ELEPHANTS 85 
moved the curse and took his money and he de- 
parted happily. A month later he returned and paid 
me the $500. He had sold the elephant to the Ma- 
haraja of Mysore for 10,000 rupees. The Arab 
later bought four large elephants from me. 
During my nineteen years in the Malay Archi- 
pelago I captured hundreds of elephants, but none 
of the herds was so large as my first catch. And, 
though I always looked carefully at the elephant’s 
feet before I sold him, never again did I tag one 
with twenty toes. 
Of all the animals I have handled in my experi- 
ence as a collector, I prefer elephants. They are 
interesting and amusing beasts, and, once broken, 
they become hard-working and affectionate. They 
never show any inclination to go back to the jungle, 
even when used for the purposes of running wild 
elephants. In Siam all the driving of herds into 
the traps is done on female elephants, and their 
presence calms the herd. I have seen the tame ele- 
phants press in upon a wild elephant, holding him 
while he docilely allowed himself to be hobbled. 
, The hunts in Siam are for tuskers, and the fe- 
‘ males are for the most part allowed to run free 
again to breed. The tuskers are used in the teak. 
forests for handling logs. The females bear young 
about every three years until they reach an age of 
from seventy to seventy-five years. The period of 
carrying varies from eighteen months in the case 
of a female baby to twenty-one months in the case 
