the king’s mahout -...

H E was not impressive as to face orfigure, yet Choo Poh Lek was anotable character. Of his class

THE KING’S MAHOUT

By CASPAR WHITNEY

photographs by robert lenz and the author

he was one of the few energetic, and theonly ambitious native little man that Iencountered in the Far East. And, quiteas wonderful, he did not gamble. Un-questionably he came honestly by hisactive qualities, for Choo was a Simo-Chinese; his father, Lee Boon Jew, beingone of many thrifty Chinese to find theirway, thirty-five years ago, from the crowdedCanton district of China, with its des-perate daily struggle for mere existence,to Bangkok, whose half million peopleprefer mostly to leave the business of lifeto Chinamen. Lee began his commercialcareer humbly as a peddler of fruit andvegetables; and he prospered. In thevery beginning he had carried his dailystock in two heaping bushel baskets hungfrom a bamboo pole which he swung fromshoulder to shoulder, as, staggering underthe really heavy burden, he called aloudhis wares through the Sampeng and othernarrow land streets of the poorer quarter.In one year he had done well enough toenable him to buy a small dug-out, whichhe paddled through the klawngs and onthe Meinam River, making new acquaint-ances and new customers, while a plook-pee* compatriot in his employ supplied thealready established trade from the baskets.In three years he had a shop in Sampengand four boats, and in two more, or fiveyears from the day of his landing, LeeBoon Jew had a shop in Sampeng, one onthe Meinam, which, in addition to a generalstock, did a little trading in bamboo andrattan, a small fleet of boats—and aSiamese wife. In due course a son cameto gladden the Chinese heart, alwaysmade joyful by boy children, and by thetime the fond father was permitted to

* Plook-pee is the poll tax exacted of Chinamen whoemigrate to Siam and do not enter government service.It costs four ticals and a quarter with a tax seal fast-ened about the wrist, or six ticals and a half (about$3.90) for a certificate instead of the wrist badge. Asyou may imagine Lee had paid the extra ticals in pref-erence to wearing the visible sign of emigration.

pridefully exhibit the gaudily dressedinfant in the nearby floating shops, thelittle son came to be known as Choo PohLek, after a celebration which quitedimmed the customary New Year festival.

Meantime not only did the businessdevelop, but Lee Boon Jew, who was nowone of Bangkok’s merchants, attained tosuch prominence among his fellows thatby the time Choo was fifteen, he had be-come Collector in the Bird Nest Depart-ment of the Government Revenue Service;a post for which he was eminently fittedby both name and nature.

The cares of office did not, however,necessitate abandonment of the trade,grown now to an extent that kept severallarge boats of his fleet engaged solely inrattan and bamboo, for which they madelong trips up river. It was Lee’s dearestwish that his son should succeed to thecommercial enterprise which so confi-dently promised to make wealthy menof them both, especially since his mostintimate associate, Ho Kee Peck, had beenrecently appointed Farmer, under theGovernment, of the Onion, Bees Wax andRattan Department.

Truth to tell, Lee had dreamed rosyhued celestial dreams of Choo Poh Lek’sopportunities, and the possible prosperitythat might easily come to a business sofirmly established and having two silentpartners in the local revenue service.Between the good offices of the Bird Nestand of the Onion, Bees Wax and Rattandepartments, how much profitable trademight not, indeed, and readily, be divertedto the boats of Lee Boon Jew & Son!

But Choo proved a sore disappointmentto his ambitious father. He had, it istrue, given all of his boyhood and much ofhis young manhood to Lee’s boats, and infact, was accounted among the shrewdesttraders and most skilled boatmen on theriver. There were even those whothought the son more astute than his non-talkative but deep thinking Cantoneseparent. At all events, Choo attained to

Choo let them bathe and wallow in the river to their hearts content.

Driving the herd in from the river toward the gate of the kraal.

54 The King’s Mahout

such efficiency that his father sent himfrequently up the river on the more im-portant mission of trading for rattan andbamboo. And it was on one of these tripsback from the river that Choo crossedthe trail of the elephant catchers, and fellunder the influence that was to govern, notto say guide, his life’s star thereafter andforever more. From that day, it seemedto Choo that boats were the most uninter-esting things in all the world, and tradingthe least ambitious of all professions. Hefelt the spell of the elephant catchers, thesilent mystery of the jungle, the excitementof the chase; and then and there he de-termined that an elephant catcher hewould be. Choo was naturally of an ad-venturesome temperament, which is de-cidedly unusual in one of his race. ButChoo was an unusual type, as I havealready indicated. The humdrum lifeof the fruit and vegetable boats, of hag-gling over trades in rattan, and of, betweentimes, pulling a heavy oar, had becomeiron in his soul long before he found thereal trail in the jungle. Deep in his hearthad been the realization that life for himlacked the spark which makes it worthwhile; yet until that eventful day far inthe forest, he knew as little of what he reallywanted as did his father. On the day hefound the elephant encampment, however,Choo found his spark and his vocation.

