130 DOMESTICATED ANIMALS 



ern elephant or mammoth even in the Old World came about 

 through the action of man. It is possible that the death was 

 due to more natural causes, such as the change of climate 

 which attended the decline of the Glacial period, or to the 

 attacks of some insect enemy like the tsetze fly of South 

 Africa, which occasionally brings destruction to cattle in that 

 part of the world. On the whole, however, it seems most 

 probable that the extermination of this noble beast is to be 

 accounted among the brutal triumphs of mankind, perhaps as 

 the first of the long tale of destructions which he has inflicted 

 upon his fellow-creatures. However this may be, it is clear 

 that at the dawn of civilization the species of the genus 

 elephas had become limited to that part of the African conti- 

 nent which lies south of the Sahara, and to the portion of 

 Asia east of the Persian Gulf and south of China. The rem- 

 nant consisted of two species : the African form, on the aver- 

 age the larger of the two, a fierce and scarcely domesticable 

 creature ; and the Asiatic, a milder-natured species which alone 

 has been to any extent brought into the service of man. 



It is not certain when or where elephants were first reduced 

 to domestication. In the dawn of history we find them used 

 to enhance the state of princes and for the purposes of war. 

 It seems possible that in this early day the African as well as 

 the Asiatic species was tamed, at least to the point where 

 they could be made to serve in battle. We can hardly 

 believe that all these animals which were at the command of 

 Hannibal and the other generals of North Africa, came from 

 the Asiatic realm. The fact that in modern times the species 

 which dwells south of the Sahara has not been turned to the 

 uses of man, may be accounted for by the lowly estate of the 

 native people in that part of the world, and the lack of need 



