The elephant’s obedience to his keeper is the result of affection, as well as of fear; and although his attachment becomes so strong that an elephant in Ceylon has been known to remain out all night, without food, rather than abandon his mahout, lying intoxicated in the jungle, yet he manifests little difficulty in yielding the same submission to a new driver in the event of a change of attendants. This is opposed to the popular belief that “the elephant cherishes such an enduring remembrance of his old mahout, that he cannot easily be brought to obey a stranger.”[153] In the extensive establishments of the Ceylon Government, the keepers are changed without hesitation, and the animals, when equally kindly treated, are usually found to be as tractable and obedient to their new driver as to the old, so soon as they have become familiarised with his voice.
This is not, however, invariably the case; and Mr. Cripps, who had remarkable opportunities for observing the habits of the elephant in Ceylon, mentioned to me an instance in which one of a singularly stubborn disposition occasioned some inconvenience after the death of its keeper, by refusing to obey any other, till its attendants bethought them of a child about twelve years old, in a distant village, where the animal had been formerly picketed, and to whom it had displayed much attachment. The child was sent for; and on its arrival the elephant, as anticipated, manifested extreme satisfaction, and was managed with ease, till by degrees it became reconciled to the presence of a new superintendent.
It has been said that the mahouts die young, owing to some supposed injury to the spinal column from the peculiar motion of the elephant; but this remark does not apply to those in Ceylon, who are healthy, and as long-lived as other men. If the motion of the elephant be thus injurious, that of the camel must be still more so; yet we never hear of early death ascribed to this cause by the Arabs.
The voice of the keeper, with a very limited vocabulary of articulate sounds, serves almost alone to guide the elephant in his domestic occupations.[154] Sir Everard Home, from an examination of the muscular fibres in the drum of an elephant’s ear, came to the conclusion, that notwithstanding the distinctness and power of his perception of sounds at a greater distance than other animals, he was insensible to their harmonious modulation and destitute of a musical ear.[155] But Professor Harrison, in a paper read before the Royal Irish Academy in 1847, has stated that on a careful examination of the head of an elephant which he had dissected, he could “see no evidence of the muscular structure of the membrana tympani so accurately described by Sir E. Home.” Sir Everard’s deduction, I may observe, is clearly inconsistent with the fact that the power of two elephants may be combined by singing to them a measured chant, somewhat resembling a sailor’s capstan song; and in labour of a particular kind, such as hauling a stone with ropes, they will thus move conjointly a weight to which their divided strength would be unequal.[156]
Nothing can more strongly exhibit the impulse to obedience in the elephant, than the patience with which, at the order of his keeper, he swallows the nauseous medicines of the native elephant-doctors; and it is impossible to witness the fortitude with which, without shrinking, he submits to excruciating surgical operations for the removal of tumours and ulcers, without conceiving a vivid impression of his gentleness and intelligence. Dr. Davy when in Ceylon was consulted about an elephant in the Government stud, which was suffering from a deep, burrowing sore in the back, just over the back-bone, and this had long resisted the treatment ordinarily employed. He recommended the use of the knife, that vent might be given to the accumulated matter, but no one of the attendants was competent to undertake the operation. “Being assured,” he continues, “that the creature would behave well, I undertook it myself. The elephant was not bound, but was made to kneel down at his keeper’s command—and with an amputating knife, using all my force, I made the incision required through the tough integuments. The elephant did not flinch, but rather inclined towards me when using the knife; and merely uttered a low, and as it were suppressed, groan. In short, he behaved as like a human being as possible, as if conscious (as I believe he was), that the operation was for his good, and the pain unavoidable.”[157]
Obedience to the orders of his keepers is not, however, to be assumed as the result of a uniform perception of the object to be attained by compliance; and we cannot but remember the touching incident which took place during the slaughter of the elephant at Exeter Change in 1826, when, after receiving ineffectually upwards of 120 balls in various parts of his body, he turned his face to his assailants on hearing the voice of his keeper, and knelt down at the accustomed word of command, so as to bring his forehead within view of the rifles.[158]
The working elephant is always a delicate animal, and requires watchfulness and care. As a beast of burden it is unsatisfactory; for although in point of mere strength there is scarcely any weight which could be conveniently placed on it that it could not carry, it is difficult to pack the load without causing abrasions that afterwards ulcerate. The skin is easily chafed by harness, especially in wet weather. During either long droughts or too much moisture, an elephant’s feet become liable to sores, that render it non-effective for months. Many attempts have been made to provide some protection for the sole of the foot, but from the extreme weight and the peculiar mode of planting the foot, they have all been unsuccessful. The eyes are also liable to frequent inflammations, and the skill of the native elephant-doctors, which has been renowned since the time of Ælian, is nowhere more strikingly displayed than in the successful treatment of such attacks.[159] In Ceylon, the murrain among the cattle is of frequent occurrence, and carries off great numbers of animals, wild as well as tame. In such visitations the elephants suffer severely, not only those at liberty in the forest, but those carefully tended in the Government stables. Out of a stud of about 40 attached to the department of the Commission of Roads, the deaths between 1841 and 1849 were on an average four in each year, and this was nearly doubled in those years when murrain prevailed.
Of 240 elephants, employed in the public departments of the Ceylon Government, which died in twenty-five years, from 1831 to 1856, the length of time that each lived in captivity has only been recorded in the instances of 138. Of these there died:—
| Duration of Captivity | No. | Male | Female | ||||
| Under 1 year | 72 | 29 | 43 | ||||
| From | 1 | to | 2 | years | 14 | 5 | 9 |
| ” | 2 | ” | 3 | ” | 8 | 5 | 3 |
| ” | 3 | ” | 4 | ” | 8 | 3 | 5 |
| ” | 4 | ” | 5 | ” | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| ” | 5 | ” | 6 | ” | 2 | 2 | . |
| ” | 6 | ” | 7 | ” | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| ” | 7 | ” | 8 | ” | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| ” | 8 | ” | 9 | ” | 5 | 5 | . |
| ” | 9 | ” | 10 | ” | 2 | 2 | . |
| ” | 10 | ” | 11 | ” | 2 | 2 | . |
| ” | 11 | ” | 12 | ” | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| ” | 12 | ” | 13 | ” | 3 | . | 3 |
| ” | 13 | ” | 14 | ” | . | . | . |
| ” | 14 | ” | 15 | ” | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| ” | 15 | ” | 16 | ” | 1 | 1 | . |
| ” | 16 | ” | 17 | ” | 1 | . | 1 |
| ” | 17 | ” | 18 | ” | . | . | . |
| ” | 18 | ” | 19 | ” | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| ” | 19 | ” | 20 | ” | 1 | . | 1 |
| Total | 138 | 62 | 76 | ||||
Of the 72 who died in one year’s servitude, 35 expired within the first six months of their captivity. During training, many elephants die in the unaccountable manner already referred to, of what the natives designate a broken heart.