nions, who stood in the
centre of the area, formed in a circle round their young ones.

Thus they passed the night--the hunters sleeping near the line of
blazing fires kept up outside the corral, and hundreds of men and boys
with spears, and white wands ten feet long, being on the watch to turn
the elephants should they attempt to charge the stockade. This,
however, they were too astonished and subdued to attempt to do.

The next morning preparations were made to conduct the tame elephants,
who were to play a very important part in the capture, into the corral.
There were a dozen or more of these intelligent creatures, belonging to
the different chiefs as well as to the government. Some had only, we
were told, been captured a year, and yet they seemed fully to comprehend
the work they had to perform, and to take the keenest pleasure in making
prisoners of their former companions. Some also belonged to the
Buddhist temples, the priests employing them in their religious
ceremonies. One or two, we were assured, were upwards of a hundred
years old. One of the most intelligent was a female elephant about
fifty years old, which we called Bulbul. She showed herself to be a
keen sportswoman.

A large quantity of rope is required for noosing the elephants. This is
made from the fresh hides of the buffalo and deer. As no Singhalese
will touch a dead body, the only people who will manufacture these ropes
are the outcast Rodiyas, a party of whom stood at a distance from the
crowd. These unfortunate people are the most degraded race in the
country. Their very name means filth. They were compelled to go almost
naked; to live under sheds, not being allowed to build a house with two
walls. They could not enter a court of justice, or even a temple,
though nominally Buddhists. They are compelled to stand aside on the
road when any traveller passes them; and they fall on their knees when
they address any man of recognised caste. Their habits are dirty in the
extreme; and they eat any food, even carrion, which comes in their way.
They are, indeed, like the Cagots of France; and as little is known of
the cause which reduced their ancestors to their present degraded state
as in the instance of the last-named race. One thing alone could, and
assuredly would, restore them to communion with their fellow-creatures,
and that is the introduction of pure Christianity among them and the
population at large. Curiously enough, both p