Another celebrated elephant headquarters in Bengal, where these animals are sometimes sold, is at Dacca, a populous native city of seventy thousand inhabitants. It is about one hundred miles from the sea, and was once noted as a ship-building port, and headquarters for a fleet of eight hundred armed vessels, whose duty it was to protect the southern coast from the cruel Arracanese pirates. From its location on a branch of the Ganges, it is admirably adapted as the headquarters of the Bengal Elephant-catching Establishment, water, grasses, and fodder of various kinds, being plentiful; while its availability to the forests of Sylhet Cachár and Chittagong, which abound in wild elephants, render it a comparatively easy matter for the captives to be brought to a first-class market.
The elephant depot is called a peelkhána, and stands in the suburbs of the town. It embraces an area about a quarter of a mile square, consisting of an intrenched quadrangular piece of ground, where the pickets, to which the elephants are tethered, are arranged in regular rows. Each picket is provided with a solid floor of stone or mortar, where there is a post to which the elephants are fastened. During the heat of the day, they are removed to sheds. In the enclosures are numbers of buildings, containing the gear, and various appliances used about elephants. There is a hospital, where the invalid elephants are tended; for, if elephants do not die very often, they sometimes get sick, and are then given the best of treatment. There is also a hospital, or room, for the native doctor, who doses the elephants’ attendants when they require it, as only a native doctor can do; and, as the elephants have a European to look after them when ill, they probably have the best of it. This great depot is under an English officer, who generally organizes the great hunts that have been described. The establishment is composed at all times of about fifty trained elephants, called koonkies. Besides these, there are always a number undergoing the training process; and, when ready for service, they are divided up among the various military stations, or sold, as the case may be. Stōnepoor is the scene of great public sales. Here those who wish to make a selection from many elephants, congregate; and their ideas of good points are strangely at variance with our own. The natives recognize three different castes, or breeds, based upon certain physical peculiarities; and, when about to purchase, they state which class they wish to invest in. In Bengal, these breeds are known as Koomeriah, Dwásala, and Meerga; meaning, first, second, and third class animals. The word Koomeriah implies royalty, and is supposed to possess every excellence, and is among elephants what Maud S. or St. Julian are among trotting-horses. Its points, according to Sanderson, are: barrel deep, and of great girth; legs short (especially the hind ones) and colossal, the front pair convex on the front side from the development of the muscles; back straight and flat, but sloping from shoulder to tail, as an up-standing elephant must be high in front; head and chest massive, neck thick and short; trunk broad at the base, and proportionately heavy throughout; bump between the eyes prominent; cheeks full; the eye full, bright, and kindly; hindquarters square and plump, the skin rumpled, thick, inclining to folds at the root of the tail, and soft. If the face, base of trunk, and ears be blotched with cream-colored markings,[3] the animal’s value is enhanced thereby. The tail must be long, but not touch the ground, and be well feathered. A Koomeriah should be about nine feet and over high.
The temper of these animals of both sexes is, as a rule, superior to that of others; and, according to the above authority, while gentleness and submissiveness are characteristics of all elephants, the Koomeriah possesses these qualities, and unanimity, urbanity, and courage, in a high degree. In short, the Koomeriah is the standard of perfection among elephants.
The Dwásala caste includes all those which rank just below this in point of excellence; while the Meerga, which is supposed to be a corruption of the Sanscrit Mriga, a deer, refers to all the rest; almost the reverse of the first caste in every particular, being long and thin of limb, with an arched, sharp-ridged back, a thin, flabby trunk, and long and lean neck; the head small, and eyes piggish. In fact, its whole appearance is often indicative of its nature; that is, mean and cowardly at times. The Meerga, however, is not without a value, being the swifter of the race; and, if speed alone is required, it is more valued than the Koomeriah. They can always be obtained, while Koomeriahs are not always in the market. The Kábul merchants make a specialty of them, as our Kentucky dealers do of blooded horse-stock. Many are attached to the various courts, and devote their entire time in hunting for first-class animals for their masters.
It sometimes happens that an elephant dies after almost reaching the city, and the merchant is nearly ruined; but in such cases an Eastern nobleman would consider it beneath his dignity to refuse to pay for the defunct animal;—an example of true Oriental munificence.
The price of elephants has increased in India of late years, though their numbers are not growing less. In 1835 they could be bought for $225 apiece; in 1855 for $375; in 1874, $660. Now $750 is the lowest figure for which even a young animal can be purchased. Though the prices are very capricious, good females of full growth bring from $1,000 to $1,500; and $10,000 is often paid for a fine Koomeriah. These are all bought up by rájahs and others, who use them in their retinues, and for temple purposes.
Elephants were often in the olden times grossly treated and starved; but in the present day they are too valuable to be neglected, and are, as a rule, carefully tended when under the observation of Europeans; but, if left to the mercies of the natives to-day, they will often deprive them of food if any thing can be gained by it.
The captive elephants require much care, from the enormous amount of food they eat. In Bengal and Madras, the government decides how much each elephant shall have for breakfast, dinner, and supper; and the allowance is a liberal one. In Bengal the rations per day are four hundred pounds of green fodder, which means grass, sugar-cane, or branches of trees; or two hundred and forty pounds of dry fodder, namely, stalks of cut grain. In Madras, only two hundred and fifty pounds of green fodder, and one hundred and twenty-five of dry, are allowed;—not by any means the amount a full-grown, hearty elephant will eat. A large tusker requires eight hundred pounds of green fodder every eighteen hours, or day. In eight females which were watched by Mr. Sanderson, commencing at six P.M., they ate an average weight of six hundred and fifty pounds by twelve A.M. the next day. They also had eighteen pounds of grain a day.
The elephants are required to bring in their own green fodder; and one can conveniently carry a load of eight hundred pounds, or one day’s food.
The discrepancy between this showing and that which the Madras elephants received, was made a subject of investigation by the government at the suggestion of Mr. Sanderson, and resulted in the poor creatures receiving their proper allowance. It was found by the investigating officers, that the animals which had been having two hundred and fifty pounds of green fodder, could eat seven hundred and fifty pounds of dry sugar-cane: so for years they had been worked hard and half starved, merely because the government had fixed the rate per diem. This is another instance of the reforms that have been instituted by Mr. Sanderson, who has the thanks of all admirers of this noble animal.