My First Voyage to Southern SeasKingston, William Henry Giles
General
My First Voyage to Southern Seas
Kingston, William Henry Giles
Oceania -- Juvenile fiction; Voyages and travels -- Juvenile fiction
Among the elephants driven into the corral was a rogue, or outcast
elephant. They are supposed to be driven out of the herd on account of
their vicious disposition, and none of their kind will ever associate
with them. They live, consequently, morose and solitary lives, and are
always the most dangerous to attack. He was captured like the rest, and
as a proof of his bad temper, as he was dragged by one of those lying on
the ground, he attacked him furiously with his tusks, and would have
injured him severely had he not been torn away from him. No one
trumpeted and screamed louder at first, but in a short time he lay down
quietly, as if he saw that it was folly to fret himself about what could
not be helped.
"That fellow will soon become tame and humble as the rest," I observed.
"The hunters say that sudden quietness is a sign that he will not live
long," said Mr Fordyce. "We shall see if they are right."
We watched the poor brute. He was covering himself with dust and water
like his companions in misfortune, and continued to do so incessantly.
There were still a great number of elephants to be noosed when night
closed in on us. A large herd, we understood, were also kept in check
outside, ready to be driven in as soon as the first batch had been
disposed of.
The next day we spent much in the same way as the former ones. Most
interested we were, for certainly we could never expect to have so good
an opportunity of studying the character of elephants in their wild
state. Everything we saw tended to raise them higher in our estimation
as the most sagacious of brute beasts, while there was the marked
difference between the manners of the wild and the tame ones which
civilisation is calculated to create. The behaviour of the tame ones
was most wonderful. They seemed to enter so thoroughly into the spirit
of the affair, and to observe so immediately what was necessary to be
done. There was especially no cruelty or malice displayed. They were
apparently happy and contented themselves in captivity, and they did not
seem to consider that there was any hardship for others to be reduced to
the same state. The wild ones also, when they found that escape was
impossible, bore their captivity with wonderful dignity and composure.
Some even seemed to listen with pleasure to the notes of the Kandyan
flute which the natives played near them; and though at first they would
not eat, at length when some juicy stems of the plantain were offered
them, they could not resist the temptation of the luscious morsels. The
young ones, however, though they ate everything given them, screamed and
bellowed louder than any of the rest, attacking every one who came near
them, and never ceasing their struggles to get free. Indeed, their
conduct throughout reminded me very much of petted and rather
violent-tempered children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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