CONSTITUTION CHANGES BY DOMESTICATION. 14 1 
companion ; the rest of the herd rapidly dispersed, and I was 
gUid 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 ili or not, and 1 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 1 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 sliould 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 gende 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 perfecdy quiet for fear of treading upon 
them. 