Now filial duty rules strong in theAsiatic son, and Choo had no thought ofdeserting his father; but by Oriental cun-ning he brought it about that the rattanbusiness, necessitating up-country trips,became his chief concern in the firm ofLee Boon Jew & Son, while the vegetableand fruit end of the firm’s interest fell tothe duty of subordinates. Thus it wasthat Choo took up the double life ofelephant catching and the more prosaic,if profitable, occupation of trading rattan.It must be recorded that he neglectedneither and prospered in each; to such adegree, in fact, did the rattan and bamboointerests develop that Lee, the father,found his position in Bangkok raised froma small trader to one whose shipments weresolicited by the local steamship company.

Meantime the son rose from one of thehalf hundred beaters employed in elephantcatching to mahout, for which he seemedto have marked aptitude, showing immedi-ate and sympathetic understanding of ele-

phants, together with a comprehension ofmanagement which convinced the headman, who had served the king for twentyyears, that in Choo he had found a ma-hout of exceptional promise.

It came to pass one day that ChowChorn Dumarong, who was a cousin ofone of the children of one of the forty-seven wives of the king, and somethingor other in the War Department, chancedto be at the encampment of elephantcatchers and a witness of Choo’s reallyremarkable handling of a tame tuskerthat was just ending a period of “must,”*during which it had been particularlydifficult of control. Choo’s work astridethe neck of the unruly bull, which he hadfinally subdued, had been so courageousand so intelligent, and had so much im-pressed the king’s cousin—by marriage—that he forthwith commanded Choo to beregularly engaged in Government service.So it came about that Choo did moreelephant than rattan hunting, increasinghis prowess and reputation in one as hisactivity in the other decreased, much to themental anguish of his father, Lee Boon Jew,who, although waxing wealthy between hisown post in the Bird Nest Department andthe silent sympathy of his wise and under-standing friend Ho Pee Peck, the OnionFarmer, was aggrieved to the depths ofhis frugal Chinese soul by the unexplainedfalling off in the rattan and bamboobranch of his up-river business.

But one day, after two years more ofmental perturbation, and gradually dimin-ishing rattan profits, the father’s heartthrilled under the word brought him atBangkok, that Choo had been summonedinto the presence of Krom Mun MonrteeDeeng—another one of the king’s multi-tude of cousins, as well as a high man inthe Interior Department—and regularlyenrolled as one of the king’s mahouts whodrive in the periodical elephant catch orparade on festive occasions, or take chargewhen one of the several dozen of the king’schildren goes forth on an official airing.And so ended the double life of Choo PohLek; for henceforth, of course, there was nofurther pretense of his attending to therattan business. Choo’s soul was freedfrom trade bondage. Incidentally I should

*“Must” i s the temporary madness which nowand then, though not invariably, overtakes the maleelephant when kept apart from his mates.

A rogue elephant of India which ran amok and had to be shotfour times before subdued; the “express” bullets remained inits body, with no apparent inconvenience to their bearer, whenthis photograph was taken.

Enjoying themselves.

Sometimes an elephant makes a short rush from the herd to reach a human tormenter.

Drawn up in review at a native

like to add, however, because I becamemuch interested in Lee, quite a characterin his way, that the reflected honor attach-ing to the old man through the appoint-ment of his son to the royal household ofelephant drivers, and the employment of acapable man to look after the upcountryrattan interests, which really had been late-ly neglected by Choo, combined to placethe name of Lee Boon Jew & Son amongthe foremost traders of the city.

I knew Lee weeks before I knew Choo;and the first time I saw the latter was in

the royal stables within the king’s en-closure where I was giving rather dis-respectful scrutiny to the sacred whiteelephants, which, notwithstanding sur-roundings and attendants, impressed meonly because of seeming insignificance intheir washed out hide and pale blue eyes.I immediately lost interest in the ele-phants on discovering Choo. Even hadhis obviously at home air failed to attractmy wandering gaze, his dress would havearrested my eye, for it was the mostresplendent thing in the way of native

Pad elephants of the Maharajah of Durbungah (India)

celebration in the Malay Peninsula

costume I had seen outside the royalfamily. Not that it was so rich or re-markable in itself, but because the averageSiamese is poor and dirty and inconspicu-ously, not to say somberly, clad, whereasChoo was clean and brilliant and well fed.He wore a red and blue check silk panung,*a yellow silk jacket fastened to the chin,with buttons made from silver half ticals;and was bare of head, legs from kneedown, and feet.

