LOADING ELEPHANTS. 87 



Native attendants are very careless, and piilling-ropes are constantly break- 

 ing, wliich makes elephants that have once been frightened in this way 

 cautious about throwing themselves into the collar. But an elephant 

 with confidence in his gear will make the most extraordinary exertions, 

 leaning forward far beyond his centre of gravity, or kneeling and almost 

 resting on his forehead, in his attempts to move the load. In dragging 

 light timber a rope about three feet long is generally fastened round one 

 end of a log. The elephant takes the rope in its teeth, and thus raising 

 one end clear of the ground, half drags, half carries it away. An elephant 

 can be harnessed to a cart in the same way as a horse. In Dacca two 

 elephant-waggons were employed for carrying away the litter from the 

 elephant-lines. 



As a beast of burden the elephant can scarcely be considered satis- 

 factory in all respects, chiefly from his liability to gall under such heavy 

 weights as he is otherwise able to carry. This difiiculty can be avoided 

 with great care, but it requires constant attention from more heedful and 

 humane masters than ordinary elephant-attendants. Some of these do not 

 attempt to prevent a sore back — rather the reverse — when elephants are on 

 long and arduous service. A sore back once established, the elephant cannot 

 be used for weeks, often months, and its attendants escape work, even the 

 bringing its fodder. The best preventive has been found to l^e putting every 

 one connected with the elephant on half-pay till the animal has recovered. 

 An elephant well packed will carry an immense bulk and weight ; and 

 in difficult country, especially hilly or swampy districts, their place cannot 

 be taken by any other means of carriage. For transporting light guns 

 in mountain warfare they are invaluable. An elephant's gear consists of 

 a thick, soft-padded cloth, covering the whole of the back from the nape of 

 the neck to the croup, and hanging half way down the animal's sides. Over 

 this comes a saddle, which consists of two pads or flat bags of stout 

 sacking, each six feet long, and two and a half broad. These are stuffed to 

 one foot in thickness with dried grass or cocoanut fibre, and are attached by 

 cross-pieces, so that one lies on each side of the elephant's backbone, which 

 is thus protected from pressure. Upon the first pair of pads is another 

 large single pad. On this the load is jDlaced. Thus all the weight should 

 rest on the upper part of the animal's ribs, without touching the spine, 

 as in a horse with a well-fitted saddle. 



HaK a ton is a good load for an elephant for continuous marching. 

 In hilly country seven hundredweights is as much as he should carry. I have 

 known a large female carry a pile of thirty bags of rice, weighing 8 2 lb. each, 

 or one ton and two hundredweights, from one storeroom to another, three 



