These Were The Methods Adopted By
Poor Hunters, Until, By The Sale Of Ivory, They Could Purchase
Horses For The Higher Branch Of The Art.
Provided with horses,
the party of hunters should not exceed four.
They start before
daybreak, and ride slowly throughout the country in search of
elephants, generally keeping along the course of a river until
they come upon the tracks where a herd or a single elephant may
have drunk during the night. When once upon the tracks, they
follow fast towards the retreating game. The elephants may be
twenty miles distant; but it matters little to the aggageers. At
length they discover them, and the hunt begins. The first step is
to single out the bull with the largest tusks; this is the
commencement of the fight. After a short hunt, the elephant turns
upon his pursuers, who scatter and fly from his headlong charge
until he gives up the pursuit; he at length turns to bay when
again pressed by the hunters. It is the duty of one man in
particular to ride up close to the head of the elephant, and thus
to absorb its attention upon himself. This insures a desperate
charge. The greatest coolness and dexterity are then required by
the hunter, who now, the HUNTED, must so adapt the speed of his
horse to the pace of the elephant, that the enraged beast gains
in the race until it almost reaches the tail of the horse. In
this manner the race continues.
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