THE FLOCKS AND HERDS 131 







for such creatures in the economic conditions of the Aryan 

 folk who have settled along the shores and in the southern 

 part of that continent. 



The relations of man to the elephant are more peculiar 

 than those which he has formed with any other domesticated 

 animal. Although the creature will breed in captivity, its 

 reproduction in that state is exceptional, and it is many years 

 before the offspring are fit for any service. It is indeed about 

 thirty years before the creature is sufficiently adult to attain 

 a good measure of strength and endurance. It has therefore 

 been the habit of the people who avail themselves of this 

 admirable beast to use the captures which they make in the 

 wilderness. It is a most interesting and exceptional fact that 

 these captive elephants, though bred in perfect freedom and 

 provided with none of those inherited instincts so essentially 

 a part of the value of our other domesticated quadrupeds, 

 become helpful to man and attached to him in a way which is 

 characteristic of none other of our ancient companions except 

 the dog. It is safe to say that the Asiatic elephant is the 

 most innately domesticable, and the best fitted by nature for 

 companionship with man, of all our great quadrupeds. The 

 qualities of mind which in our other domesticated quadrupeds 

 have been slowly developed by thousands of years of selection 

 and intercourse with our kind, are in this creature a part of its 

 wild estate. 



It appears from trustworthy anecdotes that the Asiatic 

 elephants in a few months of captivity acquire the rules of 

 conduct which it is necessary to impose upon them. The 

 speediness of this intellectual subjugation maybe judged from 

 the fact that, after a short term of domestication, they will 

 take a willing and intelligent part in capturing their kindred 



