Travels in India (Tavernier) 39.3.3

39.3.3

The hunters, by means of shouts and the noise of drums, to which they add fire-darts, drive the elephant into these passages, when meeting with the holes it falls into them and is unable to get out again. They then place ropes and chains on it, which they pass under the belly, and bind the trunk and the legs, afterwards they employ special machines to hoist it up. Nevertheless, out of five which they had taken three escaped, as I have said, although they had still some chains and cords about their bodies, and even on their legs. These people told us an astonishing thing, which is wonderful if one could only believe it. It is, that elephants which have once been caught and have escaped, if driven into the woods are always on their guard, and tear off a large branch of a tree with their trunks, with which they go along sounding everywhere before putting down their feet, to see if there are any holes, so as not to be caught a second time. It was this which made the hunters, who gave us this description, despair of being able to recapture the three elephants which had escaped from them. If we had been certain of being witnesses of this wonderful precaution of the elephant, no matter how pressing our business, we should have willingly waited for two or three days. This captain who had received us so well was a sort of Brigadier, and commanded 3000 or 4000 men who were stationed half a league off.