ELEPHANTS. 289 



mand or touclij and its amusing antics, clothed in a clown's 

 dress, keep the audience in roars of laughter 



In former ages men were greater adepts at training animals 

 than they are at the present day. The secret of their skill and 

 method of procedure have not been transmitted to their successors 

 of the nineteenth century. The Eomans taught elephants to per- 

 form dances, imitate the combat of gladiators, and walk upon the 

 tight rope, and afterwards to dine at a table, reclining upon 

 couches which were filled with people ; but the animals were 

 so well trained that they did not touch or injure them in any way. 

 These and several other incidents that exhibit the skilful train- 

 ing to which the animals were subjected can be found narrated by 

 Pliny, ^lian, Seneca, Dion Cassius, and others, so that the facts 

 are fully corroborated. 



The wonderful manner that elephants perform the varied 

 labours allotted to them in India and Ceylon, such as placing 

 stones in exact positions in the building of the various public 

 works, or in collecting and piling timber, and in various other 

 ways, has always elicited admiration. 



In moving about elephants are very careful, and rarely, even by 

 accident, tread upon a man or child, which is a very fortunate 

 trait in their character, for their great weight which crushes all 

 life out of a human being subjected to it would make their em- 

 ployment one fraught with perpetual danger. An animal did, 

 however, back on to a keeper in the Zoological Gardens and 

 cause his death ; but it was purely an accident. 



So much reliance is placed on the animals displaying caution 

 that in India the native women when busy often compel the 

 elephants to act as nurses, and watch over the children. Mr. 

 0. T. Buckland, in Land and Water, states : " There is nothing 

 by any means uncommon or incredible in the stories which 

 have been reported about the children of a mahout being cared 

 for by the mahout's elephant. It is always expedient to 

 employ a married mahout if you can, with a hard-working 

 wife and two or three children. The whole family become, 

 as it were, parasites to the animal by whom they earn their 

 living. It is only a question of degree to what extent an 



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