lf/6 THE ART OF TRAIIHNG ANIMALS. 



CHAPTEK XII. 



TAMING AND TRAINING ELEPHANTS — CAPTURE AND TREATMENT 

 — ELEPHANTS AS LABORERS AND AS CIRCUS PERFORMERS. 



IK telling how elephants are trained, so interwoven is our 

 subject with that of the capture of the animals, that per- 

 haps our best plan will be to take a hint from Mrs. Glass's re- 

 cipe for cooking the hare, viz., catch him first — and commence 

 with the capture of the animals. Although authentic instances 

 are on record of elephants breeding in captivity, it is of very 

 rare occurrence, so that, practically, it may be said that the en- 

 tire supply of domesticated elephants has been obtained by 

 conversion from a wild state. 



The device of taking them in pitfalls still prevails in India,, 

 but tnis is a laborious operation, often unsuccessful, owing to 

 the caution of the animal ,- besides this, if caught, the great 

 weight of the elephant, and the inability of his legs to withstand 

 any severe direct shock,^ too frequently cause so much injury to 

 the game as to render this mode of capture unprofitable. A 

 writer on Ceylon, nearly two hundred years ago^ describes an- 

 other method which is still practiced. Describing the captures 

 of elephants for the stud of the king of Kandy, he says r 



" After discovering the retreat of such as have tusks, unto 

 these they drive some she elephants, which they bring with 

 them for the purpose, which, when once the males have got a 

 sight of they will never leave, but follow them wheresoever 

 they go ; and the females are so used to it, that they will do 

 whatsoever, either by word or beck,^ their keepers bid them. 

 And so they delude them along through towns and countries^ 

 and through the streets of the city, even to the very gates of 

 the king's palace, where sometimes they seize them by snares, 

 and sometimes by driving them into a kind of pound, they catch 

 them." 



Throughout the China-Indian peninsula the natives use fe- 

 male elephants in approaching males detached from the herd^ 

 or selected as desired captives on account of their beauty — the 

 capture being effected by casting a noose over the foot of the 

 victim. Probably, however, the Moormen of Ceylon are unex- 

 celled in daring or adroitness in this vocation. So fearless are 

 these professional catchers, or panickeas as they are termed, ' 

 that two will, without aid or attendants, attempt the capture of 

 the largest sized elephant. Their only weapon is a flexible 

 rope of deer's or buffalo's hide. Stealing behind the animal 



