CHAPTER VI. DOMESTIC EMPLOYMENT OF ELEPHANTS IN THE EAST.-TRAINING.-DOCILITY. An old traveller in the East, describing the mode of taming the wild elephant after his capture, says, "The people goad him with pointed canes till they force him into a narrow stall, in which he is securely fastened with strong ropes about his body and legs, and is left there for three or four days without food or drink. Then they bring a female to him, with food and drink, and unbind the ropes, and he becomes tame in three or four days*" The rapidity with which the elephant is here represented as becoming content with his new lot, is an exaggeration. The actual process is a much slower one. The animal is carefully attended upon; all his necessities are diligently supplied; he has abundance of food and drink; his skin is kept cool by continued applications of water; the flies that irritate him are driven off. One man, his intended keeper, is always about him, soothing him by the most diligent kindness. The animal gradually learns that his comforts must depend upon the will of this keeper, and he allows him, therefore, to approach him, and at length to get upon his back. As the elephant gains confidence the keeper is more bold, and soon takes his position upon the neck, with the iron hook (hawkuss or ankush), ready to direct him, by catching hold of his ear, or pressing it into his skin. To this rough monitor he *Fitch's Journey; in Kerr's Collection of Voyages, vol. vii. p. 491. VOL. II. gradually yields entire submission, as the horse submits to be urged on by the spur. The method of reducing the elephant to obedience, pursued at this day in Hindostan, is doubtless that which has been observed for centuries in a country where nothing changes. The "Dwin-Shaster," one of the old sacred books of the Hindoos, says, The mind is stronger than an elephant, whom men have found means to subdue, though they have never been able to subdue their own inclinations. But the ankush of the mind is true wisdom, which sees into the vanity of all worldly things *." 66 It is generally as long as six months before the elephant is rendered perfectly obedient to his keeper, so as to be conducted from place to place, without difficulty. The females are invariably more docile than the males, and require much less severity in their breaking in. The subjection of this animal, as in most other instances of the domination of man over inferior creatures, is produced by impressing him with fear as well as affection. When his spirit is broken by his first confinement, he is soothed by unvarying kindness, till he permits his master to bestride him; and then comes the terror of the hook and the spike. Upon the whole, however, elephants are reduced to and kept in obedience more by kindness than severity. Mr. Corse complains that "the keepers trust too much to their good nature, before they are thoroughly acquainted with their dispositions." This circumstance indicates that, according to the experience of these professional superintendents of the education of the elephant, the nature of the animal is generally tractable. There are, however, great differences of character amongst them; which differences render it unsafe to trust too much to their *Dow's Hindostan, p. lviii. uncommon. obedience before it has been fully proved. Of the three elephants with which Bishop Heber travelled in Oude, one was described by his mohout as a finetempered beast, but the other two, he said, were "great rascals." Unruly elephants are by no means Isbrand- Ides, an ambassador from the Czar of Russia to China, saw at Pekin an elephant fastened with great chains on account of his evil temper; and such was the apprehension of mischief from his escape, that a pit was dug by his side that he might fall in if he broke his fetters *. Dampier, describing the curiosities of Tonquin, says, "Some of the elephants are very gentle and governable; others are more indocile and unruly. When these rude ones are to pass through the streets, though only to be watered, the rider or dresser orders a gong or drum to be beaten before him, to warn people that an unruly elephant is coming; and they presently clear the streets and give a passage for the beast, who will do mischief to any that are in the way, and their riders or keepers cannot restrain him †.” Shah-Jehan, the Mogul emperor, was so enraged by the disrespect of the ambassador of his rival, ShahAbbas, the king of Persia, that he gave secret orders that when the ambassador entered a long and narrow street in the fortress of Delhi, leading to the hall of assembly, a vicious elephant should be let loose upon him. The differences of character between elephants are so marked, that at the court of Siam, according to Tavernier, "if any favourite elephant falls sick and dies, he is, with funeral pomp, burned to ashes with reeds and the weight of his body of sweet wood; but if he be an offender, he is not burnt, but buried §." The temper of the elephant cannot *Hist. Gen. des Voyages, v. 517. Dampier's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 68. § Tavernier, p. ii. b. iii. c. 18. Bernier, vol. i. p. 174. always be calculated upon. The most morose will sometimes become perfectly docile, and the most gentle will occasionally be intractable and revengeful. Mr. Williamson tells an anecdote of a male elephant belonging to a gentleman at Chittagong, which he endeavoured for ten years, but in vain, to render obedient. "He was repeatedly offered for sale at a low price; but his character was so well known, that none would purchase him. It is customary in that district to have the fire-wood, which is cut into stumps of about a foot or less in diameter, and perhaps five or six feet long, piled regularly, and this work is usually performed by elephants; when properly trained they will execute it as well as any labourers. The animal in question could not be induced to perform this drudgery; and all attempts to enforce his obedience having proved useless, his master at last gave up the point: to his utter astonishment the elephant became suddenly good tempered, and went of his own free will to the wood-yard, where he not only exerted himself greatly, but was, in the regularity of his work, at least equal to those which had more practice *" Was this extraordinary change produced by any physical alteration in the animal; or was it the result of a process of reasoning, by which the creature discovered that the labour, to which his companions submitted, would be less annoying than the constant punishment and irritation to which he was subjected by his disobedience? The elephant, like all other animals, is sometimes made unruly by injudicious punishment, and this might have been the case in the remarkable conduct above described. A fearful example of this came under the notice of Mr. Zoffany, an English artist, who painted a spirited picture of the circum * Oriental Field Sports, p. 30. |