hant had two men on its back--one, the nooseman, sitting on its
neck, with a strong, thick rope in his hands, on which was a running
noose; the other, the driver, who stood erect on the animal's back,
holding on by a loop with one hand, and in the other flourishing an
instrument called the _mungri_, with sharp spikes in it, wherewith to
whip the poor animal over the root of his tail; for of course an
ordinary whip would have had no more effect than a peacock's feather, on
an elephant's hide!

"I ordered my mahowt to keep near one of the noosemen, whom I knew to be
expert in the use of the giant-lasso. His name was Ramjee. Both Ramjee
and his driver were screaming and yelling at the pitch of their voices,
and the latter was applying his mungri with tremendous energy. The
elephant they were after was a small female. It is always necessary
that the chasing elephant should be much heavier than the one chased,
else evil results follow, as we soon found. Presently the khedda
elephant was alongside. Ramjee lifted the great loop in both hands, and
leaned over till he almost touched the wild animal. Frequently this
noosing fails from various reasons. For one thing, the wild creatures
are often very clever at evading the noose: sometimes they push it away
with their trunks; occasionally they step right through it, and now and
then get only half through it, so that it forms a sort of tow rope, and
the other end of this rope being made fast to the neck of the tame
elephant, the wild one drags it along violently, unless the tame one is
much heavier than itself. This is exactly what happened to Ramjee. He
dropped the noose beautifully over the creature's head, but before it
could be hauled tight--which was accomplished by checking the tame
animal--the active creature had got its forelegs through. The loop
caught, however, on its hind quarters, and away it went, dragging the
tame elephant after it, Ramjee shrieking wildly for help. Two of the
other tame elephants, not yet engaged, were sent to his assistance.
These easily threw two more nooses over the wild creature, and, after a
good run, she was finally exhausted, secured with ropes, and driven back
to camp, there to be subjected to coercive treatment until she should
become tame.

"Meanwhile, other captures were being made in the field. I was just
moving off, after seeing this female secured, when a tremendous shouting
attracted me. It was a party chasing a fine youn