Method oe catching wild Elephants. 24$ 



iiicli accidents are in general owing entirely to their own careleffenefs and 

 ijieglecl. It is neceflary to treat the males with much greater feverity than 

 the females, to keep them in awe; but it is too common a praclice among 

 the MuboteSy either to be negligent in unrig proper rneafures to render their 

 elephants docile, or- to trulr too much to their -good nateref before they are 

 thoroughly acquainted with their difpofitions;-- The iron hook, with which 

 they diiedt them, is pretty heavy, about fixteen inches long, with a ftraight 

 fpike advancing a little beyond the curve of the hook, fo that altogether it 

 is exactly like that, which ferrymen or boatmen ufe fastened to along pole. 



In this account of the procefs for catching and taming elephants, I have 

 ufed the mafculine gender to avoid circumlocution, as both males and fe- 

 males are treated in the fame manner: the former are feldom fo docile, but, 

 like the males of other animals, are fiercer, ftronger, and more untra&able,- 

 than the females, . 



Before I conclude, it may be proper to obferve, that young elephants 

 fuck conftantly with their mouths, and never with their trunks, as Buffon 

 has afferted ; a conclufion he made merely from conjecture, and the great 

 and various ufes, to which they are well adapted and applied by every ele- 

 phant. 



I have feen young ones from one day to three years old fucking their 

 dams, but never faw them ufe their trunks except toprefs the bread:, which 

 by natural init'incT; they feemed to know would make the milk flow more 

 readily. The mode of connection between the male and female is now af= 

 certained beyond the poffibility of a doubt; as Mr. Buller, Lieut. 

 Hawkins, and many others, faw a male copulate with a female, after they 



