ELEPHANTS 85 



moved the curse and took his money and he de- 

 parted happily. A month later he returned and paid 

 me the $500. He had sold the elephant to the Ma- 

 haraja of Mysore for 10,000 rupees. The Arab 

 later bought four large elephants from me. 



During my nineteen years in the Malay Archi- 

 pelago I captured hundreds of elephants, but none 

 of the herds was so large as my first catch. And, 

 though I always looked carefully at the elephant's 

 feet before I sold him, never again did I bag one 

 with twenty toes. 



Of all the animals I have handled in my experi- 

 ence as a collector, I prefer elephants. They are 

 interesting and amusing beasts, and, once broken, 

 they become hard-working and affectionate. They 

 never show any inclination to go back to the jungle, 

 even when used for the purposes of running wild 

 elephants. In Siam all the driving of herds into 

 the traps is done on female elephants, and their 

 presence calms the herd. I have seen the tame ele- 

 phants press in upon a wild elephant, holding him 

 while he docilely allowed himself to be hobbled. 



The hunts in Siam are for tuskers, and the fe- 

 males are for the most part allowed to run free 

 again to breed. The tuskers are used in the teak 

 forests for handling logs. The females bear young 

 about every three years until they reach an age of 

 from seventy to seventy-five years. The period of 

 carrying varies from eighteen months in the case 

 of a female baby to twenty-one months in the case 



