382 



THE ELEPHANT. 



[Part VIII. 



art was perpetuated in later times to gratify tlie pride of 

 the eastern kings, and sustain the pomp of their proces- 

 sions. An impression prevails even to the present day, 

 that the process of training is tedious and difficult, and the 

 reduction of a full-grown elephant to obedience, slow and 

 reluctant in the extreme.^ In both particulars, however, 

 the contrary is the truth. The training as it prevails in 

 Ceylon is simple, and the conformity and obedience of the 

 animal are developed with singular rapidity. For the first 

 three days, or till they Avill eat freely, which they seldom 

 do in less time than this, the newly-captured elephants are 

 allowed to stand quiet, or, if practicable, a tame elephant 

 is tied near to give the wild ones confidence. Where many 

 elephants are being trained at once, it is customary to put 

 every new captive between the stalls of half-tamed ones, 

 when the former soon takes to its food. This stage being 

 attained, training commences by placing tame elephants 

 on either side. The cooroowe \idahn, or other head of 

 the stables, stands in front of the wild elephants hold- 

 ing a long stick mth a sharp iron point. Two men 

 are then stationed on either side, assisted bj^ the tame ele- 

 phants, and each holding a hendoo or crook^ towards the 

 wild one's trunk, whilst one or two others rub their hands 

 over his back, keeping up all the while a soothing and 



' Beodeeip, Zoolof/ical Hecrca- 

 tions, p. 2()G. 



^ The iron goad witli -whicli the 

 keeper directs the movements of the 

 elephants, called a hendoo in Ceylon 

 and hmokus in Bengal, appears to 

 have retained the present shape from 



the remotest antiquity, and is figured 

 in the medals of Caracalla in the 

 identical form in wliich it is in use 

 at the present day in India. 



The Greeks called it "Vjtt?/, and the 

 Romans cusjiis. 



£-. 



:=^ 



Modern Hendoo. 



Medal of Numidia. 



