152. Shakspeare
appears to have been acquainted with the plan of taking elephants in
pitfalls: Decius, encouraging the conspirators, reminds them of Caesar's
taste for anecdotes of animals, by which he would undertake to lure him
to his fate:

"For he loves to hear
That unicorns may be betrayed with trees.
And bears with glasses; _elephants with holes_."

JULIUS CAESAR, Act ii. Scene I.]

Knox describes with circumstantiality the mode adopted, two centuries
ago, by the servants of the King of Kandy to catch elephants for the
royal stud. He says, "After discovering the retreat of such as have
tusks, unto these they drive some _she elephants_, which they bring with
them for the purpose, which, when once the males have got a sight of,
they will never leave, but follow them wheresoever they go; and the
females are so used to it that they will do whatsoever, either by word
or a beck, their keepers bid them. And so they delude them along through
towns and countries, and through the streets of the city, even to the
very gates of the king's palace, where sometimes they seize upon them by
snares, and sometimes by driving them into a kind of pound, they catch
them."[1]

[Footnote 1: KNOX'S _Historical Relation of Ceylon_, A.D. 1681, part i.
ch. vi. p. 21.]

In Nepaul and Burmah, and throughout the Chin-Indian Peninsula, when in
pursuit of single elephants, either _rogues_ detached from the herd, or
individuals who have been marked for the beauty of their ivory, the
natives avail themselves of the aid of females in order to effect their
approaches and secure an opportunity of casting a noose over the foot of
the destined captive. All accounts concur in expressing high admiration
of their courage and address; but from what has fallen under my own
observation, added to the descriptions I have heard from other
eye-witnesses, I am inclined to believe that in such exploits the
Moormen of Ceylon evince a daring and adroitness, surpassing all others.

These professional elephant catchers, or, as they are called, Panickeas,
inhabit the Moorish villages in the north and north-east of the island,
and from time immemorial have been engaged in taking elephants, which
are afterwards trained by Arabs, chiefly for the use of the rajahs and
native princes in the south of India, whose vakeels are periodically
despatched to make purchases in Ceylon.

The ability evinced by these men in tracing elephants through the woods
has almost