The Ivory King: A popular history of the elephant and its allies

by Charles Frederick Holder

While these exhibitions would seem only a remnant of the most barbarous ages, they have been permitted, even at the present day. In certain parts of India, elephants are now baited to afford entertainment to certain native princes and nobles; and fifty or sixty years ago it was very common.

When Bishop Heber was at the court of Baroda, “The Rájah,” he says, “was anxious to know whether I had observed his rhinoceros and his hunting-tigers, and offered to show me a day’s sport with the last, or to bait an elephant for me,—a cruel amusement which is here not uncommon.... I do not think he understood my motive for declining to be present.”

“At the palace of Jyepoor,” says the same writer, “we were shown five or six elephants in training for a fight. Each was separately kept in a small, paved court, with a little litter, but very dirty. They were all what is called ‘must;’ that is, fed on stimulating substances, to make them furious: and all showed in their eyes, their gaping mouths, and the constant motion of their trunks, signs of fever and restlessness. Their mahouts seemed to approach them with great caution; and, on hearing a step, they turned round as far as their chains would allow, and lashed fiercely with their trunks.”

Mr. Crawford states that elephant combats were common in his day; but, as a rule, the animals, directed by mahouts, fought across a stout railing, the method of attack being to butt each other, and cut with the tusks.

Father Tachard, a French Jesuit, witnessed an elephant-fight in Siam, in 1685, before the king. The animals were matched against each other, but were securely tied by the hind-legs, so they could not severely injure each other. They fenced with their tusks, striking such powerful blows that one of the combatants lost its tusks.

Elephant-fights have been a favorite amusement in India from the very earliest times. At Agra, according to the “Ayeen Akbery,” the emperor built a large amphitheatre especially for these performances; and Robert Covert, who travelled in Hindostan in 1609, in referring to Agra, tells of elephants fighting before the Mogul, parted with rockets of wild-fire, made round, like hoops, which they thrust in their faces.

The finest account extant of one of these combats is given by Bernier:—

“The festivals generally conclude with an amusement unknown in Europe,—a combat between two elephants, which takes place in the presence of all the people, on the sandy space near the river; the king, the principal ladies of the court, and the omrahs, viewing the spectacle from different apartments in the fortress.

“A wall of earth is raised three or four French feet wide, and five or six high. The two ponderous beasts meet one another face to face, on opposite sides of the wall, each having a couple of riders, that the place of the man who sits on the shoulders, for the purpose of guiding the elephant with a large iron hook, may immediately be supplied if he should be thrown down. The riders animate the elephants, either by soothing words, or by chiding them as cowards, and urge them on with their heels, until the poor creatures approach the wall, and are brought to the attack. The shock is tremendous; and it appears surprising that they even survive the fearful wounds and blows inflicted with their teeth, their heads, and their trunks. There are frequent pauses during the fight; it is suspended and renewed; and the mud wall being at length thrown down, the stronger or more courageous elephant passes on, attacks his opponent, and, putting him to flight, pursues and fastens upon him so obstinately, that the animals can be separated only by means of cherkys, or fireworks, which are made to explode between them; for they are naturally timid, and have a particular dread of fire, which is the reason why elephants have been used with so very little advantage in armies since the use of fire-arms. The boldest come from Ceylon; but none are employed in war which have not been regularly trained, and accustomed for years to the discharge of muskets close to their heads, and the bursting of crackers between their legs.