Olla Podrida | Page 8

down on the loose
saw-dust, in a sitting posture, and making a hole in it as large as if a
covey of partridges had been husking in it for the whole day. An
American black (there always is a black fellow in these companies, for,
as Cooper says, they learn to ride well in America by stealing their
masters' horses) rode furiously well and sprained his ankle--the attempt
of a man in extreme pain to smile is very horrible--yet he did grin as he
bowed and limped away. After that we had a performer, who had little
chance of spraining her ankle: it was a Miss Betsey, a female of good
proportions, who was, however, not a little sulky that evening, and very
often refused to perform her task, and as for forcing the combined will
of a female and an elephant to boot, there was no man rash enough to
attempt it, so she did as little as she pleased, and it pleased her to do
very little; one feat, however, was novel, she took a musket in her
mouth, and fired it off with her trunk.
When I was in India I was very partial to these animals; there was a
most splendid elephant, which had been captured by the expedition sent
to Martaban; he stood four or five feet higher than elephants usually do,
and was a great favourite of his master, the rajah. When this animal was
captured there was great difficulty in getting him on board of the
transport. A raft was made, and he was very unwillingly persuaded to
trust his huge carcass upon it; he was then towed off with about thirty
of the natives on the raft, attending him; the largest purchases and
blocks were procured to hoist him in, the mainyards doubly secured,
and the fall brought to the capstern. The elephant had been properly
slung, the capstern was manned, and his huge bulk was lifted in the air,
but he had not risen a foot before the ropes gave way, and down he
came again on the raft with a heavy surge, a novelty which he did not
appear to approve of. A new fall was rove, and they again manned the
capstern; this time the tackle held, and up went the gentleman in the air;
but he had not forgotten the previous accident, and upon what ground it

is impossible to say, he ascribed his treatment to the natives, who were
assisting him on the raft. As he slowly mounted in the air, he looked
about him very wroth, his eyes and his trunk being the only portions of
his frame at liberty. These he turned about in every direction as he
ascended--at last, as he passed by the main channels, he perceived the
half of a maintop-sail yard, which had been carried away in the slings,
lying on the goose-necks; it was a weapon that suited him admirably;
he seized hold of it, and whirling it once round with his trunk, directed
the piece of wood with such good aim, that he swept about twenty of
the natives off the raft, to take their chance with a strong tide and plenty
of alligators. It was the self-possession of the animal which I admired
so much, swinging in the air in so unusual a position for an elephant, he
was as collected as if he had been roaming in his own wild forests. He
arrived and was disembarked at Rangoon, and it was an amusement to
me, whenever I could find time to watch this animal, and two others
much smaller in size who were with him; but he was my particular pet.
Perhaps the reader will like to have the diary of an elephant when not
on active service. At what time animals get up who never lie down
without being ordered, it is not very easy to say. The elephants are
stalled at the foot of some large tree, which shelters them during the
day from the extreme heat of the sun; they stand under this tree, to
which they are chained by their hind legs. Early in the morning the
keeper makes his appearance from his hovel, and throws the respective
keys down to the elephants, who immediately unlock the padlocks of
the chains, cast themselves loose, and in the politest manner return the
keys to the keeper; they then march off with him to the nearest forest,
and on their arrival commence breaking down the branches of the trees,
selecting those which are most agreeable to their palates, and arranging
them in two enormous faggots. When they have collected as much as
they think they require, they make withies and bind up their two
faggots, and then twist another to connect the two, so as to