This is the largest quadruped at present extant on the earth. It is
nine feet high, and in some cases has risen to the height of fifteen
feet. Its weight varies from four to nine thousand pounds. Nor is it
more distinguished for its size than its sagacity. When tamed, it
becomes the most gentle, obedient, and affectionate of domestic
animals, capable of being trained to any service which may be required
of it.
There are two species of elephant--the Asiatic and the African. The
former is the largest and best known. In the mighty forests which they
inhabit, they hold undisputed sway; their immense size, strength, and
swiftness, enabling them to dislodge all intruders from their abodes.
Even the lion and tiger fear their united attacks, and avoid being in
their vicinity. They are excellent swimmers, and are capable of
crossing the largest rivers. This power seems essential, for the
quantity of food they consume renders it necessary for them to remove
often from one region to another.
_Miscellaneous Anecdotes._--Bishop Heber, in his approach to Dacca,
saw a number of elephants bathing, which he thus describes: "At a
distance of about half a mile from those desolate palaces a sound
struck my ear, as if from the water itself on which we were riding--the
most solemn and singular I can conceive. It was long, loud, deep, and
tremulous--something like the blowing of a whale, or, perhaps, more
like those roaring buoys which are placed at the mouths of some English
harbors, in which the winds make a noise to warn ships off them. 'O,'
said Abdallah, 'there are elephants bathing; Dacca much place for
elephant.' I looked immediately, and saw about twenty of these fine
animals, with their heads and trunks just appearing above the water.
Their bellowing it was which I had heard, and which the water conveyed
to us with a finer effect than if we had been on shore."
The manner of hunting and taming the wild elephant, in Asia, is
curious. In the middle of a forest, where these animals are known to
abound, a large piece of ground is marked out, and surrounded with
strong stakes driven into the earth, interwoven with branches of trees.
One end of this enclosure is narrow, and it gradually widens till it
takes in a great extent of country. Several thousand men are employed
to surround the herd of elephants, and to prevent their escape. They
kindle large fires at certain distances; and, by hallooing, beating
drums, and playing discordant instruments, so bewilder the poor
animals, that they allow themselves to be insensibly driven, by some
thousands more Indians, into the narrow part of the enclosure, into
which they are decoyed by tame female elephants, trained to this
service. At the extreme end of the large area is a small enclosure,
very strongly fenced in, and guarded on all sides, into which the
elephants pass by a long, narrow defile. As soon as one enters this
strait, a strong bar is thrown across the passage from behind.
He now finds himself separated from his neighbors, and goaded on all
sides by huntsmen, who are placed along this passage, till he reaches
the smaller area, where two tame female elephants are stationed, who
immediately commence disciplining him with their trunks, till he is
reduced to obedience, and suffers himself to be conducted to a tree, to
which he is bound by the leg, with stout thongs of untanned elk or
buckskin. The tame elephants are again conducted to the enclosure,
where the same operation is performed on the others, till all are
subdued. They are kept bound to trees for several days, and a certain
number of attendants left with each animal to supply him with food, by
little and little, till he is brought by degrees to be sensible of
kindness and caresses, and thus allows himself to be conducted to the
stable.
So docile and susceptible of domestication is the elephant, that, in a
general way, fourteen days are sufficient to reduce the animals to
perfect obedience. During this time, they are fed daily with cocoa-nut
leaves, of which they are excessively fond, and are conducted to the
water by the tame females. In a short time, they become accustomed to
the voice of their keeper, and at last quietly resign their freedom,
and great energies, to the dominion of man.
The mode employed by the Africans, to take elephants alive, is by pits.
Pliny, whose accounts were in general correct, mentions that, when one
of the herd happened to fall into this snare, his companions would
throw branches of trees and masses of earth into the pit, with the
intention of raising the bottom, so that the animal might effect his
escape. Although this appears to be a species of reasoning hardly to be
expected from an animal, yet it has in a great measure been confirmed
by Mr. Pringle, who says,--"In the year 1821, during one of my
excursions in the interior of the Cape Colony, I happened to spend a
few days at the Moravian missionary settlement of Enon, or White River.
This place is situated in a wild but beautiful valley, near the foot of
the Zuurberg Mountains, in the district of Uiterhage, and is surrounded
on every side by extensive forests of evergreens, in which numerous
herds of elephants still find food and shelter.
"From having been frequently hunted by the Boors and Hottentots, these
animals are become so shy as scarcely ever to be seen during the day,
except amongst the most remote and inaccessible ravines and jungles;
but in the night time they frequently issue forth in large troops, and
range, in search of food, through the inhabited farms in the White
River valley; and on such occasions they sometimes revenge the wrongs
of their race upon the settlers who have taken possession of their
ancient haunts, by pulling up fruit-trees, treading down gardens and
cornfields, breaking their ploughs, wagons, and so forth. I do not
mean, however, to affirm, that the elephants really do all this
mischief from feelings of revenge, or with the direct intention of
annoying their human persecutors. They pull up the trees, probably,
because they want to browse on their soft roots; and they demolish the
agricultural implements merely because they happen to be in their way.
