154 Manywild elephants breed on this island. The king has themcaptured and tamed and then sells them to merchants fromCoromandel and Vijayanagara; Malabar; Deccan, and Cambay, who come here to purchase them. They are captured in the following way: they put a female elephant tied to a tree with heavy chains on the mountain where they live, as bait; they dig three or four deep pits around her and place thin pieces of wood over them and cover them as carefully as they can with earth; when the wild elephants see the female, they fall into the pits, where they are left for seven or eight days, and are starved. They watch them around the clock, and a large number of men do not let them sleep, talking to them until they are tame enough to be fed from their hands. And then, once they have been broken and are tame, they tie a lead with a heavy chain around them. To get them out of the pits, they throw so many leaves and branches in that the elephants gradually rise, little by little until they can get out. They then tie them to a tree, where they are left for a few more days. Men with fires watch them by night, always talking to them and giving them small amounts of food, until they eat out of their hands; and this is how they capture both males and females, large and small and sometimes two of them fall into the same pit. They are an excellent commodity for them and are worth a lot of money. They are highly esteemed by the kings of India, who keep them out of pomp and circumstance; for war and labour. They are very domesticated, and are as wise and intelligent as men. The good ones are worth a thousand to one thousandfive hundred ducats, and the rest between four and five hundred according to their condition; this is in Malabar and Coromandel. One can buy them at a low price on this island; nobody can capture them except the king. There are, however, all sorts of precious stones on this island, too, and also such great lapidaries that if you take them a handful of gravel with stones in it, they can tell you straightaway if it has got rubies or sapphires in it. They can also tell how many hours a ruby or another
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