THE ELEPHANT. 



[Part VIIT. 



roused by the other to resume his former rage and 

 resistance.^ 



As a general rule, the presence of the tame ones may 

 be dispensed with after two months, and the captive may 

 then be ridden by the driver alone ; and after three or 

 four months lie may be entrusted with hibour, so far as 

 regards docihty, but it is undesirable, and even involves the 

 risk of hfe, to work the elepliant too soon ; as it has 

 frequently happened that a valuable animal has lain down 

 and died the first time it was tried in liarness, from wliat 

 the natives beheve to be " broken heart," — certainly 

 without any cause inferable from injury or pre\ious dis- 

 ease.^ It is observable, that till a captured elepliant 

 begins to rehsh his food, and grow fat upon it, he be- 

 comes so fretted by work, that hi an incredibly short 

 space of time it kiUs him. 



The first emplopiient to which an elephant is put is 

 treading clay in a brick-field, or drawing a waggon in 

 double harness with a tame companion. But the work 

 in which the display of sagacity renders his labours of the 

 highest value, is that which involves the use of heavy 

 materials ; and hence in dragging and pihng timber, or 

 moving stones ^ for the construction of retaining walls and 



^ " Ai;T/\(jt' ^f (paatv finroprJTai Kap^tac' 

 Kai rrj fitv ilrai Gv^hkov to Orjpiov 

 EiQ aKpaT)] K'n'r](nv rjpi^ia^iii'ov, 

 Trj le irpomji'ic; /era BpcKTvrtjTOf; ^sj'oi'. 

 Kai rfi i^tv avTiZv c'lKpociaOai tojv X()yojj' 

 ODt' fiv TtQ 'Ip^oq li' TiBatyiinov \eyot, 



Ty St irpOQ UVTOVC TOVQVOIJ.t~tQiTVlTp'iX(lV 



E(t; TUQ TToKaint; tKTpmrtv icaKoiiftyinr. 

 Philt), E.rpositio de Elvphante, 

 1. 126, &c. 

 ^ Captain Yule, in liis Narrative 

 of his Emhasf!)/ to Ava in 1855, re- 

 cords an illustration of this tendency 

 of the elephant to sudden death ; one 

 newly captured, the process of taming- 

 which was exhibited to the British 

 Envoy, " made vigorous resistance to 

 the placing of a collar on its neck, 

 and the people were proceeding to 

 tighten it, when the elephant, which 

 had lain down as if quite exhausted, 



reared suddenly on the hind quar- 

 ters, and fell on its side — dead ! " — P. 

 104. 



INIr. Strachan noticed the same 

 liability of the elephants to sudden 

 death from very slight causes ; " of 

 the fall," he says, " at any time, 

 though on plain ground, they either 

 die immediately, or languish till they 

 die ; their gi-eat weight occasioning 

 them so much hurt by the fall." — 

 Phil. Trans, a.d. 1701, vol. xxiii. p. 

 1052. 



* A coiTespondent infonns me that 

 on tlie Malabar coast of India, the 

 elephant, when employed in dragging 

 stones, moves them Ijy meaiis of a 

 rope, which he either draws witli his 

 forehead, or manages by seizing it 

 with his teeth. 