"But what I am now about to state assuredly indicates no ordinary
intelligence. A few days before my arrival at Enon, a troop of
elephants came down, one dark and rainy night, close to the outskirts
of the village. The missionaries heard them bellowing, and making an
extraordinary noise, for a long time, at the upper end of the orchard;
but, knowing well how dangerous it is to encounter these powerful
animals in the night, they kept close within their houses till
daylight. Next morning, on their examining the spot where they had
heard the elephants, they discovered the cause of all this nocturnal
uproar. There was at this spot a ditch or trench, about four or five
feet in width, and nearly fourteen feet in depth, which the industrious
missionaries had recently cut through the banks of the river, on
purpose to lead out water to irrigate some part of their garden, and to
drive a corn-mill. Into this trench, which was still unfinished, and
without water, one of the elephants had evidently fallen, for the marks
of his feet were distinctly visible at the bottom, as well as the
impress of his huge body on the sides.
"How he had got into it, was not easy to conjecture; but how, being
once in, he ever contrived to get out again, was the marvel. By his own
unaided efforts it was obviously impossible for such an animal to have
extricated himself. Could his comrades, then, have assisted him? There
can be no question that they had, though by what means, unless by
hauling him out with their trunks, it would not be easy to conjecture;
and, in corroboration of this supposition, on examining the spot
myself, I found the edges of this trench deeply indented with numerous
vestiges, as if the other elephants had stationed themselves on either
side,--some of them kneeling, and others on their feet,--and had thus,
by united efforts, and probably after many failures, hoisted their
unlucky brother out of the pit."
We are told that the Emperor Domitian had a troop of elephants
disciplined to dance to the sound of music; and that one of them, which
had been beaten for not having his lesson perfect, was observed, on the
following night, to be practising by himself in a meadow.
The elephant recently exhibited in New York was fed by a young girl
with cakes and apples. While in the act of pulling an apple from her
bag, she drew out her ivory card-case, which fell, unobserved, in the
sawdust of the ring. At the close of the performances, the crowd opened
to let the elephant pass out; but, instead of proceeding as usual, he
turned aside, and thrust his trunk in the midst of a group of ladies
and gentlemen, who, as might be supposed, were very much alarmed. The
keeper at this moment discovered that the animal had something in his
trunk: upon examination, it was found to be the young lady's card-case,
which the elephant had picked up, and was now seeking out the fair
owner.
A female elephant, belonging to a gentleman at Calcutta, being ordered
from the upper country to Chittagong, broke loose from her keeper, and
was lost in the woods. The excuses which the man made were not
admitted. It was supposed that he had sold the elephant. His wife and
family were, therefore, sold as slaves, and he was himself condemned to
work upon the roads. About twelve years after, this man was ordered
into the country to assist in catching wild elephants. In a group that
he saw before him, the keeper thought that he recognized his long-lost
elephant. He was determined to go up to it; nor could the strongest
representations of the danger dissuade him from his purpose.
When he approached the creature, she knew him and, giving him three
salutes by waving her trunk in the air, knelt down and received him on
her back. She afterwards assisted in securing the other elephants, and
likewise brought with her three young ones, which she had produced
during her absence. The keeper recovered his character; and, as a
recompense for his sufferings and intrepidity, an annuity was settled
on him for life. This elephant was afterwards in the possession of
Warren Hastings.
Of the attachment of elephants to their keepers, or to those who have
done them a kindness, many instances are on record. AElian relates that
a man of rank in India, having very carefully trained up a female
elephant, used daily to ride upon her. She was exceedingly sagacious,
and much attached to her master. The prince, having heard of the
extraordinary gentleness and capacity of this animal, demanded her of
her owner. But so attached was this person to his elephant, that he
resolved to keep her at all hazards, and fled with her to the
mountains. The prince, having heard of his retreat, ordered a party of
soldiers to pursue, and bring back the fugitive with his elephant. They
overtook him at the top of a steep hill, where he defended himself by
throwing stones down upon his pursuers, in which he was assisted by his
faithful elephant, who threw stones with great dexterity. At length,
however, the soldiers gained the summit of the hill, and were about to
seize the fugitive, when the elephant rushed amongst them with the
utmost fury, trampled some to death, dashed others to the ground with
her trunk, and put the rest to flight. She then placed her master, who
was wounded in the contest upon her back, and conveyed him to a place
of security.
When Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, attacked the territory of Argos, one of
his soldiers, who was mounted upon an elephant, received a dangerous
wound, and fell to the ground. When the elephant discovered that he had
lost his master in the tumult, he furiously rushed among the crowd,
dispersing them in every direction, till he had found him. He then
raised him from the ground with his trunk, and, placing him across his
tusks, carried him back to the town.
