Chap. 8.] ELEPHANTS. 255 



trample upon them." They will never do any mischief except 

 when provoked, and they are of a disposition so sociable, that 

 they always move about in herds, no animal being less fond of 

 a solitary life. When surrounded by a troop of horsemen, 

 they place in the centre of the herd those that are weak, 

 weary, or wounded, and then take the front rank each in its 

 turn, just as though they acted under command and in accord- 

 ance with discipline. When taken captive, they are very 

 speedily tamed, by being fed on the juices of barley. ^^ 



CHAP. 8. (8.) THE WAY IN WHICH ELEPHANTS ARE CAUGHT. 



In India ^* 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 ^^ 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 for- 

 merly the practice to tame them by driving the herds with horse- 

 men into a narrow defile, artificially made in such a M^ay as 

 to deceive them by its length; and when thus enclosed by means 

 of steep banks and trenches, they were rendered tame by the 



'- This trait has been observed in all ages ; the elephant has been known 

 to remove with its trunk a child lying in its way, and in danger of being 

 injured. It appears to have an instinctive dread of trampling on a living 

 animal ; the same has also been observed in the horse. — B. 



^^ " Hordeo succo ;" the exact meaning has been the subject of much 

 discussion ; it probably refers to some preparation of barley used by the 

 ancients, perhaps a maceration of the corn in water ; it is scarcely to be 

 supposed, however, that the words are to be taken literally. — B. 



^■^ 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 be- 

 comes quiet." Strabo, B. xv., gives a different account of the mode of 

 catching and taming the elephant in India. 



^^ This appears to have been taken from Plutarch ; and we have the 

 same statement in ^lian, who particularly speaks of the sagacity of the 

 animal, in endeavouring to extricate itself from the trench. — JB. 



