TRAINING AN ELEPHANT. 87 



en-rod, which has captured the sunshine's rays, soft 

 browns of ripened cinnamon ferns and bracken, maples al- 

 ready robing themselves in warm red autumnal raiment, 

 the glossy, deep-cut leaves of the yellow oak, quivering 

 white birches, bright berries of sarsaparilla and Indian 

 turnip. 



But here in the woods, miles from home, we must stop ; 

 our limits of time and space are over passed. Although 

 hardly an entrance has been made into the treasure-house 

 of field and forest. 



Training an Elephant. 



The training of an elephant is pretty much like the training of 

 any other animal, human or otherwise. And the training of any 

 animal depends almost wholly on the fact how well you can make 

 it understand that you are the boss, and that as compared to your- 

 self it isn't a flyspeck in the universe. You have got to make the 

 brute understand several things very clearly. In the first place, 

 that you are the master of pain — that, if you like, you can make 

 life so unbearable for it that it would do anything rather than to 

 annoy you or to disobey. In the second place, the animal is to un- 

 derstand that when it does what is expected, you are the master of 

 its comfort and happiness, just as well as the author of its misery. 



In the third place, the brute must be made to understand that no 

 ugliness will be overlooked without due punishment and that you 

 are no more afraid of it than you would be of the straw under its 

 feet. 



The time required to tame an elephant varies from a week to 

 three weeks or a month. To begin with, only one man is detailed 

 to each elephant. First of all, the beast must get vised to the sight 

 of a man. Like human creatures, the best way to reach this stage 

 of the taming is through the stomach. Day for day, as the animal 

 gets hungry, the same man comes to appease his wants. 



When the time comes that man and animal are pretty well 

 aquainted, the trainer, armed with an elephant hook, enters the 

 cage to throw some of the chains off the beast. You will notice in 

 the first place the animal has discovered that no harm will come 

 to him and that the strange creature means only well. Now this 



