The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-04-17
Elephants With Brains
BY FRANK G. CARPENTER.

! mills and lumber yards of Rangoon,
i where the elephants aid in prepar-
ing their wood for shipment abroad.
| Teak Is one of the chief exports OF
| Burma. 1t is so valuable that 1t is sold
| by the ton, and it brings in 100000 or
IS, 600 year. The trees are girdled In
the forests and after cutting are hoated
down the streams and rivers to Rangoon.
Both In the forests and at the ports the
handling of the timber Is done by ele-
plants. They drag the logs to the streams
and arrange the booms; they stack the
planks, and they carry all sorts of lum-
Der at the direction of their masters. Ev-
cry sawlnll here has its elephants, and
there are some companies which employ
several hundred. The average institution,
however, can afford but few, for the
animals are costly, green one bring
ing $500 and prize worker often as
much as $1,000.
The elephants come from the forests
of Upper Burma. The wild ones are all
owned by the government which has an
elephant department to catch and care
for them. The elephant commissioner
keeps track of the wild herds and annu-
ally sends out men to hunt them and
catch the young bulls. The COW ele-
plants and certain number of bulls are
turned back into the forests. The bull
calves are kept and trained and are
finally disposed of to the lumbermen.
few being retained for the government
use.
In hunting the elephants, they are
sometimes captured in pits and sometimes
led into corrals by means of tame ele-
plants trained for the purpose. The
tame beasts mix with the wild ones and
lead them into the pens. whereupon the
elephant hunters sort out from the wild
ones those they wish to keep and turn
hao MT
Of the elephants at Rangoon have come
from tho government herds.
In the Lumber Yards
l wish l could show you some of the
huge beasts at work In the yards. They
lift great logs on their tusks and stack
them in piles. They carry timbers to
the saws and lay the planks in order
for shipment. Their every action shows
reason and they seem to calculate cause
and effect At one sawmill l saw two
beasts, each as big as Jumbo, piiing
lumber, working together. Each had a
Burman, clad in turban and gown, seated
upon his head, and he was directed by
him. The man used both hand and heel
as we'll as word of mouth to tell the
elephant what to do, and In addition
sharp brass hook which he jabbed
into him If he did not obey. The logs
handled were of great weight. I meas
ured some which were 20 feet long, as
thick as a cider barrel and as tall as
two-story house. Either of these two
elephants could life one such log, on his
tusks, and carry 1t across the yard. lie
would kneel down before the middle of a
log, crowd his tusks under it and then,
throwing his great trunk over the top.
would raise 1t bodily and carry it to the
truck upon which it was to be pushed
to the buzz saw. IL the log proved very
heavy he would rest one end on the
ground and drag it.
In another part of the yard I watched
an elephant piling lumber. He would lift
the timbers up and lay them down on
the others as evenly as though he had
measured each piece. Sometimes he rested
a log on the pile and pushed it into place
with his trunk. At other times he kicked
1t up with his right hind foot In some
cases where It was necessary to carry
two logs at a time the men tied rope
around them and the elephant would
pick up the end of the rope with
his trunk and place 1t over his tusk and
then raising his head, walk off with It,
The elephants gather up the scraps of
lumber and lay them so that the work
men can rope them into bundles. They
also work at piling the boards and loading
them for the steamers
TIE managers tell me many of these
beasts are employed in the forests and
at the lumber camps up country. They
are used for all sorts of heavy transpor-
tation. They not only carry the logs to
the streams, but aid In forming the RATS
and booms. They wade or swim about,
according to the depth of the water,
towing the logs this way and that When
the logs come to the ports they break
the booms by pushing out the key log.
Then they take the timbers out of the
water and put them on the cars, which
caryr them to the mills.
In some places the elephants work to-
gether, and 1 am told there are boss ele
plants which keep the others up to their
work and pound them with their trunks
when they lag. In some yards each ele-
plant has its own job, one class being
used to carry hay for the stables and to
mix the bran, molasses and other food
which form the daily rations of the
beasts in that establishment.
Beasts Which Watch the Clock
These elephants at Rangoon are par
ticular as to their working hours They
seem to almost watch the clock, for they
get restless as the noon hour approaches,
and stop now and then to wait for the
bell. When the whistle sounds and the
bell rings at IL o'clock they will drop
whatever they have on their tusks and
bolt for the feeding sheds. 1t is the same
at night
L
and that each must have his bath twice
day. At one of the yards I saw them
washing the beasts. The elephants sat
down while buckets of water were
thrown over them. After that their
masters scrubbed them with rough
brushes and curried them, as 1t were, all
over. AS the water was dashed upon
them they wagged their tails and flap
ped their ears and grunted in joy.
/ asked one of the men If the beasts
were hard to handle. He replied: mo,
but we must be always on guard. and
If they grow angry they make no bones
of killing u.s.
The elephant is touchy, and If anything
creeps under the blanket on his back ne
grows restless and cannot work well.
He will tremble like a woman at the
sight of mouse, for fear, perhaps that
the animal may run up his trunk. AS
l left one of the sawmills I threw
piece of silver to the man on the biggest
elephant. He rubbed the beasts head
with his heel and thereupon the elephant
threw his great trunk high into the air
and gave me a royal salute.
The White Elephant
Burma ranks with Siam as the land of
the white elephant. The people here are
Buddhists, and they believe that the
souls Of human beings when they pass
away, go into the bodies of animals.
Moreover. they think that the spirits of
the good and noble go into the bodies of
white animals and as the elephant is one
of the largest of beasts every white ee-
plant contains the soul of hero. King
Thibaw, the last native ruler of Burma,
had a palace for his white elephants and
they were treated like kings When they
went out umbrellas of white and gold