This lesson having been inculcated, number two is begun, which consists in taking it to bathe between two tame elephants. The feet are tied as closely as possible, and the great beast is made to lie down in the water by pressing its backbone with the crooks. This is extremely painful, and is met by furious protests; but finally the animals learn to kneel at the slightest prick of the sharp weapons, and having once succumbed to the power of man, as shown in a number of ways, rapidly become domesticated. Kind treatment does much toward conciliating them; but, like people, each elephant has its own peculiar disposition. In two months a wild elephant may be led without a tame companion; and in three months they are generally put to work, at first in treading clay in brick-fields, or harnessed to a wagon with a tame companion, and finally in the lumber-yards, where all their intelligence is brought to play. The Ceylon elephants attain an age equal to that of the Indian animals. Trained elephants have been kept in use one hundred and forty years; and, according to Tennent, one employed by Mr. Cripps was represented by the Cooroowe people to have served the king of Kandy in the same capacity sixty years before. Among the papers left by Col. Robertson, who held a command in Ceylon in 1799, shortly after the capture of the island by the British, there is a memorandum showing that a decoy (female) was then attached to the elephant establishment at Molura, which the records proved to have served under the Dutch during the entire period of their occupation (extending to upwards of one hundred and forty years). It was said to have been found in the stables by the Dutch on the expulsion of the Portuguese in 1650. CHAPTER XII. ROGUE ELEPHANTS. The popular opinion concerning the elephant is, that it is treacherous, quick to avenge an insult, and possesses a specially retentive memory regarding injuries received. This is an exaggeration: when compared to other animals, the elephant excels in its good qualities. Vices are found only in exceptional cases; the average males being, as a rule, safe, and not susceptible to sudden changes of temper; while the females are particularly mild and gentle. Sanderson says, “Among hundreds that I have known, only two have had any tricks. One of these would not allow herself to be ridden by a strange mahout, and the other had a great aversion to any natives but her own two attendants approaching her.”