CHAP. 8. (8.)—THE WAY IN WHICH ELEPHANTS ARE CAUGHT.
In India[1] they are caught by the keeper guiding one of the
tame elephants towards a wild one which he has found alone or
has separated from the herd; upon which he beats it, and when
it is fatigued mounts and manages it just the same way as the
other. In Africa[2] they take them in pit-falls; but as soon as
an elephant gets into one, the others immediately collect boughs
of trees and pile up heaps of earth, so as to form a mound, and
then endeavour with all their might to drag it out. It was formerly the practice to tame them by driving the herds with horsemen into a narrow defile, artificially made in such a way as
to deceive them by its length; and when thus enclosed by means
of steep banks and trenches, they were rendered tame by the
effects of hunger; as a proof of which, they would quietly
take a branch that was extended to them by one of the men.
At the present day, when we take them for the sake of their
tusks, we throw darts at their feet, which are in general the
most tender part of their body. The Troglodytæ, who inhabit
the confines of Æthiopia, and who live entirely on the flesh of
elephants procured by the chase, climb the trees which lie
near the paths through which these animals usually pass.
Here they keep a watch, and look out for the one which comes
last in the train; leaping down upon its haunches, they seize
its tail with the left hand, and fix their feet firmly upon the
left thigh. Hanging down in this manner, the man, with
his right hand, hamstrings the animal on one side, with a
very sharp hatchet. The elephant's pace being retarded by
the wound, he cuts the tendons of the other ham, and then
makes his escape; all of which is done with the very greatest
celerity. Others, again, employ a much safer, though less
certain method; they fix in the ground, at considerable intervals, very large bows upon the stretch; these are kept steady by
young men remarkable for their strength, while others, exerting themselves with equal efforts, bend them, and so wound
the animals as they pass by, and afterwards trace them by
their blood. The female elephant is much more timid by
nature than the male.
1. Albertus Magnus, in his work on Animals, B. viii. c. 3, gives a fuller
account of this method of taking the wild elephant. He says: "A man,
riding on a tame elephant, guides him to the woods, and when he has met
with some wild ones, drives the tame one against them, and makes it
strike them with its trunk: the tame one, being better fed, soon conquers
the wild elephant, and throws him to the ground; upon which, the man
leaps upon him, and flogs him with a whip, and immediately the other becomes quiet." Strabo, B. xv., gives a different account of the mode of
catching and taming the elephant in India.
2. This appears to have been taken from Plutarch; and we have the
same statement in Ælian, who particularly speaks of the sagacity of the
animal, in endeavouring to extricate itself from the trench.—B.