The Foreign Service Journal, January 1927
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THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Photo by R. L. Reiser ANNUAL BUDDHIST PROCESSION AT KANDY, CEYLON Vol. IV JANUARY, 1927 No. 1 GROWTH The growing public preference for Graham Brothers Trucks is strikingly told in the figures— Year Truck Sales Gain 1921 1086 1922 3401 213% 1923 6971 105% 1924 10791 55% 1925 24056 123% The first nine months of 1926, with sales aggre¬ gating 29,336 trucks, show an increase of 78.4% over the corresponding period of 1925. Progress—sound, swift, impressive. Qraham Brothers Trucks, with Dodge Brothers 3A*Ton Commercial Cars,meet 91% of all hauling requirements. GRAHAM BROTHERS Detroit, U.S.A. A DIVISION O«=■ DODGE BROTHERS, INC. GRAHAM BROTHERS Built by Truck Division of Dodge Brothers, Inc. SOLD BY DODGE BROTHERS DEALERS EVERYWHERE FOREIGN S JOURNAL PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE AMERICAN FOREIGN SERVICE ASSOCIATION VOL. IV. No. i WASHINGTON, D. C. JANUARY, 1927 Elephant Hunting De Luxe By R. L. KEISER, Consul Department ELEPHANTS may be curiosities, pests, eco¬ lon; it had been officially designated by the horo¬ nomic factors, or a quarry of the greatest of scope as the place where the stockade should be all sports, depending upon the observer’s built for an elephant kraal in 1921 which was viewpoint: curiosities to the bulk of mankind oc¬ being organized by a group of southern Ceylonese casionally glimpsing the circus or zoo variety; chieftains in order to maintain their prestige pests to the oriental agriculturalist whose fields are against a group of northern chieftains who had ruined by the foraging wild herds; not unintelli¬ some time previously successfully kraaled thirty- gent labor in certain sections of the world, when nine elephants. Luxury was apparently one of tamed; and a sagacious and dangerous quarry the mottoes of the chieftains wherein their few when hunted. guests were concerned. Having arrived at the For some thousands of historically charted outpost of civilization, a small native village and years elephant hunting has been the crowning a house for the use of the government official for sport in Ceylon, that the curiosity of the small the district when making his rounds, a thatched bamboo shed which had been especially built boy and his large father might be satisfied, that the paddy fields and chenas (fields in jungle clear¬ awaited as a garage to shelter our car for the few ings) might better survive, and that elephants days pending our return. Sedan chairs and por¬ might be supplied as day laborers in agriculture ters were awaiting our party and baggage. and industry, or possibly for temple use as sacred The Kaliwani trail, ordinarily but an obscure animals, in which case they are carefully bathed path through the jungle, difficult to follow, had daily and appear gorgeously caparisoned on cer¬ been widened and cleared to a path accommodat¬ tain religious holidays, being in the meantime ing in places from two to three people abreast. available for the more prosaic but probably none Lest the reader gain the impression that the going the less righteous purpose of being rented at a not was easy, suffice it to say that the path climbed at to be sneezed at per diem to neighboring agricul¬ times over precipitous rocks and before we ar¬ turalists who, besides paying the stipulated rental, rived at Kaliwani by this trail we crossed a moun¬ must also furnish the two hundred and fifty odd tain pass, having ascended well over one thousand pounds of food with which a grown animal stokes feet in the process. itself daily. Early in the afternoon while approaching On a delightful spring morning we left Colombo through a winding valley to our final destination and leisurely motored the hundred miles over a herd of elephants was glimpsed lazily browsing splendid macadam roads to pick up the Kaliwani on the neighboring mountain side. We suddenly trail beyond Ratnapura. Kaliwani for the mo¬ became part and parcel of the hunt. True, we ment was the central place of interest for all Cey¬ had nothing to do with the arrangements; we had 1 but to live in the excitement and enjoy the thrill sandals, having previously provided for his trip provided for us, but the realization was suddenly a small quantity of rice, an odd cocoanut or two, forced upon us that an elephant hunt meant and a few bananas. It was only a matter of a genuinely live elephants in the jungle. few weeks from this point to an organized, con¬ A few minutes more, the restricted valley stantly narrowing circle on the 10 or 12 mile widened, and we emerged upon what had been a circumference around which an incessant vigil