If He Would Have Him To Abuse A Man, He
Will Take Up Dirt, Or Kennel Water, In His Trunk, And Dash It In His
Face.
Their trunks are long grisly snouts, hanging down betwixt their
tusks, by some called their hand, which they use very dexterously on all
occasions.
An English merchant, of good credit, told me the following story of an
elephant, as having happened to his own knowledge at Ajimeer, the place
where the Mogul then resided: - This elephant used often to pass through
the bazar, or market-place, where a woman who there sold herbs used to
give him a handful as he passed her stall. This elephant afterwards went
mad,[234] and, having broken his fetters, took his way furiously through
the market-place, whence all the people fled as quickly as possible to
get out of his way. Among these was his old friend the herb-woman, who,
in her haste and terror, forgot to take away her little child. On coming
to the place where this woman was in use to sit, the elephant stopped,
and seeing the child among the herbs, he took it up gently in his trunk,
and laid it carefully on a stall under the projecting roof of a house
hard by, without doing it the smallest injury, and then continued his
furious course. A travelling Jesuit, named Acosta, relates a similar
story of an elephant at Goa, as from his own experience. - The king keeps
certain elephants for the execution of malefactors. When one of these is
brought forth to dispatch a criminal, if his keeper desires that the
offender be destroyed speedily, this vast creature will instantly crush
him to atoms under his foot; but if desired to torture him, will break
his limbs successively, as men are broken on the wheel.
[Footnote 234: This temporary madness of the male elephants is usual in
the rutting season. - E.]
The Mogul takes great delight in these stately animals, and often, when
he sits in state, calls for some of the finest and largest to be
brought, which are taught to bend before him, as in reverence, when they
come into his presence. They often fight before him, beginning their
combats like rams, by running furiously against each other, and butting
with their foreheads. They afterwards use their tusks and teeth,
fighting with the utmost fury, yet are they most careful to preserve
their keepers, so that few of them receive any hurt in these
rencounters. They are governed by a hooked instrument of steel, made
like the iron end of a boat-hook, with which their keepers, who sit on
their necks, put them back, or goad them on, at pleasure.
The king has many of his elephants trained up for war; each of which
carries an iron gun about six feet long, which is fastened to a strong
square frame of wood on his back, made fast by strong girths or ropes
round his body. This gun carries a bullet about the size of a small
tennis-ball, and is let into the timber with a loop of iron. The four
corners of the wooden frame have each a silken banner on a short pole,
and a gunner sits within, to shoot as occasion serves, managing the gun
like a harquebuss, or large wall-piece. When the king travels, he is
attended by many elephants armed in this manner, as part of his guard.
He keeps many of them likewise, merely for state, which go before him,
and are adorned with bosses of brass, and some have their bosses made of
silver, or even of gold; having likewise many bells jingling about them,
in the sound of which the animal delights. They have handsome housings,
of cloth, or velvet, or of cloth of silver, or cloth of gold; and, for
the greater state, have large royal banners of silk carried before them,
on which the king's ensign is depicted, being a lion in the sun. These
state-elephants are each allowed three or four men at least to wait upon
them. Other elephants are appointed for carrying his women, who sit in
pretty convenient receptacles fastened on their backs, made of slight
turned pillars, richly covered, each holding four persons, who sit
within. These are represented by our painters as resembling castles.
Others again are employed to carry his baggage. He has one very fine
elephant that has submitted, like the rest, to wear feathers, but could
never be brought to endure a man, or any other burden, on his back.
Although the country be very fertile, and all kinds of provisions cheap,
yet these animals, because of their vast bulk, are very chargeable in
keeping; such as are well fed costing four or five shillings each,
daily. They are kept out of doors, being fastened with a strong chain by
one of their hind legs to a tree, or a strong post. Thus standing out in
the sun, the flies are often extremely troublesome to them; on which
occasions they tread the dry ground into dust with their feet, and throw
it over their bodies with their trunks, to drive away the flies. The
males are usually mad once a year after the females, at which time they
are extremely mischievous, and will strike any one who comes in their
way, except their own keeper; and such is their vast strength, that they
will kill a horse or a camel with one blow of their trunks. This fury
lasts only a few days; when they return to their usual docility. At
these times they are kept apart from all company, and fettered with
strong chains to prevent mischief. If by chance they get loose in their
state of phrenzy, they run at everything they see in motion; and, in
this case, the only possible means of stopping them is by lighting a
kind of artificial fire-works called wild-fire, the sparkling and
cracking of which make them stand still and tremble.
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