ELEPHANT, 
139 
his motions. While they are training’ in this man- 
ner,, the tame elephants lead the others out alter- 
nately, for the sake of exercise ; and likewise to 
ease their legs from the cords with which they ar« 
tied, and which are apt to gall them, unless they 
are regularly slackened and shifted. 
In five or six weeks the elephant becomes obe- 
dient to his keeper, his fetters are taken off by de- 
grees, and generally in about six months he suffers 
himself to be conducted from one place to another . 
Care, however, is always taken not to let him ap- 
proach his former haunts, lest a recollection of 
them should induce him to attempt to recover hi$ 
liberty. 
The following is Mr. Bruce’s account of ele* 
pliant-hunting in Abyssinia. The men who make 
the hunting of elephants their business, he says, 
dwell constantly in the woods, living entirely 
upon the flesh of the animals they kill, which is 
chiefly that of the elephant or rhinoceros. They 
are exceedingly thin, light, and agile, both on 
horseback and foot. They are called agageers ; 
a name derived from the word agar, which signi- 
fies to hough or ham-string with a sharp wea- 
pon. More properly it means, indeed, the cut- 
ting of the tendon of the heel ; and is a charac- 
teristic of the manner in which they kill the ele- 
phant, which is thus : 
Two men, quite naked, to prevent their being 
laid hold of by the trees or bushes in making 
their escape from this very watchful enemy, get 
on horseback. One of them sits on the back of 
the horse, sometimes with a saddle, and sometimes 
without one, with only a switch or short stick in 
one hand, carefully managing the bridle with the 
other ; behind him sits his companion, armed only 
with a broad sword. His left hand is employed 
in grasping the sw r ord by the handle ; about four* 
