It was formerly the practice to break their spirit by privations and severity; but, of late years, it has been found preferable to sooth as much as possible; a change which has been attended with the most happy results. So far has this plan succeeded, that many elephants are now better reconciled in one month than they formerly were in four or five; while, at the same time, many inconveniences, especially those severe ligatures, which invariably made desperate sores about the ankles, &c., are almost wholly avoided.
The practice of decoying the large single males, which separate from the herds, and are called _sauns_, or _goondahs_, is extremely curious: two or three females are generally sent out for the purpose of inveigling the ferocious males thus ranging about. Such female elephants, which are called _k’hoomkies_, are highly valuable, especially if they be large, and attached to their _mohouts_, whom they will protect to the last moment, if accidentally discovered by their intended prize while passing the ropes around his legs. For a particular account of this, which can scarcely be rendered distinct but by the aid of plates, I refer my readers to ‘THE WILD SPORTS OF THE EAST,’ published from my designs and memoirs by Mr. Edward Orme, of Bond Street, and Messrs. Black, Parry, and Kingsbury, of Leadenhall Street.
Contrary to the opinion formerly current, it has been ascertained that elephants copulate in the same manner as other quadrupeds. This has been certified by Mr. John Corse, the resident Surgeon at Tipperah, who established a breed of elephants at that place; whereby much insight has been obtained regarding the natural history of this noble animal. When Mr. Corse transmitted that account which may be seen in the third volume of the Asiatic Researches, he had not the opportunity of ascertaining the period of gestation, which has since been found to give an average of about twenty-two months.
That less time could not be required, was evident from the incipient portion of that gentleman’s researches; as a female elephant, taken in January, 1788, did not produce her calf, which was thirty-five inches high at his birth, and grew four inches in as many months, until the 16th of October, 1789.