Karl Hagenbeck and I stood in his beautiful gardens, beside the
enclosure in which the lions and tigers spend the long, hot summer
days so frequent in Hamburg. Most artistically this enclosure has been
made to resemble an African desert. In the foreground there are bushes
and a few small palm trees, whilst in the far-off distance there rise,
towering to a blue tropical sky, grim mountains and sun-stricken
rocks. There is thus conveyed to the mind an impression of the great
Nubian deserts--an impression whose force and reality is strengthened
by the appearance of the wild beasts themselves, basking in the heat
of the sun, or restlessly prowling about the enclosure.
"I should very much like to hear, Mr. Hagenbeck," said I, "everything
you can tell me of the way in which your wild beasts are captured."
"Well," he replied, "I will tell you as much as I can. Let us begin
with the animals from the deserts of Nubia, for I have hunting parties
all over the world. I send out a special messenger, who goes provided
with a lot of silver coin. Nubians know my courier, who goes on ahead
of this special messenger. When the courier reaches Suakim, it is
announced that my messenger is coming, and a great _fete_ is
proclaimed. Guns are fired off, tom-toms are beaten, and for at least
two days before he arrives there are the greatest rejoicings. Then the
people go out to meet him, and conduct him with great state to a place
on the borders of the desert where they have built a zereba. My
messenger then gives advance money to the hunters, who go into
Abyssinia to buy horses for the great hunt. As soon as the whole party
is collected, business begins. They are armed with assegais and long
hunting-swords like the old German swords. They are as broad as your
hand, sharp at both ends, and two handled. Men upon fast horses hunt
up the animals. Large animals, such as elephants and rhinoceroses,
with sucklings, are the best game. The hunters, forming a circle,
follow them. Having caught a rhinoceros with its young one, a man
jumps down from his horse and cuts the old beast in a vein, whilst
some of the other men chase another animal in front to distract
attention. Then the black fellow lets go the big rhinoceros, catches
the little one, ties its legs, and after it has calmed down brings it
to my collector, who is waiting for him in the zereba. The old one is
killed, skinned, and eaten. The natives make their best shields from
the hide. Elephants and giraffes are hunted in the same manner. I
have been describing to you chiefly the old method of hunting animals
in Nubia. Of late years they generally use guns. The young animals are
always brought up with goat's milk."
At this moment we were passing a large cage full of the finest lions I
had ever seen. As soon as they caught sight of Mr. Hagenbeck, they
began to purr loudly, and when he spoke, came up to the bars of the
cage to be stroked and petted.
"There," said my host, "these are some very beautiful lions from
Nubia. You can see that they are in perfect condition, and this is
chiefly owing to the fact that they are being trained for their
performances. There is nothing that keeps them in good health so much
as constant exercise; that, I think," added Mr. Hagenbeck, with a
laugh, "is a very good argument in favor of training wild beasts, and
goes a long way to prove that there really is very little cruelty in
it. Now, I'll tell you how lions are caught in the Nubian desert. The
Kauri negroes, when my messenger arrives, form parties to go in search
of young lions. When they discover the spoor of a lioness, they creep
about the bush until they find the animal's lair. It is usually one
man alone who does this, and he has only a bundle of assegais under
his left arm. Before the lioness can spring upon him, she has these
spears in her body. Look at this skin," continued Mr. Hagenbeck,
pointing to a magnificent tawny skin hanging up in the hall. "There,"
said he, "that skin has no less than twenty-four holes in it. The poor
mother made a brave fight for her young ones. Well," continued Mr.
Hagenbeck, "when the old lioness is killed he takes the young ones to
the zereba. The little lions are suckled by goats three times a day,
and get quite fond of their foster-mothers.
"Leopards and hyenas are caught in Nubia in traps which are made out
of wood or cut out of stone in the mountains. These traps are baited
with meat, and catch the big cats precisely as a mouse-trap catches a
mouse. Once trapped, the hunters can tie the creature's legs, and bear
it in triumph to the zereba."
"And how are the Asiatic animals caught?" I asked Mr. Hagenbeck.
"Well," he replied, "very much the same method is pursued there that
we adopt in Africa. For instance, in Borneo and Java, animals are
caught in trapfalls and pitfalls, and some in huge mouse-traps. In
these we often catch full-grown tigers, black panthers, and leopards.
In the pitfalls we find two horned rhinoceroses and saddlebacked
tapirs. The animals, running through the forest, run over these
pitfalls and drop in. The greater part of these unfortunately die
directly after they are caught; some kill themselves in their
excitement, others won't feed, and so pine away. A rhinoceros or a
tapir dies because it is often hurt internally, although we frequently
do not discover that they have been hurt until they have been with us
for one or two months. I can remember that I once imported seven big
rhinoceroses, and I sold only one of them, as the other six died.
