The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1907-07-06
BIGGEST OR ELEPHANT HUNTS
KING or SLAMS ROUNDUP IN THE
JUNGLE.

Kraal-Some are Kept for Train
ina. Others Fed and Freed-Marks
Of Perfect Elephant.
All other hunts and drives, batt'.1s
and baggings Of big game are .Gslg-
nificant compared 10 the elephant hunt
OF the King of Siam. 1t is an ola as
well as picturesque custom and sur
wives unchanged in all its important
features.
1t used to be an annual affair, but
there have been serious lapses in this
reign, says the National Geographic
Magazine. There are forebodings lest
the great chase be given up Of neces-
sity as time goes on.
The royal elephant hunt was more
serious affair, perhaps, when that ma
jestic beast was the only means OF
royal travel on land and the elephant
corps and elephant batteries were the
most important branch Of the army.
Save for tradition and sentiment, for
occasional state splendOrs and pa
rades, the elephant today has no part
In Bangkok court life, and his occu-
patton would be gone were it not for
he survey corps, the road builders,
officials travelling in the PARKWAY prov
3nces and the teak forests and timber
cards where American overhead ma
chinery cannot supplant the intelligent
strength of the elephant.
For the great hunts at Ayuthia. site
OF the abandoned capital. the hunters
60 out weeks beforehand and beat
the jungles for a hundred miles to
north and east, and the Gordon OF
tame elephants slowly closes around
the wild elephants and drives them
in a herd OF two or three hundred
down to the river bank and across to
the Kings kraal.
The last hunt of this kind was ar
ranged for the special enjoyment OF
he Crown Prince after his return
from his studies at Oxford and his
tour OF America, and before he as
eumed the robes Of Buddhist priest
and spent the regulation three months
in a monastery, in accordance with
old Siamese custom.
For the hunt week the court stays
1t the nearby palace of Bang-pa-ln.
on the river banks, and the diplomatic
and other foreign guests go up to
Ayuthia on their households. which
luxuriously lodge them during the
time
All Bangkok that can find foothold
goes up the forty miles by train, and
al the riverside and creek country
people paddle their small boats and
dugout canoes to the arm of the Mel
lam on which the Kings kraal lies.
When the hunters have urged the
slow moving game out ~om the jungle
to the river bank the sight is worth
all Slams efforts to see. Hemmed in
at a safe distance by hundreds Of
boats the tame elephants slowly urge
their jungle cousins across the mea-
dow and into the converging ap-
breaches to the kraal
This square enclosure has solid
\walls six feet thick, with an inner
/stockade of teak logs twelve feet high,
banded together with iron and set
% closely together that there is bare
w space between for the slimmest
Siamese to squeeze through.
The grand stand, with it's royal
lodge. from which the King and his
guests view the scene, is built over
the north wall OF the kraal; but as
this position of honor and fixed ASH
attic convention is a bad one for pho
tographers the King, who is an en-
thusiast over the camera, has had a
special pavilion constructed at one
side, where he manoeuvres his in
struments, large and small, with the
greatest spirit. Nearly every one
VARIES a camera to the elephant hunt,
but none snap at royalty, except by
request. in so highly civilized coun-
TRIP as Siam.
AS the wild elephants crowd up and
into the narrow chute leading to the
kraal, trumpeting and shuffling nerv-
ously in their fright, the scramble and
crush is terrific. After the huge logs
have closed the wicket or portcullis
the tame elephants 60 around as an
ambulance corps, assisting bruised
and injured elephants to move and
rise to their feet and turning the
dead ones over out OF the way. At
every hunt several beasts have their
ribs broken and the life crushed out
OF them in this crush at the gates,
for whea two frantic elephants try
to go through at once, neither one
yields or draws back, and the strong
est and largest survives.
After this panic mildly subsidies.
though the kraal Is filled with the
wild jungle folk, who trumpet and
scream INCREASINGLY. the elephant doc