The Wild Elephant and the Method of Capturing and Taming it in CeylonTennent, James Emerson, Sir
History
The Wild Elephant and the Method of Capturing and Taming it in Ceylon
Tennent, James Emerson, Sir
Elephants -- Sri Lanka
Again, the elephant is said to “entertain an extraordinary dislike to
all quadrupeds; that dogs running near it produce annoyance; that it
is alarmed if a hare start from her form;” and from Pliny to Buffon
every naturalist has asserted its supposed aversion to swine.[18]
These alleged antipathies are in a great degree, if not altogether,
imaginary. The habits of the elephant are essentially harmless, its
wants lead to no rivalry with other animals, and the food to which
it is most attached flourishes in such luxuriance that abundance of
it is obtained without an effort. In the quiet solitudes of Ceylon,
elephants may be seen browsing peacefully in the immediate vicinity
of other animals, and often in close contact with them. I have seen
groups of deer and wild buffaloes reclining in the sandy bed of a
river in the dry season, and elephants plucking the branches above and
beside them. They show no impatience in the company of the elk, the
bear, and the wild hog; and on the other hand, I have never discovered
an instance in which these animals have evinced any apprehension of
the elephant. Its natural timidity, however, is such that it becomes
alarmed on the appearance in the jungle of any animal with whose form
it is not familiar. It is said to be afraid of the horse; but from my
own experience, I should say it is the horse that is disquieted at
the aspect of the elephant. In the same way, from some unaccountable
impulse, the horse has an antipathy to the camel, and evinces extreme
impatience, both of the sight and the smell of that animal.[19] When
enraged, an elephant will not hesitate to charge a rider on horseback;
but it is against the man, not against the horse, that his fury is
directed; and no instance has been ever known of his wantonly assailing
a horse. A horse belonging to the late Major Rogers[20] had run away
from his groom, and was found some considerable time afterwards grazing
quietly with a herd of elephants. In DE BRY’S splendid collection of
travels, however, there is included _The voyage of a certain Englishman
to Cambay_; in which the author asserts that at Agra, in the year 1607,
he was present at a spectacle given by the viceregent of the great
Mogul, in the course of which he saw an elephant destroy two horses,
by seizing them in its trunk, and crushing them with his tusks and
feet.[21] But this display was avowedly an artificial one, and the
creature must have been cruelly trained and tutored for the occasion.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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