The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1886-05-21
SENSIBLE BRUTES.
The Huge Elephant Quickly Sees
That Man Is His Master.
insanity scourge, of the Mammoth
world-The "Rogues''-The Career
and Final Death of the Terror
of the Poonasy Hills.

1t is the firm conviction of the writer
that of all the animals which man has
either domesticated or made captive, the
lordly elephant is the most intelligent,
obedient and good-tempered. "It is
hard to teach an old dog new tricks"
but old elephants are easier to tame and
teach than the young ones. When a
wild herd is entrapped in keddah, and
the captives are tied one by one and led
away, it is the Oldest elephants who learn
soonest that mind is superior to brute
force, and that the wisest way is te yield
/ gracefully to the inevitable.
Most wild animals that are captured
in an adult state are for a long time in
] state of extreme terror, or else ex-
treme rage, and it is very seldom that
such subject yields to teaching. With
the elephant, however, its tuition begins
with its capture. In from three to six
months the wild and lawless denizen of
the Jungle is transformed into apatient,
steady-going beast of burden, who does
his best to perform his tasks properly
and intelligently, and very rarely gives
cause for complaint.
But the elephant, like his human mas
ter, and also animals of many other spe
cies, is subject to insanity. Old ami
mails, especially males, are now and
then attacked by temporary fits called
''must," partly due in some cases to
lack of sufficient exercise, but oftener by
reason of the natural visitation of this
painful malady upon the elephant. An
insane elephant, either in fit of must
or permanently mad, is the incarnation
of destructiveness. The attack of must
will pass off in few days, or at most a
few weeks, during which time the
afflicted animal is kept securely chained,
and deprived of the power to do mis-
chief. An animal which, from any
cause, becomes permanently mad, is too
dangerous to be permitted to live, and
all such are shot as quickly as possible.
4 1t not unfrequently happens, however,
that an insane elephant gets free, and
kills a number of people before he is
I killed.
AS rule, wild elephants are inoffen
sive, peace-loving animals, far more
ready to flee than to fight, and never at
tack people in pure wontonness. Neither
are they disposed to destroy property,
save now and then to pull fimsy ma
tive hut to pieces in a spirit of innocen
mischief, as herd once did for me wher
on abrief absence from my camp atTelli
cul, in the Animallai Hills. Occasion
u ally a wild male elephant becomes a soil
II tary wanderer, either compulsory OF
voluntary outcast from his herd. Sucl
individuals are usually supposed to hav
violated the laws of the herd, and rem
dered necessary their forcible expulsion
eV Whatever may be the causes whicl
d bring about this social ostracism, th
solitary animal is almost invariabl
found possessed of very bad temper
n and his propensity for the wholesal
d destruction of property and human lif
o. speedily earns for him the title G
il 'rogue,"
IS A .rogue elephant" therefore, in th
ii parlance of the Indian native and tn
l% British sportsman, is solitary male ou,
n cast of fiendish temper, who kills peopl
II OF bullocks whenever he can catch them
d destroys crops, huts and vehicles, and
al himself to be destroyed as speedily 8
ii possibly. My belief is that all such Ell,
h4 plants are really insane, or else al
70 maddened by the pain of acute diseases
III in the head of a famous rogue. A heav
81 ball had been fired by some bunglin
rt hunter into the base of an elephant
If right tusk, shatterlng the ivory an
uH driving Jagged splinters into the sens
ly tive medullary pulp and the flesh of I'll
tH lip. 1t must have caused exquisi
in pain, but, like human toothache, it coul
re not kill No wonder that elephant b
III came rogue.
es The presence of pronounced rogl
leN elephant is terror to the natives of h
lyE vicinity, and is so fraught with dang
ye to human life, that the Government q
3yk ways grants liberal reward to Il
81 hunter who is plucky enough to hui
r. the dangerous beast and skillful enous
lg| to kill him. know of no sport mo
atu dangerous-very serious business to
n called "sport," let me assure youth;
ut' the pursuit of a blood-thirsty elephan
e. who is as ready to attack the hunter
as the latter is to attack him. 1t is
p George and the dragon in modern fle
1e and blood
m Perhaps there has never lived in |
asI Southern India more wicked elepha
than the Poonasy rogue, so called fro
Gel the fact that his depredations were col
bel mitted on the Poonasy hill, near X
r. legal, in the Coimbatoor district.
# far as can be ascertained, he began
bel career of blood in the alambaddy kt
$, dah, or elephant-pen, a few years ae
To when famous drive was made, and
e. was captured, with about sixty othe
On finding himself entrapped, he
tackled the stockade with great fury a
persistence. To repel him, the gual
lg on the outside fired, and tried to
II him. The attack with firearms drc
him from the stockade, but did /
kill. Maddaned by the pain of
wounds, he attacked the other capti'
with his tusks, and killed niastass