CONSTITUTION CHANGES BY DOMESTICATION. 141 



companion ; the rest of the herd rapidly dispersed, and I was 

 glad to find that none of my tame ones had received any 

 injury. 



Elephants when in captivity are liable to become very 

 delicate in their constitution, and are often ailing ; I used to 

 be a good deal troubled at times to know whether an elephant 

 was ill or not, and I was obliged to depend upon the report 

 of the head keeper as to whether the patient should have a 

 bucket, or half a bucket of castor oil, or an opium pill strong 

 enough to kill a dozen men. On one occasion I paid dear 

 for interfering ; a teak beam had been put down with its 

 number underneath, and as I wanted particularly to ascertain 

 what the number was, and there were no men available I 

 ordered the keeper of a fine male elephant to bring him up 

 and make him turn over the plank. The Mahout said that 

 the elephant was not very Well and could not do it ; now 

 making an elephant turn over one of these planks would be 

 about the same as asking a railway porter to turn over a 

 tolerable sized portmanteau ; I thought the man was hum- 

 bugging me, so I insisted that my order should be obeyed. 

 When the elephant was brought up he was very reluctant to 

 touch the plank, and it was only after some trouble we got 

 him to turn it over ; this was all he had to do ; the next 

 morning he was dead, and I made up my mind never again 

 to attempt to force a sick elephant to do any work. These 

 tame elephants become much attached to their keeper and 

 his belongings ; it is touching to see how gentle they are 

 with children, I have often watched the little children of the 

 keeper playing about between the legs of a big brute, the 

 animal standing perfectly quiet for fear of treading upon 

 them, 



