ELEPHANT CARRYING LOGS.
The Nawaub of Oude, Vizier Ally, or Asoplul-Doulah, who was elevated to the throne through the British, was even more prodigal than the Grand Khan:—
“He generally took the field in the month of March, accompanied by ten thousand cavalry and as many infantry, and from seven to eight hundred elephants. From forty to sixty thousand people followed the camp, with grain and merchandise. When the vizier set out from his palace at Lucknow, a line was formed with the prince in the centre, mounted on an elephant, with two attendant elephants,—one carrying his state howdah, the other his sporting howdah. A line of elephants was prolonged on each side the prince, and was flanked at each extremity by the cavalry. The immense cavalcade proceeded straight through the country, regardless of the mischief that was a necessary consequence; the poor cultivators running after the vizier, crying aloud for mercy. When any game was started, a continual fire was kept up along the line; and, if a herd of antelopes was discovered, the elephants halted, and the cavalry hemmed them in, that his Highness and his courtiers might leisurely destroy them. Proceeding in this manner by day, and halting in the evening at appointed stations, where every luxury was prepared in sumptuous tents, the army at length approached the Thibet Mountains, where tigers, panthers, leopards, and buffaloes were to be found. An encampment being formed, their sporting was continued for several weeks upon a grand and formidable scale; and, mounted upon their elephants, the prince and his nobles scoured the country in pursuit of the ferocious beasts that destroyed the flocks and herds of the peasantry. The array of despotism was here of some service, for the numbers of carnivorous animals that were killed was generally in proportion to the magnitude of the force employed against them.”
The curious uses to which elephants have been put are endless. An English officer, who served in India, says, “I have myself seen the wife of a mahout [for the followers often take their families with them to camp] give a baby in charge of an elephant while she went on some business, and have been highly amused in observing the sagacity and care of the unwieldy nurse. The child, which, like most children, did not like to lie still in one position, would, as soon as left to itself, begin crawling about, in which exercise it would probably get among the legs of the animal, or entangled in the branches of the trees on which he was feeding; when the elephant would, in the most tender manner, disengage his charge, either by lifting it out of the way with his trunk, or by removing the impediments to its free progress. If the child had crawled to such a distance as to verge upon the limits of his range [for the animal was chained by the leg to a peg driven into the ground], he would stretch out his trunk, and lift it back as gently as possible to the spot whence it had started.”
M. D’Obsonville observed two elephants engaged in breaking down a wall at the command of the mahouts, who stood by, imploring, ordering, and coaxing by turns. The trunks of these animals were protected by leather shields.
At Barrackpoor, there was an elephant in the early part of this century, noted for its intelligence in working without a mahout. Once loaded with parcels, it would enter the Ganges, swim across, and then unload itself. Another elephant, who was kept near the fort at Trarancore, was employed to carry out the treasure-boxes of the rájah of Trarancore. It was totally unattended, and marched solemnly into the court-yard of the fort, bearing a box, repeating this until all the boxes were piled up in regular order.
It was reported in the press soon after Lord Dufferin had been appointed viceroy to India, that he had been presented with an elephant paper-cutter, which if true,—and it is not by any means improbable,—would be one of the singular uses to which an elephant was ever put, and perhaps the most expensive. As the story goes, the tusks of a fine young elephant were beautifully carved into the shape of the huge paper-cutters now so fashionable; and the animal itself was taught to take an uncut pamphlet or book in its trunk, and cut the leaves.
The greatest practical value of the elephant is seen in their work as laborers; and in hauling lumber they are especially of great service, their great strength enabling them to haul logs from localities that are ordinarily inaccessible. At Moulmien these huge laborers can often be seen at work in the lumber-yards, and observers say that their power is most advantageously employed where great exertion is required for a short distance in a limited space of time.
In the above-mentioned yards they may be seen carrying huge timbers, sometimes two or three animals engaged at one, exercising the greatest care and exactitude in the work, and obeying the slightest sign of the mahout. In lifting a heavy burden, the plank is edged or helped on to the tusks with the trunk, which is then wound around to steady it, while all the strain comes upon the tusks. ([See Plate XIII.])