Some years ago, an elephant at Dekan, from a motive of revenge, killed
its conductor. The wife of the unfortunate man was witness to the
dreadful scene; and, in the frenzy of her mental agony, took her two
children, and threw them at the feet of the elephant, saying, "As you
have slain my husband, take my life, also, as well as that of my
children!" The elephant became calm, seemed to relent, and, as if stung
with remorse, took up the eldest boy with its trunk, placed him on its
neck, adopted him for its _cornac_, and never afterwards allowed
another to occupy that seat.
A soldier, in India, was in the habit of giving to an elephant,
whenever he received his pay, a certain quantity of arrack. Once, being
intoxicated, this soldier committed some excesses, and was ordered to
be sent to the guard-house; but he fled from the soldiers who were sent
to apprehend him, and took refuge under the body of his favorite
elephant, where he laid himself down quietly, and fell asleep. In vain
the guard attempted to seize upon him, and draw him from his place of
refuge; for the grateful elephant defended him with his trunk, and they
were obliged to abandon their attempt to secure him. When the soldier
awoke next morning from his drunken slumber, he was very much alarmed
at finding himself under the belly of such an enormous animal; but the
elephant caressed him with his trunk, so as to quiet his apprehensions,
and he got up and departed in safety.
The author of the "Twelve Years' Military Adventures" says,--"I have
seen the wife of a _mohout_ give a baby in charge to an elephant, while
she was on some business, and have been highly amused in observing the
sagacity and care of the unwieldy nurse. The child, which, like most
children, did not like to lie still in one position, would, as soon as
left to itself, begin crawling about, in which exercise it would
probably get among the legs of the animal, or entangle itself in the
branches of the trees on which he was feeding, when the elephant would,
in the most tender manner, disengage his charge, either by lifting it
out of the way with his trunk, or by removing the impediments to his
free progress. If the child had crawled to such a distance as to verge
upon the limits of his range,--for the animal was chained by the leg to
a peg driven into the ground,--he would stretch out his trunk, and lift
it back, as gently as possible, to the spot whence it had started."
The elephant is not less disposed to resent an injury than to reward a
benefit. It has been frequently observed, by those who have had the
charge of these animals, that they seem sensible of being ridiculed,
and seldom miss an opportunity of revenging themselves for the insults
they receive in this way. An artist in Paris wished to draw the
elephant in the menagerie at the _Jardin des Plantes_ in an
extraordinary attitude, which was with his trunk elevated in the air,
and his mouth open. An attendant on the artist, to make the elephant
preserve the attitude, threw fruits into his mouth, and often pretended
to throw them, without doing so. The animal became irritated, and,
seeming to think that the painter was the cause of his annoyance,
turned to him, and dashed a quantity of water from his trunk over the
paper on which the painter was sketching the portrait.
An amusing anecdote is related, by Captain Williamson, of an elephant,
which went by the name of the _paugal_, or fool, who, by his sagacity,
showed he could act with wisdom. This animal, when on a march, refused
to carry on his back a larger load than was agreeable to him, and
pulled down as much of the burden as reduced it to the weight which he
conceived proper for him to bear. One day, the quarter-master of
brigade became enraged at this obstinacy in the animal, and threw a
tent-pin at his head. A few days afterwards, as the creature was on his
way from camp to water, he overtook the quarter-master, and, seizing
him in his trunk, lifted him into a large tamarind-tree, which overhung
the road, and left him to cling to the branches, and to get down the
best way he could.
We shall conclude our anecdotes of the elephant with one which shows it
in a most amiable light. The Rajah Dowlah chose once to take the
diversion of hunting in the neighborhood of Lucknow, where there was a
great abundance of game. The grand vizier rode his favorite elephant,
and was accompanied by a train of Indian nobility. They had to pass
through a ravine leading to a meadow, in which several sick persons
were lying on the ground, in order to receive what benefit they could
from exposure to the air and the rays of the sun. As the vizier
approached with his numerous hunting party, the attendants of these
sick persons betook themselves to flight, leaving the helpless patients
to their fate. The nabob seriously intended to pass with his elephants
over the bodies of these poor wretches. He therefore ordered the driver
to goad on his beast. The elephant, as long as he had a free path, went
on at full trot; but, as soon as he came to the first of the sick
people, he stopped. The driver goaded him, and the vizier cursed; but
in vain. "Stick the beast in the ear!" cried the nabob. It was done;
but the animal remained steadfast before the helpless human creatures.
At length, when the elephant saw that no one came to remove the
patients, he took up one of them with his trunk, and laid him
cautiously and gently to a side. He proceeded in the same way with a
second and a third; and, in short, with as many as it was necessary to
remove, in order to form a free passage, through which the nabob's
retinue could pass without injuring any of them. How little did this
noble animal deserve to be rode by such an unfeeling brute in human
form!