As soon as each elephant is thus secured, he is left in charge of a keeper, who is appointed to attend and in struct him; and four or five inferior servants, in order to assist and supply food and water, till he becomes so tractable as to bring the former himself. The first ob ject of the keeper is to gain his confidence, and, for this purpose, he constantly supplies him with food, and soothes and caresses him by a variety of little arts. Sometimes, however, the keeper threatens, and even goads him with a long stick pointed with iron, but more generally coaxes and flatters him, scratching his head and trunk with a long hamboo, split at one end into many pieces, and driving away the flies from any sores occasioned by the hurts and bruises he got by his efforts to escape. The keeper likewise keeps him cool, by squirting water over his body. In a few clays he advan ces cautiously to his side, and strokes and pats him with his hand, speaking to him all the while in a soothing tone of voice, and in a little time he begins to know his keeper, and to obey his commands. By degrees the keeper becomes familiar to him, and at length gets upon his hack from one of the tame elephants, and, as the animal becomes more ti actable, he advances gradually forward, till at last he is permitted to seat himself on his neck, from which place he afterwards regulates all his motions. The iron hook with which they direct them is pretty heavy, about sixteen inches long, with a straight spoke advancing a little beyond the curve of the hook. When they wish to turn them, they catch one of their ears with this instrument, and, by pressing it into their skin, make them move in any direction that is re quired.
While they are training in this manner, the tame ele phants lead out the others in turn for the sake of exercise, and likewise to ease their legs from the cords with which they are tied, and which are apt to gall them severely, unless they are regularly slacked and shifted. In the course of five or six weeks, the elephant becomes obe dient to his keeper, his fetters are taken off by degrees, and generally in about five or six months he suffers him self to be conducted by his keeper from one place to another. Care, however, is always taken not to let him
approach his former haunts, lest a recollection of the freedom he there enjoyed should induce him again to recover his liberty. This obedience to his conductor seems to proceed partly from a sense of gratitude, as it is in some measure voluntary ; for, whenever an ele phant takes fright, or is determined to run away, all the exertions of the keeper cannot prevent him, even by beating or digging the pointed iron hook into his head with which he directs him. On such an occasion, the animal totally disregards the feeble efforts, otherwise he could shake or pull him off with his trunk, and dash him to pieces. Accidents of this kind happen almost every year, especially to those keepers who attend the large males, and are in general owing to their own care lessness and neglect. It is necessary to treat the males with much greater severity than the females, to keep them in awe ; but it is too common a practice among the keepers, either to be negligent in using proper means to render their elephants tractable, or to trust too much to their good nature, before they are thoroughly acquainted with their dispositions.
For further information concerning the history of the elephant, we refer our readers to the following works : Cuvier's papers Sur les Elefihans vivans et fossiles, in the Annales du Museum d' Histoire Naturelle, vol. viii. and to his work on the fossil bones of quadrupeds ; La Menagerie du Museum National Histoire Naturelle, 1801 ; Corse Scott's Observations on different Species of the Asiatic Elephants, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1799, Part ii. and to An Account of the Method of catching wild Elephants, by the same gentleman, in the third volume of Extracts from the Asiatic Researches ; Cordiner's History of Ceylon ; the Travels of Sparrman, Vaillant, and Barrow. (i. F.)