Buffon's Natural History. Volume 07 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &cBuffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
History
Buffon's Natural History. Volume 07 (of 10): Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c
Buffon, Georges Louis Leclerc, comte de
Natural history
[Footnote AF: For the purpose of hunting the elephant, they have at a
little distance from Luovo, a kind of amphitheatre, surrounded with
high walls, where those are placed who wish to see the sport. In the
middle of these walls a palisade is formed, with strong stakes fixed
in the ground; a pretty large opening is left on the side next the
forest, and a smaller one towards the city, into which the elephant
cannot enter without difficulty. Upon the day fixed upon for the chace,
the hunters go into the forests upon some female elephants covering
themselves with leaves to prevent being seen; having reason to suppose
there are wild ones near, they make the females utter certain cries,
and which the wild males instantly answer; the hunter then drives the
female back to the above amphitheatre, whither the male constantly
follows her, and being entered the large opening is immediately shut.
At the one we were present, the females went out on the other side,
but from the smallness of the size the wild one refused to enter;
the females repeated their cries, and some of the Siamese began to
irritate him, by clapping their hands, and crying _pat, pat_, while
others struck him with long poles that had sharp points, all of whom he
pursued, but they escaped by slipping between the palisades, sufficient
spaces being left for that purpose; at length he fixed upon one whom he
pursued with great fury, and the man running into this narrow passage
the elephant followed him, but the moment he entered, the bars, before
and behind, were let fall, and he no sooner found himself in the snare
than he made the most violent efforts, and raised the most hideous
cries. The hunters then endeavoured to sooth him by flinging quantities
of water upon his body and trunk, rubbing him with leaves, putting oil
on his ears, and bringing tame elephants, who seemed to caress him with
their trunks, one of which, properly trained, was mounted by a man who
made him go backwards and forwards to shew as it were the stranger that
he had nothing to fear. Ropes were thrown round his hind legs and body,
and then the bar was taken away from the further end, where being come
he was tied to two tame elephants one of each side of him these led
him the way while another pushed him behind with his head until they
came to a kind of shade where he was fastened to a large post, like the
capstan of a ship, and there left till the next day. While here, one
of the Bramins, or priests, dressed in white, and mounted on another
elephant, goes to him and sprinkles him with consecrated water, which
they imagine has the power of divesting him of his ferocity. Next day
he is marched off with the other elephants, and by the end of the
fifteenth, they are in general perfectly tame. _Premier Voyage du P.
Tachard._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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