The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-12-18
Elephants and Their Ways.

Elephant-hunting naturally takes
prominent place in Col. Pollock pages.
He gives some good stories, which gen
orally relate to the prOwess and hair
breadth escapes of his friends and broth
er officers in following the noble game.
He says that the Asiatic elephants should
be divided into two classes Coon
das, those that have large tusks, and
the Mucknahs, or those that have none,
or only ruGimentary ones; the two kinds
seldom herding together, and having pc
culiarities of formation which render
them very distinct, although they do not
seem to have been noticed by other
writer's. The mucknah is usually taller
and more bulky than the tusker, and
has a longer and very ponderous trunk.
While some animals of this kind are alb
solutely without tusks, most of them
have short, sharp ones, growing down
wards, like those of the walrus, with
which they can intiict most formidable
blows. Col. Pollock seems to have been
greatly impressed with the sagacity of
the elephant in its wild state, particularly
that displayed in its choice of camping
and feeling grounds, which are often
surrounded on three sides by tortuous
river impossible to ordinary mOrtals,
thicket or quagmire. 50 have been an
hour or MORE" he says, - trying to
penetrate into one of their businesses,
where twenty or thirty elephants were
congregated within a space nowhere
more than 400 yards square but so well
were all the approaches protected, that
at last, when l did succeed in crossing
over, at the risk of either being swept
away by the force of the current or
drowned in its deep bed or begged in
the quagmires, the noise we made was
sufficient to awaken the Seven Sleep
ers, to say nothing of disturbing a
herd of elephants, and | had the
pleasure of seeing them make their
exit one way as | entered on the OppO-
site side; and once more the animals
were on the move, such was the intricate
nature of the country it was useless,
indeed impossible, to follow them" The
Burmese and Assamese, it seems, laugh
at the European for firing only for the
brain of an elephant, as they aim with
considerable success at the point of the
shoulder, which is one of its five vulner-
able points. 1t is as amusing to find
that there Is much rascality practiced
about the sale of a tame elephant as
about that of Il horse, the vicious one
being drugged and sold as docile, the
sleepy one frightened by the use of gin
ger or brandy, and the useless brute,
that never carries flesh, fed up for the
time with massalahs and sugar-cane.
The person accustomed to elephants is
perfectly able to judge OF their state of
mind by the peculiar noises they utter
the sort of whistling from the trunk de-
notes satisfaction, trumpeting is sign
of rage, the striking the trunk on the
ground with a pitiful cry shows alarm.
and kind of grunt is used to express
Impotence or dissatisfaction. Col. Pol
lock gives a good deal of information as
to the various ways of catching and
training them, and he rather defends the
mahOuts from the many sins alleged
against them, saying they are, as a rule,
a plucky and not bad class of men,
easily managed if treated with kindness
and firmuess. The trip up the Irri-
waddie to Pagan Myo, Ava, Umrapoo-
rah, aud Mandalay is one of the most
interesting portions of Col. Pollock's
book. On this occasion he saw the
white elephant, although he was not
clad in his state trappings, covered with
magnificent precious stones, - any one
of which is worth fortune" The
animal stood about ten and a half feet
high, was handsomely made, and had
tusks seven feet long, which, as they all
but touch the ground, required to be
slightly shortened each year,-L0nd0a
Spectator.