(technically called a calf) to suck as it runs along by the side of the mother, or even under her belly*. The affection of the female elephant for her young has been denied by some writers. Mr. Williamson, however, gives an anecdote which contradicts this opinion. He says, "a female elephant will trust her young with great confidence among the human species, but is very jealous of all brutes. If, however, they suspect any trick, or perceive any danger, they become ungovernable. I recollect being one of many who were seated at the top of a flight of stone steps at the entrance into the Great House at Secrole, and had enticed the calf of a very fine, good-tempered elephant feeding below to ascend towards us. When

she had nearly got up the steps her foot slipped, and she was in danger of falling; which being perceived by the mother, she darted to save the rambler, sending forth a most terrific roar, and with such a significant eye as made us all tremble. She guided the descent of her little one with wonderful caution, none of us feeling the least disposition to offer any aid on the occasion 99 * Captain Knox, who was detained for twenty years a captive in Ceylon, says, "As the Chingalays report, they bear the greatest love to their young of all irrational creatures; for the shes are alike tender of any one's young ones as of their own. Where there are many she-elephants together, the young ones go and suck of any, as well as of their mothers and if a young one be in distress, and should cry out, they will all in general run to the help and aid thereof; and if they be going over a river, as here be some somewhat broad, and the streams run very swift, they will all with their trunks assist and help to convey the young ones overt."

The calf of the elephant, like the young of every animal, follows its mother with great perseverance; although he is ready enough to frisk about in his rude way, and especially to play with children, as if he had the lightness of a kid. These sports may remind us of the assembly of "all beasts of th' earth" before our common parents in Eden, when

“th' unwieldy elephant

To make them mirth used all his might ‡."

Mr. Williamson says, "the calves are extremely playful, but possess great strength, rendering their gambols rather dangerous;" and Tavernier has an agreeable passage describing their mode of play.

* Oriental Field Sports, p. 43.

† Historical Relation of Ceylon, chap. vi.
Paradise Lost, book iv.

"When merchants bring elephants to any place for sale, 'tis a pleasant sight to see them go along. There are old and young together, and when the old are gone by, the children run after the little ones, and leap upon their backs, giving them something to eat; but perceiving their dams are gone forward, they throw the children off, without hurting them, and double their pace*."

The young elephants which are reared in our Indian settlements are principally produced by the females that are taken wild at the time they are in calf. It does not appear that there is any difficulty in the education of these little ones, who are accustomed to a domestic state from their birth; but that they are gradually accustomed to bear burthens, and to become obedient to the commands of their keepers. In the kingdom of Ava, where the female elephants belonging to the king are in a state of half wildness, there is considerable trouble in reducing the young ones to submission. Mr. Crawfurd, who was the British envoy to the court of Ava in 1827, has given an account of this curious operation:

"The young male elephants are weaned at three years old, that is to say, they are then separated from their dams, and broken in,-a process which appears to be nearly as tedious and difficult as that of breaking in a full-grown elephant taken in the forest. A singular ceremony was performed before this process commenced, which deserves mention :It consisted of an invocation to the Nat Udin-main-so, the genius of elephant hunting. Between the walls of the town and an artificial mount planted with trees, and raised upon a ledge of rocks, jetting into the Irawadi, there is a small elephant paddock, con sisting of a single square palisade having no gates.

* Tavernier's Travels, part ii. book 1.

:

The king sat under a little pavillion on the side of the mount, and directed in person the ceremony to which I allude. A banana tree had been planted in the middle of the paddock, which was removed with great ceremony; and on the spot where it stood, five elderly persons came forward, with a solemn strut and dance, holding in their hands branches of a species of eugenia or jambu, and carrying offerings of rice and sweetmeats to the Nat. I could not learn the exact words of the incantation; but the substance of it was, that the demi-god was informed that a glorious prince, the descendant of great kings, presided at the present ceremony; that he, the demigod, therefore, was requested to be propitious to it, to get the elephants quietly into the pen, and generally to lend his aid throughout the whole ceremony. About two-and-thirty female elephants, with their young included, were now driven into the inclosure: they were shortly followed by four male elephants, the riders of which had long ropes, with a noose at the end, in their hands. After many unsuccessful efforts, they succeeded at last in entangling the young elephant that was to be weaned, by the hind leg. This was a matter of great difficulty, for he was protected by the adroitness of the herd of female elephants which crowded round him for the purpose. When taken, he was a great deal more outrageous and obstreperous than the wild elephant caught yesterday. The large mounted elephants had to beat him frequently; and I observed, once or twice, that they raised him quite off the ground with their tusks, without doing him any material injury. The cry which he emitted on these occasions differed in no way but in degree from the squeak of a hog that is in pain or fear. He was ultimately confined in a small pen beyond one of the doors of the paddock, where two of the male elephants continued to watch

him. He was still very outrageous, and making violent efforts to extricate himself, but all to little purpose*"

The various modes of capturing wild elephants in India have undergone little variation for several cen▾ turies; and they are, more or less, practised in all parts of Asia where elephants are still required to maintain the splendour of Oriental luxury,-to assist in the pomp and administer to the pride of despotic monarchs; or, as is the case in our own Eastern establishments, to bear the heavy equipage of an Indian camp, or to labour in the peaceful occupations of transporting those articles of commerce, which are far too weighty to be moved by the power of the horse or the camel.

As civilization has advanced in India, the supply of wild elephants has necessarily diminished. In the time of Baber the herds were described as inhabiting "the district of Kalpi; and the higher you advance from thence towards the east, the more do the wild elephants increase in number. That is the tract in which the elephant is chiefly taken. There may

be thirty or forty villages in Karrah and Manikpûr that are occupied solely in this employment of taking elephants." The learned translators of these memoirs, Dr. Leyden and Mr. Erskine, say, in a note to this passage, the improvement of Hindûstan since Baber's time must be prodigious. The wild elephant is now confined to the forests under Hemlâa, and to the Ghats of Malabar. A wild elephant near Karrah (Currah), Manikpûr, or Kalpi, is a thing, at the present day, totally unknown. May not their familiar existence in these countries, down to Baber's days, be considered as rather hostile to the accounts given of the superabundant population of Hindustan

*Crawfurd's Embassy to Ava, p. 304.