The Negroes Certainly Do Not At
Present Tame Them; But When We Consider That The Carthaginians Had
Always Tame Elephants
In their armies, and actually transported some
of them to Italy in the course of the Punic wars, it seems
More
likely that they should have possessed the art of taming their own
elephants than have submitted to the expense of bringing such vast
animals from Asia. Perhaps the barbarous practice of hunting the
African elephants for the sake of their teeth has rendered them more
untractable and savage than they were found to be in former times.
The greater part of the ivory which is sold on the Gambia and
Senegal rivers is brought from the interior country. The lands
towards the coast are too swampy and too much intersected with
creeks and rivers for so bulky an animal as the elephant to travel
through without being discovered; and when once the natives discern
the marks of his feet in the earth, the whole village is up in arms.
The thoughts of feasting on his flesh, making sandals of his hide,
and selling the teeth to the Europeans, inspire every one with
courage, and the animal seldom escapes from his pursuers; but in the
plains of Bambarra and Kaarta, and the extensive wilds of
Jallonkadoo, the elephants are very numerous, and, from the great
scarcity of gunpowder in those districts, they are less annoyed by
the natives.
Scattered teeth are frequently picked up in the woods, and
travellers are very diligent in looking for them.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 104 of 167
Words from 28014 to 28269
of 45368
