some of them delight in concealing themselves near the roads and paths, and killing men who attempt to pass. They are very hard fighters, and the glory of killing a rogue elephant is greater than that of slaughtering a whole herd of ordinary ones. "Another game animal that we might encounter on our way to the coast is the buffalo. Remember, the buffalo of Ceylon is no relative of the American buffalo, but is quite a different animal. He is domesticated, and used for ploughing and other heavy work, just as he is in the Philippine Islands and other parts of the East we have visited. He is docile enough when tame, but when wild he shows a good deal of ugliness not only in his appearance but in his disposition.