Bengal tigers are caught young, brought up by the natives in much the
same way as the young lions in Africa, on milk and fowls. Most of
these come by way of Calcutta."
Standing in front of a great glass cage full of snakes, I said to Mr.
Hagenbeck: "Now, how do you manage to get hold of these reptiles? They
must be very dangerous."
"Ah!" he replied, with a thoughtful look, "I'll tell you later on one
or two stories of dreadful adventures that I myself have had with
snakes. In the meantime this is the way they are caught in India. In
the dry season the jungle is set on fire. As the snakes run out in all
directions, they are caught by the natives with long sticks having a
hoop at the end, to which is attached a big bag, a sort of exaggerated
butterfly net. After that the reptiles are packed in sacks made of
matting, which are fastened to long bamboos, and carried to Calcutta
on the shoulders of the natives. When Calcutta is reached, they are
packed in big boxes, from twelve to sixteen in a box, that is when
they are only eight or ten feet long; big snakes, from fourteen to
sixteen feet in length, are only packed from two to three in a box.
They are then sent direct to Europe without food or water on the
journey, for they require neither. The principal thing is to keep them
warm. Cold gives them mouth disease, which is certain death. I
remember once," continued Mr. Hagenbeck, "that I had one hundred and
sixty-two snakes reach London in perfect condition; a violent
snow-storm then came on, and when the boxes were opened in Hamburg
every snake was dead.
"The majority of my Asiatic elephants come from Ceylon, although a few
of them are exported from Burma. I remember one year there was a great
demand in the American market for Asiatic elephants; Barnum and
Forepaugh each wanted twelve. I couldn't get enough from Burma, so
sent direct to Ceylon, and got no less than sixty-seven elephants, all
of which I disposed of in the next twelve months. Most of these were
caught by noosing. This is done by Afghans who take out a license from
the Ceylon Government. They go out with dogs, find a herd, follow it
up, and drive the elephants into different flights; they then give
their attention to the younger elephants. Each man has a long raw-hide
rope with a noose in the end of it. He chases an elephant, throws the
noose round its hind legs, and follows it until a tree is reached,
round which the line is fastened. When the elephant drops down in
despair, the rope is fastened round its other legs, and it is left for
several days until calmed down; it is then taken and easily tamed. I
can well remember," said Mr. Hagenbeck, "how interested Prince
Bismarck was when I told all about the capture of my elephants.
"I was sitting in my room one day, when a servant came in and told me
that he believed that Prince Bismarck was in the menagerie. I went
out, and as soon as I saw his tall, erect figure and white moustache,
I knew it was the great man himself. I never came across so
intelligent a man, or one who asked so many questions. I should think
he must be something like your Gladstone."
"And how did you first start buying animals on such a big scale, Mr.
Hagenbeck?" said I.
"Well," he replied, "it was in this way. In 1863 the first big lot of
animals that ever appeared in Europe at one time were brought over by
an Italian named Casanova. He couldn't sell them, and we had not the
money to buy them, so they were sold to a menagerie at Kreutzburg,
then the biggest in Germany. Next year Casanova came over with a few
from Egypt, which I bought for the Dresden Zoo. This was the
beginning of the African business. I then gave Casanova a big order,
and arranged that he should bring over elephants, giraffes, and young
lions at a fixed price. It's always cheaper," added Mr. Hagenbeck,
with a laugh, "to get your dinner at the _table d'hote_ than by the
card, and I thought it would be cheaper and better to get all these
animals in one lot. Well, in 1866 he returned with a large cargo, in
which there were seven African elephants. At that time an African
elephant was a great novelty, both in Europe and in America. I sold
these elephants to America, where they excited great interest, as they
were the first African elephants that had ever been seen in that
country." As we were going back to Mr. Hagenbeck's office he pointed
out to me some very beautiful zebu bulls which he was going to send
out to South America to be used for agricultural and breeding
purposes. "There," said he, "you can see those animals nowhere else in
Europe except in my place. I got them from Central India; I have been
after them for ten years, and succeeded in getting them only two years
ago." Just then we passed a slaughter-yard, where a couple of horses
were being cut up for the carnivorous animals.
"It must be a very difficult matter," said I, "to know how to feed all
these animals properly."
"I should think it was," he replied. "Animals are most dainty and
delicate as regards their food. Now, for instance, those lions and
tigers which were exhibiting at the Crystal Palace last year were fed
on such bad food that they were quite ill when they came back here.
Besides, a number of young animals were seized with what appeared to
be cholera. I lost three thousand pounds' worth of them in three
weeks. It is a very anxious business, indeed, I can tell you."
NOTE.--In the July number will be published an article on "The
Training of Wild Animals," which includes a description of a
special performance given by Mr. Hagenbeck, at which Mr.
Blathwayt, the writer of the articles, was the only spectator.