AN ELEPHANT ROUND-UP
BY D. P. B. CONKLING
Elephant
NINETY miles from the mouth of the Menam River lies the city of Ayuthia, the old capital of Siam. The jungle has taken back to itself miles of its ancient grandeur, and temples, palaces, and brick roadways lie crumbling and half buried in the rank luxuriance of the tropical forest. To the north, east, and west, except on the very banks of the river, the country stretches out in one unbroken line of wilderness, and this primeval jungle-land forms the great elephant preserve of the king. Here the huge herds wander in absolute freedom, making unmolested raids upon the paddy-fields and palm-orchards of the river villages, lords of the land except in the event of a great “round-up,” when the royal mahouts, mounted on tame tuskers, form in an immense circle and slowly drive one or more herds steadily toward the kraal at Ayuthia.
With the exception on some few miles of roadways in Bangkok, Siam is destitute of the ordinary modes of communication, and the entire transportation of the country is by rivers and canals or by elephants. All the great up-country produce is packed by them through the jungle to the waterways, over roads made by themselves and quite impassable for any other beast of burden. Therefore the capture of young tuskers to be tamed and trained for this work forms, perhaps,theevent of the year to the natives.
The kraal at Ayuthia is four hundred feet square, formed of teak-wood logs, set about two feet apart and fifteen feet high, bound strongly with iron and forming a barrier which is seldom broken even by the strongest tuskers. The entrance is at the end immediately adjoining the jungle, and two lines of stockade extend in the shape of a fan a mile or more into the forest. In the center of the paddock is a small square of ten feet, built in the same way as the outer barrier, and used as a place of refuge for the natives employed in cutting-out and tying up the captives.
In the round-up that we had the good fortune to see there were exactly two hundred and thirteen wild elephants brought in. Thirty trained mounts, each with his two mahouts, together with hundreds of natives on foot, had been at work for two or more weeks getting this herd together, and safely into the kraal. The driving of this huge mass of beasts day after day until finally the last rush is made and the herd is well inside the fan, requires more nerve, patience, and skill than perhaps any other form of capture in the world. It is not unusual that many men are killed in this work, for if once the herd gets scent of danger, nothing can withstand their fearful charge. While there is no animal in which docility and kindness are more strongly marked than in the elephant, let him once become wicked, or “rogue,” as a man-killer is called, and there is no other beast which shows equal ferocity and cruelty, combined with an absolutely devilish cunning.
The first signs of the approaching herd were a great cloud of dust and a dull roar like a heavy freight-train, making the ground fairly tremble; and then out of the mist came the huge beasts, pushing and fighting as they were packed closer in the converging fan, and making the air ring with their shrill trumpetings.
The large swinging beams at the entrance were pulled aside, and in they came with a rush, by twos and threes, stopping suddenly, and looking about in a dazed way at the yelling crowd of natives perched out of danger high on the walls beyond the stockade. When the whole herd was in and the paddock closed, they were left to themselves for a time before the real work of the day, from a spectator’s point of view at least, began.
Half-tone plate engraved by S. DavisA ROUND-UP FESTIVAL—TWO HUNDRED ELEPHANTS IN THE OUTER PEN❏LARGER IMAGE
Half-tone plate engraved by S. Davis
A ROUND-UP FESTIVAL—TWO HUNDRED ELEPHANTS IN THE OUTER PEN
❏LARGER IMAGE
In a herd of this size it is remarkable how few elephants there are that are fit for training—only eight in this case. They must be young, strong, and well built, with promise of good tusks. The cutting-out proceedings opened in a truly circus-like style. The exit by the side of the pavilion was opened, and seven of the largest tame tuskers entered in single file, led by the king’s chief mahout mounted on a superb animal.
Each elephant carried two men, the mahout sitting astride the neck and guiding his mount by the pressure of his knees as well as by shouting, the second man sitting over the hind quarters and by means of the goad urging the beast to quicken his pace either forward or backward. The mahouts carried a long bamboo pole, to one end of which was fastened the detachable noose of a coil of rope on his elephant’s back.
