The Wild Elephant and the Method of Capturing and Taming it in CeylonTennent, James Emerson, Sir
History
The Wild Elephant and the Method of Capturing and Taming it in Ceylon
Tennent, James Emerson, Sir
Elephants -- Sri Lanka
Seeing this, the elephant again raised the
cooly and dashed him against the ground, and then trampled the body
to a very jelly. This done, he took up the pingo and moved away from
the spot; but at the distance of about a fathom or two, laid it down
again, and ripping open one of the bundles, took out of it all the
contents, _somans_,[102] _cambāyas_,[103] handkerchiefs, and several
pieces of white cambrick cloth, all which he tore to small pieces, and
flung them wildly here and there. He did the same with all the other
pingoes. When this was over the elephant quietly walked away into the
jungle, trumpeting all the way as far as I could hear. When danger was
past I came out of my concealment, and returned to the place where
we had halted that morning. Here the rest of my companions joined me
soon after. The next morning we set out again on our journey, our
party being now increased by some seven or eight traders from Salpity
Corle: but this time we did not meet with the elephant. We found the
mangled corpse of our cooly on the same spot where I had seen it the
day before, together with the torn pieces of my cloths, of which we
collected as fast as we could the few which were serviceable, and
all the brass utensils which were quite uninjured. That elephant was
a noted rogue. He had before this killed many people on that road,
especially those carrying pingoes of coco-nut oil and ghee. He was
afterwards killed by an Englishman. The incidents I have mentioned
above, took place about twenty years ago.”
The following also relates to the same locality. It was narrated to me
by an old Moorman of Barberyn, who, during his earlier years, led the
life of a pedlar.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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