THE ELEPHANT IN MAN'S SERVICE
I do not need to tell you what the Elephant is like. Almost everybody has seen this noble creature, the largest of all animals except the whale. It belongs in its way to the hoofed animals, though it has five toes on each foot. For these are covered by a sort of elastic hoof, something like that of the camel, which gives it an easy, springy step. Though its home is in Asia and Africa, it has often been brought to America and shown in menageries and other places. It is a great, clumsy-looking brute, with a long, flexible trunk, ivory tusks, great flapping ears, stout legs and broad hoofs. The tusks, you know, are great overgrown teeth made of hard ivory.
It does not look like an animal that could think, but few of the animals below man have done so many wise and smart things. Only the dog and the monkey are its equals. I shall speak of its thinking powers further on, but here I wish to deal with the elephant as a worker for man.
The wild elephant loves its freedom and fights hard against those who seek to capture it, but when taken and tamed is often very mild and gentle. In India large parties of men, four hundred or more in number, are sent out to drive the wild elephants into great, strong pens that have been built of heavy timbers. Here tame elephants are used to hold the wild ones while they are being tied fast. By these and other means many of them are made captives and they soon become man's willing friends and helpers.
The elephant is made use of in various ways. In ancient times it was often used in war. Troops of elephants were made to rush on the ranks of enemies and kill them with trunk and hoofs. In this way even the Roman armies were put to flight, they being scared when they first saw these huge, strange animals. But they soon learned how to frighten them with torches and drive them back upon their friends.
The elephant has long been used in India as a working animal, and for this its great strength makes it of much use. It can lift and move heavy loads and a common elephant can carry half a ton for a long distance. But they need much care and cost a good deal to keep, for it takes about 800 pounds of fodder a day to feed a large one.
When at work they show very good sense and know well how to do things. You would think so if you could see them at work in piling or moving timber. I fancy you would laugh to see how nicely and neatly they do it and what good sense they show.
The female elephants have no large tusks, so that they can use only their trunks in moving the logs, but the male animals use their great tusks as well as the trunk. They will push logs weighing a ton and a half with ease. If the log has to go into the river they will push and roll it along to the bank, and as it slides down the muddy bank to the water will give it a slap with the trunk, as if to say, "Good-bye, old fellow; there you go."
If the log to be moved happens to be jammed among the others, the wise animal soon sets it right. He will begin by getting his tusks under it and lifting it to the proper height. If the log is a heavy one, he will sink down on his knees so as to get a better lift upon it. It is a lesson in elephant wit to see him stack timbers. He will lift one end of the log nine or ten feet, and put it on top of the pile. Then he will go to the other end and push this forward until the log lies straight.
The driver helps him in this by words and signs, all of which he knows as well as a sheep dog knows the words of the shepherd. The best trained animals are put to work in the saw mills, where they move about with much care among the saws and other machines. One man who saw an elephant laying planks and slats to be sawed, said in a newspaper that he saw the animal shut one eye while it squinted along the bench with the other to make sure the timber was laid straight. Perhaps the reporter had both eyes shut when he saw this.
Elephant Piling Lumber. Observe How the Log is Grasped between the Trunk and the Tusks
It must be said that elephants are in some ways like men and boys. There are willing ones and lazy ones; some that like to work and some that hate work. You will see the willing ones drag along a log that weighs two tons without a groan. The lazy ones may be as strong as the willing ones, but they will make a dreadful fuss over a log not half as heavy. They are like boys, too, in the fact that some of them have good tempers while others are cross and surly.
There is one thing more to be said about the elephant. It knows how heavy it is and does not like to go over a weak place. Thus it will not walk over a bridge until it has tried it to learn if it is strong enough, and it will not go into a boat without doing the same. You may see that it has sense enough to take care of itself.
Here is the story of an elephant that had every day to go over a small bridge. "He one day refused to go over it, and it was only by goring him most cruelly with the hunkoss (a sharp iron goad) that the driver could get him to venture on the bridge, the strength of which he had first tried with his trunk. At last he went on, but before he could get over the bridge gave way and they fell into the ditch, which killed the driver and greatly injured the elephant." It is very likely that the wise animal had found it to be weak when he last crossed it and knew it was not safe.
I must tell you the story of some elephants that were with a body of troops in the mountain region of India. In their march they came to a steep place where the men laid a stairway of logs for the elephants to climb up. The first elephant came to it, took a good look, shook his head, and backed off. When the driver tried to force him to climb he would not move, but roared like a scared boy. Only when some change was made in the stairs could he be got to set foot on them, and he climbed up with great care, trying every step as he went.
Reproduced by Permission of the Philadelphia Museums
A Military Elephant on Duty, India
When he was part way up he came to a tree which he tried with his trunk and did not like. It seemed too weak. Again he stopped. The driver tried to get him to go on with such words as "My life," "Well done, my dear," "My son," and other kind words of which elephants are very fond, but he would not be got to move. Then force was tried. The elephant roared terribly but would not stir.
At length some other change was made in the logs. This the wise creature tried and then went on until he reached the top. When he got there he showed the greatest delight, caressing the keeper with his trunk and throwing dirt about in the most playful manner.
The elephant that followed was a much younger one. It had watched its comrade go up with great interest, making movements with its head and trunk as if it was helping him. When he reached the top it gave a salute like the sound of a trumpet. But when it was called on to take its turn it was greatly scared and had to be forced to mount the slope. When it got near the top the older animal reached down his trunk and twined it around that of the younger and thus helped him to the summit.
Then the two animals greeted each other in the most friendly manner, as if they were old friends just met. They embraced each other with their trunks and stood for many minutes face to face as if they were talking over what they had done. All this goes to show that the elephant has a good deal of human nature in his huge carcass, and along with it a good deal of sound sense.