peaceful, natural clearing of about 2 acres in the was being maintained by two thousand odd “beat¬ jungle, which had but recently been transformed ers,” as the men are termed who urge the herds into an animated village of some 15 bamboo houses toward the stockade. ranging from one-room huts to elaborate struc¬ The earlier scenes of the drive, the shouting tures sufficient to house a governor general and by day and the now glowing and now flaming his party. A police station, a dispensary, a post fires by night are left to the readers imagination. and telegraph office, and then our guide pointed The elephants retire by night from the line of to a small hill on one side of the clearing, proudly fires; the shouting by day prevents their retrac¬ telling us that the house crowning the hill was ing the ground which they have abandoned; the ours. This pseudo civilization was rudely inter¬ never-ending circle of fire constantly decreases rupted by a sign in English, Singalese, and Tamil its diameter. indicating in a most blase manner: “Road to The herds are sometimes encircled and moved Stockade. mile.” as far as 100 miles in this manner in order to Some months before, the horoscope had indi¬ bring them into the vicinity of the stockade. Va¬ cated a propitious day upon which to commence rious herds may be collected to form one common construction of the stockade. A tree had there¬ herd moved forward by the surging energy of upon been cut and placed in position in the ground the beaters in the final drive-in. early in the morning of that day. Little did it We emerged upon the valley of Kraal-Town matter whether the stockade was completed within just as the drive-in was slated for performance. one month or one year thereafter. The horoscope The immediate hills were encircled by nearly had also indicated the day upon which the “drive” 3,000 men. Excited but unwarranted reports of was to begin, and upon that day the ranking chief¬ herds of from 50 to 100 elephants were current. tain had thrown over his head the half shell of After a short rest in our house on the hill we a cocoanut, which, he said (although from the nervously walked down the jungle path to the twinkle in his eye I was always suspicious of the stockade, an inclosure of about 1 acre surrounded actuality) had fallen in the direction in which by a giant’s fence some 15 feet high. Trees had wild elephants were to be found. Our chieftain been cut down, carried and inserted upright in thereupon set out in this direction, dressed in the the ground at intervals of about 2 feet. To these approved jungle costume, a skirt and a pair of other tree trunks were then lashed horizontally With bamboo withes; the corners of the stockade were braced with trans¬ verse sections; and at one end an opening, the only means of entrance or egress, had been left. The stockade was built across a shallow ravine through which a stream of water flowed; from the entrance there ex¬ tended diagonally up the sides of the ravine two fences of similar con¬ struction, forming a fun¬ nel, the extreme width of which was perhaps 1,000 feet. It was the dry sea¬ son and elephants kept 2 close to water courses. This peaceful stockade, of recovery in that kraal; for the battle had been with its densely matted forest growth, was far so fierce that the customary tactical second line different from the fire emblazoned and encircled of beaters had been brought up to assist in the battle ground of down trodden jungle which it conflict. was to become 48 hours later. The beaters’ efforts were redoubled and just at Our first night spent in Kraal-Town seemed twilight an apparently calm group of elephants interminable. A drop in temperature to about emerged from the jungle in double file. In a 78 degrees with the penetrating, miasmatic, rapid swinging walk they passed down into the jungle dampness and the thin protection afforded valley, through the ribbon of jungle lining the by our canvas cots made it impossible to get stream at the bottom, up the adjoining hill, and warm. We literally froze all night under all of disappeared directly into the stockade funnel. the blankets, clothing, and any other flat pliable There ensued a night of calm. Not an ele¬ objects within reach. phant trumpeted, scarcely a beater shouted. In Directly below the hut, at the bottom of a the meantime a double fence was being built back small hill, was one side of the driving line, ex¬ of the herd, enclosing it in the triangular area tending to the funnel end a short distance be¬ in front of the stockade, expecting that it might yond. The herd was approaching the funnel. during the night seek escape through the stock¬ Once in the night we were awakened from our ade entrance.