124 
MAMMALIA. 
tions. Its colour is dull earthy, approaching to brown. Albinos 
occur rarely, and are greatly prized by the monarchs of Ava and 
Siam, who maintain them in regal state, lodge them in their 
palaces, and have them served magnificently by a numerous 
retinue. 
Until lately, the Asiatic Elephants were, in modern times, the 
only ones that were domesticated.* It must be observed, too, that 
those which are employed are not born in captivity. They are 
wild Elephants that have been tamed. These animals live always 
in troops. Those which are met with isolated from the others 
have been driven out of the band, and are commonly known 
as “ rogue Elephants” to the inhabitants of India and Ceylon. 
If it had not been for the presence of Man upon the earth, the 
Elephant would possibly have become the lord of creation. But j 
Man keeps it in subjection. He has succeeded in appropriating 
this powerful and intelligent servant to his use. The following is 
the way most commonly used in Asia for getting possession of the j 
wild Elephants, and for domesticating them. 
When the inhabitants of India, of Siam, &c., have discovered i 
a troop of Elephants, or only two or three little groups of these 
animals, which can easily be gathered together, the natives of the j 
neighbouring districts get together and surround them. Pro- 
vided with fire-arms, drums, trumpets, and fusees — in a word, 
with everything calculated to terrify — they form a circle round 
them, and, little by little, drive them towards a cunningly pre- j 
pared enclosure, the entrance of which, adorned with the leafy 
branches of trees, resembles a road through the woods. This i 
avenue becomes narrower and narrower, and ultimately comes 
to an end in an enclosure formed of the trunks of trees arranged 
as a palisade, and containing a deep ditch or hole. 
The drove of Elephants, thus pursued, arrives at the entrance 
to the trap. The chief, who precedes and guides the band, 
hesitates a long while before he will enter it. He is attracted 
however by fruits and the stalks of those plants of which he is 
most fond, such as sugar-canes and bananas, and which have been 
placed there by the Elephant- catchers. 
* The African Elephants in the London Zoological Gardens are fully as tract- 
able as the Asiatic, and are equally intelligent. Already, since the British campaign 
in Abyssinia, some African Elephants have been tamed and put to uses in that 
country. — E d. 
