In teaching him to stand up on his hind legs, the ropes are attached to each of his fore legs, and at certain words of command they are gently hoisted into the air, leaving the elephant supporting himself on his hind legs. This has to be done sometimes as often as fifteen or sixteen times before he understands what he is wanted to do, but after a while, simply from force of habit, he begins to raise himself at the signal, and although the ropes are still kept round his legs, he will gradually get into the way of doing the whole thing himself, seemingly unconsciously.
Much the same sort of thing is done in teaching him to lie down, only in this case a rope with a slip noose is passed round his body at the small of his back, one hind foot and one fore foot are tied and moved out from under him, and then the ropes are pulled gently but firmly until he lies down. When this has been done six or eight times, the elephant generally lies down of his own accord.
Not only does it take some time to arrange the cranes, but, as it needs sometimes eight or ten men to help, these men are told off for certain nights for an hour or so’s work, and are able then to give their undivided attention to what they are doing. For elephants, although most intelligent animals when trained, are sometimes extremely difficult to teach, while their great bulk and strength make them formidable creatures to annoy.
“DOC” BALANCING HIMSELF ON A BALL PLACED ON A SEE-SAW
One of the first things an elephant is taught to do is to walk round the arena without running away. Some elephants show in the earliest stage of training that they can never be persuaded not to bolt at every opportunity, and this is another reason why so much of the training takes place at night. Should an elephant take it into his head to stop suddenly and go out, he would follow out his intention at the risk of danger and death to those not only inside the show, but outside.
Were he to do this in the daytime, the chances are that he would cause a panic, but at night the darkness and quiet have a soothing effect upon him, and even supposing he should get out,—which rarely occurs, as great precautions are taken,—there are few people abroad for him to injure. Even a well-trained elephant will sometimes stop his tricks abruptly and calmly walk out of the arena. In this case, however, there is no danger whatever, as he simply wants to go back to his house and eat peanuts and biscuits, as he was doing when interrupted for the performance.
To make an elephant stand on a barrel or cylinder is simply a matter of inducing him to remain there. Ten chances to one he will bolt in the middle of it; but there is no need to teach him to balance himself—he will attend to that himself. The same applies to see-sawing: he begins with a plank, and gradually gets accustomed to the movement. These methods are simple, but many months, expended in short and frequent lessons delivered with great patience, must be consumed in instruction in order to make a success of it.
Quiet and brevity are important considerations in the lessons. What is to us no appreciable exertion requires an effort on the part of an animal which soon wearies it, and, if care is not taken, disgusts it, and this makes it incapable of further instruction until it has rested. There is also the danger that if too much instruction is given at a time, or if strangers are present, the animal will not only be irritated but rebellious, and finally refuse to do anything at all. There is then nothing to be done but to give up the idea of ever making a performer of the animal, and let him be a mere figure in the show.
It will thus be seen how essential it is to do the chief part of the training by night. There is only one runway behind the cages, and no one is ever allowed in the training-school or in the runway during a performance; and as no performance is given after eleven, the trainers can rest assured that there is no danger of an accidental meeting. In this way all risk of two trainers and their animals meeting in the runway is avoided.