Evening star., 1921-05-29
Difficulties Encountered in Mastering Herd of Sixty Elephant

I sunken cheeks The height OF an ele-
| phant is almost exactly twice the ois-
tance. ground its foot,
4 herd of elephants is invariabiH
led by the females. perhaps because
they are the more alert to catch 'ne
least sign of danger. If the hero IS
| breaking through the jungle ana
making trail for the females and
young. An elephant never goes
around things; he either pushes them
to one side or goes straight through
He is very sure footed and. on any,
thing that looks doubtful. he VIII
never step without drst putting out
foot and trying it. For that reason
it requires some skill to build PIT
trap that will not attract attention.
a pit-trap is practically useless. nov
ever. because the elephant is inNaria-
bly, injured in the fall: II allows the
"a pture of the baby. in the case OF
| females. but at the cost of the good
! full grown animal. Wild elepnahts
grazing in a herd travel rapidly IL
saunter along. sleeping during the
day and feeding at night. Their FOOD
consists chiefly of grasses. bamboo
| shoots, coconuts and the bark OF some
trees. Lone elephants and outcasts
from the herd are dangerous animals
and should be killed.
! There comes period. known as
| must" when even the most reiiaoie
! elephant becomes dangerous animal.
| Like a Malay he secs red and runs
amok 4 good elephant keeper can
| detect the madness several days be-
! fore it reaches the dangerous stage
and. by securing the animal with
hobbies. can prevent trouble. In the
| checks of the elephant are two small
holes called "errors." and from these
Of
| the keepers duties each day is to eX-
| anime the holes and run a piece OF
straw into them. If there is an odor
J of musk about the straw when he
pulls it out. it is an indication that
the must" period is coming. Some
! test. and the elephant runs amok.
| killing people and leaving a trail of
| wreckage behind him.
On one OF my visits to Sydney with
a consignment OF animals for the
Geological Gardens. l found the en-
tire crew of elephant keepers busy
with the task of trying to control
an animal that was in must" His
| keeper had failed to make the test.
and the elephant had suddenly gone
| mad Fortunately he was in his stall
| at the time. When ] arrived. ne had
wrecked the stall. and the keepers
| were afraid that he might get loose.
Another stall had been arranged. but
they could figure out no way OF
changing him to it. The men were
thoroughly frightened and absolutely
refused to risk hobbling him. The
director of the gardens offered me
f100 if | would do it. and. since ! had
Ali and several OF my own men with
me, l agreed to try.
l\N-ITH elephant hooks strapped to
w our u-rists u-a en+ered .be ctou
! The elephant stood looking at US, ap-
parently wondering which one he
should knock down first. / told Ali
to get behind him while approached
from the front.
I went up to him sideways. speak
ing to him and Offering him food.
He waited quietly until I was near
enough: then, before I could duck, he
hit me with his trunk. I felt myself
spinning so rapidly that the elephant.
my men and the stall were all a blur
and came up against the wall with
a thud. Fortunately, there was a
gutter running along the wall, and
dropped into it just as the elephant
lunged forward at me. His big head
hit the wall and the floor, but couldn',
get at me. He would not risk his
trunk. because he realized that
! would jab him with the hook.
Ali and the other men were at his
! tail. jabbing him and pulling. When
he turned for them, jumped up and
began running my hook into his side
1t became a game of jabbing and dodg-
ing and worrying him to first one side
and then the other. l took care to
thrust my hook always in the same
/; spot, tearing a raw wound in his side
while the other men caught him on
the legs and on the trunk. We had to
work fast to keep away from the big
. trunk. as it cut through the air. and
his feet. when he kicked. Each of us
was sent sprawling several times be-
fore the fight was over.
At last ! could see that the elephant
was paying more attention to the
wound 1 was making than to anything
else we were doing; he favored the
!, hurt side and tried to shield it. Then