When the seven tuskers had formed in line, they drove the herd in a circle around the center refuge. After a short time, one of the young elephants would drift to the rear rank, and a mahout, urging his mount forward, would slip the noose under one of the youngster’s hind feet, detach the pole by a quick jerk, and turning sharply and paying out the coil of rope at the same time, would bring the line taut and fix the noose firmly in place. The end would then be untied from the saddle of the tame mount, and the young tusker would go racing madly back to the herd, dragging fifty yards of rope after him. This operation was repeated for each of the eight captives, and in some instances, when the youngsters seemed particularly fractious, both hind feet would be roped.
After all the ropes were made fast, the herd was let loose, the tame mounts mingling with it, and gradually forcing the roped animals closer to the posts to which they were respectively tied, the slack being taken up by men outside the stockades, and made fast, leaving them secured within a small radius of ten or fifteen yards. The mahouts now left the kraal for a short breathing-space, and the herd wandered about sucking up every possible drop of water from the pools made by the rain of the night before, throwing it high over their backs to cool their hot hides from the burning sun.
It was amusing to watch the frantic efforts of the baby elephants, of which there were a considerable number, to keep from being trampled upon by the herd. In every instance their coign of vantage was immediately beneath their mother, and they showed the greatest cleverness in keeping their position as she swayed about, backward or forward, in the throng.
After a time the beams of the exit were pulled widely open, and the chief mahout entered, urging his mount to a run, and feigning what looked like a most foolhardy charge at the entire herd. When only a few yards away, he turned sharply and rushed back through the exit, thus acting as a leader for the herd, and the whole lot dashed simultaneously for the gateway. The ford of the river was well patrolled by tame elephants, and as the herd came rushing down the bank to the stream, they were kept in a confined space, where they swayed about in the cool water, grunting with satisfaction, and sending up a perfect fountain through their trunks. After a reasonable rest had been given them, they were cautiously driven into the jungle, and at a good distance from the city were turned loose, to wander as they pleased and seek again their old haunts.
While all this was going on, the young tuskers left tied in the kraal were giving vent most strenuously to their feelings. Some, evidently having given themselves up to despair, stood quite still and uttered the most plaintive groans, while others seemed to go quite beside themselves with rage, rolling in the mud, straining every nerve at their ropes, and trumpeting wildly. One youngster, charging madly at the post to which he was tied, managed to break one of his tusks sharp off at the base, bringing down the most fearful amount of wrath on his head from the mahouts, as it knocked some fifty per cent. off his value.
In many cases it seemed to be a particularly exasperating job to get these captives out of the kraal. Two trained mounts would finally be driven up on each side of the young elephant, and a sort of collar made of cocoanut-fiber rope was slipped under his neck. These collar ropes are crossed at the top, and an end is made fast to the neck of the tame mounts, which, being a good deal taller than the little chap in the middle, would be able to lift him nearly off his front legs by raising their heads, and so compel him to walk, the youngster’s great act being to lie down and refuse to budge. The leg-ropes were then thrown off, and in this way theymade a start for the exit, with a third elephant bringing up the rear to push the captive forward in case of any signs of balking. When he was gracefully shoved through the gateway, two others would meet him outside the stockade, and he would be marched off across the river to the stables, to be chained up to his post, and there either sensibly accept his lot and start to learn to work, or else be starved into submission. In some few cases captivity seems to take all the spirit out of the beasts, and rather than endure it, they will refuse all food and water and finally die, a sort of martyr at the altar of freedom.
FIRST STEPS IN THE EDUCATION OF A YOUNGSTER IN THE INNER PEN
FIRST STEPS IN THE EDUCATION OF A YOUNGSTER IN THE INNER PEN
The attachment the elephant has for his keeper is something marvelous. Almost incredible accounts are told of their devotion. Perhaps this is due to the inseparable life that the mahout and his elephant lead, for the keeper and his charge are constantly together. Always the same hand feeds and tends him, always the same voice commands him, whether at work in the lumber-yards, charging through the jungle at a round-up, or moving slowly in some royal procession. If by any chance a mahout becomes too ill to work or dies, there is often the greatest difficulty to induce the elephant to accept a new master, and it is very seldom that the new man can gain the complete mastery over the brute that its original trainer had.
There is a wrong impression prevalent that the Siamese regard the white elephant as a deity. That they hold it in special regard is true, for each Buddha, in passing through a series of transmigrations, is supposed to have inhabited the body of some white animal, either a monkey, a dove, or an elephant; and therefore a white animal is yet worshiped as having at some time been the superior of man.
Tailpiece for Elephant Round-up