The modes in which elephants are caught and domesticated are curious and interesting. In a wild state they inhabit, in large troops, the thick and boundless forests of Asia and Africa. To obtain the single male elephant, it is customary, in some parts of India, to employ females, which are trained for that particular purpose. When the hunters have discovered a male elephant that suits them, they conduct four of the females silently and slowly, at a little distance from each other, nearly to the place where he is feeding. If, as frequently is the case, he permit their approach, two of them are conducted, one on each side, close to his neck, a third places herself across his tail, and the fourth is brought up by proper attendants, who immediately pass under the animal and tie his legs with ropes. After this he is further secured; and, at length, though not without much difficulty, is conveyed home and domesticated.
When a herd of elephants are to be secured, a party consisting sometimes of 500 persons are employed. These, by fire and noises, drive them into certain enclosures, formed for the purpose; an operation which generally occupies several days. These enclosures are three in number, and communicate with each other by narrow openings or gateways. The opening of the outer enclosure is disguised, as much as possible, by bamboos and branches of trees stuck into the ground, so as to make it look like a natural jungle. It is not without much difficulty that the leader can be induced to enter: but, after he has passed, all the others immediately follow. There is still greater difficulty in inducing them to pass into the second and third enclosures: and lastly, one by one, into the roomee, an outlet about sixty feet in length, and so narrow that the animals are unable to turn round in it. Here, after in vain exerting all their powers to break down the fences and escape, they are all, in succession, secured by ropes that are fastened round their legs.
To domesticate the animals, they are now each placed under a keeper, who is appointed to attend and instruct them. After the elephant has for some days been supplied with food and water, the keeper ventures to approach him. He strokes and pats him with his hand, at the same time speaking to him in a soothing voice; and after a little while the beast begins to know and obey him. By degrees the keeper becomes familiar; he ventures to mount upon his back from one of the tame elephants, and at length seats himself on his neck, from whence he afterwards regulates and directs all his motions. In a few weeks the animal becomes obedient; his fetters are by degrees taken off; and, in the course of six months, he submits entirely to his keeper's will.
Wild male elephants are frequently hunted and killed, both in Asia and Africa, on account of their tusks, which, under the name of ivory, are a very important article of traffic. The temptation held out, at the Cape of Good Hope, to this dangerous pursuit, in which many of the hunters lose their lives, is the payment of a guilder per pound for the tusks; and these weigh from 30 to 130 pounds each. For the whitest, smoothest, and most compact ivory that is known, we are, however, indebted to the island of Ceylon. The whole quantity of ivory exported from the Cape of Good Hope in four years, ending in 1804, amounted to 5981 pounds; and the average annual quantity vended at the East India Company's sales from 1804 to 1808 was twenty-six tons.
The principal consumption of ivory is for making ornamental utensils, mathematical instruments, boxes, combs, dice, and an infinite variety of toys. This substance is also used for painting miniatures upon, for which, however, it goes through a peculiar preparation. It is capable of being stained of various and very beautiful colours. The shavings of ivory, like those of hartshorn, may, by boiling, be converted into a jelly; and they possess similar virtues. Bone is frequently substituted for ivory, but it is easily known by its pores, which are not to be seen in ivory, and by its wanting the beautiful white veins or marks by which ivory is distinguished.
The flesh of the elephant is eaten by the negroes of Africa; and the ancients attributed many medicinal qualities to the blood and the trunk.
22. The GREAT MORSE, or ARCTIC WALRUS (Trichechus rosmarus), is a marine quadruped of enormous size, with short fin-like feet, two great tusks pointing downward from the upper jaw, the lips peculiarly thick, the upper lip cleft into two large rounded lobes, and no front teeth in either jaw.
These animals inhabit the sea near the northern parts of the coast of America, and feed on sea-weeds, corallines, and shellfish. They are sometimes nearly eighteen feet in length, and ten or twelve in circumference. Their skin is of dark colour, and thinly covered with short brownish hair. They have small eyes, and small circular orifices in place of external ears.
We are informed that these animals, under the name of horse-whales, were objects of pursuit so early as even the reign of King Alfred, and on account chiefly of their tusks and oil. The former are a close-grained kind of ivory, and weigh from ten to near thirty pounds each; and the latter, which is equally valuable with that of whale oil, is in such abundance that the body of each animal yields nearly half a tun. This oil is burned in lamps, is used for the same purposes as whale-oil, and even eaten by the inhabitants of Greenland with their food. Of the skins of the arctic walrus the Greenlanders make a thick and strong harness for their sledges and carriages; and they sometimes twist narrow strips of them together to form cables. They constitute an important article of export from the coast of Labrador. The tendons of these animals are capable of being split and used as thread.
So numerous were arctic walruses formerly in the northern seas, that we are informed of the English, in 1706, having killed, on Cherry Island (betwixt Norway and Greenland) near eight hundred of them in six hours; and that, in 1708, they killed nine hundred in seven hours. Of late years, however, their numbers are much decreased.