The second victim singled out from the herd was secured in the same manner as the first.  It was a female.  The tame ones forced themselves in on either side as before, cutting her off from her companions, whilst Ranghanie stooped under them and attached the fatal noose, and Siribeddi dragged her out amidst unavailing struggles, when she was made fast by each leg to the nearest group of strong trees.  When the noose was placed upon her fore-foot, she seized it with her trunk, and succeeded in carrying it to her mouth, where she would speedily have severed it had not a tame elephant interfered, and placing his foot on the rope pressed it downwards out of her jaws.  The individuals who acted as leaders in the successive charges on the palisades were always those selected by the noosers, and the operation of tying each, from the first approaches of the decoys, till the captive was left alone by the tree, occupied on an average somewhat less than three-quarters of an hour.

It is strange that in these encounters the wild elephants made no attempt to attack or dislodge the mahouts or the cooroowes, who rode on the tame ones.  They moved in the very midst of the herd, any individual in which could in a moment have pulled the riders from their seats; but no effort was made to molest them.[1]

[Footnote 1:  “In a corral, to be on a tame elephant, seems to insure perfect immunity from the attacks of the wild ones.  I once saw the old chief Mollegodde ride in amongst a herd of wild elephants, on a small elephant; so small that the Adigar’s head was on a level the back of the wild animals:  I felt very nervous, but he rode right in among them, and received not the slightest molestation.”—­Letter from MAJOR SKINNER.]

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As one after another their leaders wore entrapped and forced away from them, the remainder of the group evinced increased emotion and excitement; but whatever may have been their sympathy for their lost companions, their alarm seemed to prevent them at first from following them to the trees to which they had been tied.  In passing them afterwards they sometimes stopped, mutually entwined their trunks, lapped them round each other’s limbs and neck, and exhibited the most touching distress at their detention, but made no attempt to disturb the cords that bound them.

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The variety of disposition in the herd as evidenced by difference of demeanour was very remarkable:  some submitted with comparatively little resistance; whilst others in their fury dashed themselves on the ground with a force sufficient to destroy any weaker animal.  They vented their rage upon every tree and plant within reach; if small enough to be torn down, they levelled them with their trunks, and stripping them of their leaves and branches, they tossed them wildly over their heads on all sides.  Some in their struggles made no sound, whilst others bellowed and trumpeted furiously, then uttered short convulsive