xxxvi 



to get more exercise and less food tlian we intend and require to be 

 brought back a long way into camp and are in a state of fatigue 

 when they ought to be fresh and fit for work. He also says " many 

 timea, in travelling, I have arrived at places which I have thought 

 fine spots for letting the elephants loose during the night, but 

 I have been disappointed to find that the elephants would not eat 

 the grass I saw ; on such occasions I had to tie the animals in a 

 quiet place and feed them on rice or paddy with a little salt and 

 give them either some plantain leaves or fresb paddy straw, but 

 not in a very large quantity."* 



When the animals work during tlie day they ought on return- 

 ing to the lines, to be allowed to stand quiet for a short time and 

 the mahout in the meanwhile collect the foddei\ also well malish 

 the back ^vith his hands and feet after removal of the load, and 

 examine the feet for thorns and cuts, the body for leeches especi- 

 ally during the rains. Next they should be taken to water and 

 washed. After which and during this process of grooming some 

 grass may be given. Then they should receive the grain ration, 

 being drawn up in line four paces apart, and the non-commissioned 

 or warrant officer in charge should see the rice given in the proper 

 manner in straw or grass, or plantain husk. All the grain may be 

 given now or a third of it reserved as a chota haziri to be given in 

 the moi-niug beCore starting on the march, and finally a sufficiency 

 of fodder placed before them to last until the time when they 

 should go to sleep, say at 10 p.m. Thus they should be allowed 

 about five hours for feeding whicli will give them an opportunity 

 of consuming a considerable bulk of fodder. Hunter's expeiiments 

 show that in this time an elephant can consume nine seei's of 

 dhan aud twenty seers of straw.t These experiments prove that 

 it is most essential for elephants to be fed by hand with their 



» When elephants have to bring in their own fodder they should be des- 

 patched punctually every morning at day-break into the jungle, when pos- 

 sible uuder care of a Jemadar, for it is during gi-azing time mahouts are most 

 frequently cruel to their elephants. They should he accustomed to carry the 

 cherrai barebacked, the load being secured by a single rope running round 

 the neck along either flank and under the tail, pro\-ided with gullarband and 

 dumchi to prevent galls. If the animals be accustomed gradually to carry- 

 ing the cherrai in this waj' it will save the gnddee from wear, harden the 

 back, and lessen the frequency of galls. In loading \vith fodder the lower 

 p.art or basis of the load should be plantain trees or bundles of erass 

 (Hood). '' 



t Oriental Sporting Magazine. 



