re difficult to effect a successful capture by daylight than by
night when the fires and flambeaux act with double effect, it was the
wish of the hunters to defer their final effort till the evening, when
the darkness would greatly aid their exertions.

[Footnote 1: Fire, the sound of a horn, and the grunting of a boar are
the three things which the Greeks, in the middle ages, believed the
elephant specially to dislike:

[Greek:
Pyr de ptoeitai kai krion kerasphoron,
Kai ton monion ten boen ten athroan.]

--PHILE, _Expositio de Elephante_, 1. 177.]

After sunset the scene exhibited was of extraordinary interest; the low
fires, which had apparently only smouldered in the sunlight, assumed
their ruddy glow amidst the darkness, and threw their tinge over the
groups collected round them; while the smoke rose in eddies through the
rich foliage of the trees. The crowds of spectators maintained a
profound silence, and not a sound was perceptible beyond the hum of an
insect. On a sudden the stillness was broken by the distant roll of a
drum, followed by a discharge of musketry. This was the signal for the
renewed assault, and the hunters entered the circle with shouts and
clamour; dry leaves and sticks were flung upon the watch-fires till they
blazed aloft, and formed a line of flame on every side, except in the
direction of the corral, which was studiously kept dark; and thither the
terrified elephants betook themselves, followed by the yells and racket
of their pursuers.

The elephants approached at a rapid pace, trampling down the brushwood
and crushing the dry branches; the leader emerged in front of the
corral, paused for an instant, stared wildly round, and then rushed
headlong through the open gate, followed by the rest of the herd.
Instantly, as if by magic, the entire circuit of the corral, which up to
this moment had been kept in profound darkness, blazed with thousands of
lights, every hunter on the instant that the elephants entered, rushing
forward to the stockade with a torch kindled at the nearest watch-fire.

The elephants first dashed to the very extremity of the enclosure, and
being brought up by the fence, retreated to regain the gate, but found
it closed. Their terror was sublime: they hurried round the corral at a
rapid pace, but saw it now girt by fire on every side; they attempted to
force the stockade, but were driven back by the guards with spears and
flambeaux; and on whichever side th