, and retired to resume his perilous
duties in the corral.

The rest of the herd were now in a state of pitiable dejection, and
pressed closely together as if under a sense of common misfortune. For
the most part they stood at rest in a compact body, fretful and uneasy.
At intervals one more impatient than the rest would move out a few steps
to reconnoitre; the others would follow at first slowly, then at a
quicker pace, and at last the whole herd would rush off furiously to
renew the often-baffled attempt to storm the stockade.

There was a strange combination of the sublime and the ridiculous in
these abortive onsets; the appearance of prodigious power in their
ponderous limbs, coupled with the almost ludicrous shuffle of their
clumsy gait, and the fury of their apparently resistless charge,
converted in an instant into timid retreat. They rushed madly down the
enclosure, their backs arched, their tails extended, their ears spread,
and their trunks raised high above their heads, trumpeting and uttering
shrill screams, yet when one step further would have dashed the opposing
fence into fragments, they stopped short on a few white rods being
pointed at them through the paling[1]; and, on catching the derisive
shouts of the crowd, they turned in utter discomfiture, and after an
objectless circle or two through the corral, they paced slowly back to
their melancholy halting place in the shade.

[Footnote 1: The fact of the elephant exhibiting timidity, on having a
long rod pointed towards him, was known to the Romans; and PLINY,
quoting from the annals of PISO, relates, that in order to inculcate
contempt for want of courage in the elephant, they were introduced into
the circus during the triumph of METELLUS, after the conquest of the
Carthaginians in Sicily, and _driven round the area by workmen holding
blunted spears_,--"Ab operariis hastas praepilatas habentibus, per circum
totam actos."--Lib. viii. c. 6.]

The crowd, chiefly comprised of young men and boys, exhibited
astonishing nerve and composure at such moments, rushing up to the point
towards which the elephants charged, pointing their wands at their
trunks, and keeping up the continual cry of _whoop! whoop!_ which
invariably turned them to flight.

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
Ra