The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-05-19
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.


It 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. ct 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 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 apatiert,
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.
1t not unfrequently happens, however.
that an insane elephant gets free, and
kills number of people before he is
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 tiimsy ma
tive hut to pieces in spirit of innocent
mischief, as a herd once did for me when
on brief absence from my camp atTelli-
cul, in the Animallai Hills. Occasion
ally wild male elephant becomes asoli-
tary wanderer, either q compulsory or
voluntary outcast from his herd. Such
individuals are usually supposedto have
violated the laws of the herd, and rem
dered necessary their forcible expulsion.
Whatever may be the causes which
bring about this social ostracism, the
solitary animal is almost invariably
found possessed of a very bad temper,
and his propensity for the wholesale
destruction of property and human life
speedily earns for him the title of
'.rogue"
A rogue elephant" therefore, in the
parlance of the Indian native and the
British sportsman, is a solitary male out
cast of tiendish temper, who kills people
or bullOcks whenever he can catch them,
destroys crops, huts and vehicles, and is
himself to be destroyed as speedily as
possibly. My belief is that all such ele-
plants are really insane, or else are
maddened by the pain of acute diseases,
or gun-shot wounds similar to one | saw
In the head of a famous rogue. A heavy
ball had been fired by some bungling
hunter into the base of an elephants
right tusk, shatterng the ivory and
driving Jagged splinters into the sensi-
tive medullary pulp and the flesh of the
lip. 1t must have caused exquisite
pain, but, like human toothache, it could
not kill. No wonder that elephant be-
came q rogue. @
The presence of a pronounced rogue
elephant is terror to the natives Ofhis
vicinity. and is SO fraught with danger
TO human life, that the Government al
ways grants a liberal reward to the
hunter who is plucky enough to hunt
the dangerous beast and skillful enough
70 kill him. know of no sport more
dangerous serious business to be
called sport" let me assure you-than
the pursuit of blood-thirsty elephant,
VINO is as ready to attack the hunter as
tne latter is to attack him. 1t is St.
george and the dragon in modern flesh
and blood
Perhaps there has never lived in all
Southern India more wicked elephant
tilan the Poonasy rogue, so called from
the fact that his depredations were COM
mltted on the Poonasy hill, near Kol-
legal, in the Coimbatoor district. So
lar as can be ascertained, he began his
career OF blood in the alambaddy ked-
uah' or elephant-pen, few years ago,
When famous drive was made. and he
was captured, with about sixty others.
oh hnding himself entrapped, he at
lacked the stockade with great fury and
persistence. To repel him, the guards
on the outside fired, and tried to kill
MN. The attack with firearms drove
nm from the stockade, but did not
Mi. Maddened by the pain of his
wounds, he attacked the other captives
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