He was an important looking personage;nothing like him in fact had I met in the

royal enclosure, where I had gone seekingthe unusual. But my attempt to engagehim in conversation was a failure, for hespoke no English.

The second time I saw the king’smahout was a few days later, in Lee’sshop on the river, where I was makingpurchases for my hunting outfit which Iwas then getting together. Lee knewEnglish fairly well and I often chattedwith him, though he had never spoken tome of his distinguished son, so that whenI saw Choo walk into the shop and make

decorated for a native festival.

One large female broke from the herd and created considerable commotion beforebrought to a proper understanding of the situation by one of the trained tuskers.

Noosing the elephants in the kraal.


himself very much at home, I naturallyasked about him; then Lee opened hisheart, for he was very proud of the boy,and told me the whole story as I have toldyou.

Choo at once became a very interestingpersonality to me; on his own account forthe unusual type of Asiatic he represented,and on my account because, having seensomething of elephant catching in India,I wanted a l so to s ee the work o frounding up the elephants in the junglepreparatory to their being driven into thekraal at Ayuthia, the old Siamese capital,for what is called a “royal hunt,” but whatis really a method of adding laborers tothe royal stables.

Lee comfortingly assured me he thoughtit could be arranged that I make a tripwith Choo to the elephant encampment;and sure enough it came about in duecourse that as his Majesty, PhrâbâtSomdet Phra Paramendr Mahá Chula-longkorn Klou, otherwise and morebriefly known as Chulalongkorn I, hadcommanded a royal hunt, Choo and I inseason set out on our way up the river in acanoe, carrying no provisions, for we wereto stop the nights en route with friends ofthe firm of Lee Boon Jew & Son.

Choo’s journey to the jungle resembledthe triumphant march of a popular torea-dor. ’Twas fortunate we had given our-selves ample time, for we tarried often andlong; not that I objected, because I amalways on the lookout for human docu-ments, and this trip was full of them,many of them not altogether agreeable,but interesting; for these were the realpeople of Siam that I was seeing. Now,the real people of Siam are not alwayspleasant to live with; too many of themare poor, and dirty, notwithstanding theriver flowing past the door; though, speak-ing of dirty things, it would be difficult tofind water farther from its pure state thanin these rivers which serve to sewer andto irrigate Siam. Also the houses asoften as not are in wretched condition,for it seems to be traditional with theSiamese not to repair them, but when

*The panning is a strip of cloth or silk three yardslong and a yard broad. It is put on by a turn aboutthe waist, the end being then carried between thelegs and up through the waist and down through thelegs again before fastened finally t the waist, to thusmake a pair of loose, baggy knee breeches that, how-ever, open up the back of the leg as the wearer walks.Fashioned in this way, the panung is worn by bothmen and women.

they have tumbled about their ears, tovacate and build another; not a particu-larly expensive plan, since the house con-sists of loosely put together bamboo raisedon stilts six to eight feet; and bamboogrows at everyone’s back door in Siam.

Siamese food principally consists ofdried, frequently rotted fish, and rice,done into curries which comprise a littleof about every kind of condiment, andespecially a very popular sauce callednamphrik, a chutney-like and thoroughlymixed thing made of red pepper, shrimp,garlic, onions, citron, ginger, and tama-rind seeds. The only reason for the fishbeing putrid is because the natives like itso, for fish are plentiful in the rivers andfishermen numerous, though their waysof catching are rather amusing and an-tique. One favorite method, borrowedfrom the Chinese, is beating the waterswith long bamboo sticks to frighten thefish into an eight or ten foot squarish netwhich is lowered into the river from aframework on the bank by a system ofwheels and ropes and pulleys, and hoistedup again when the catch is complete. Imust confess that when the fish in the currychanced to be dried instead of decayed, Ifound the concoction decidedly toothsome.In fact a really good curry is in a class apart,and one must go to India or the Far Eastto get it at its best. Sometimes the nativeseat pork and oftentimes chicken, but for themost part, rice and the fish curry constitutetheir chief diet, supplemented by the fruitof the country, of which there are manykinds—mangosteen, mango, pineapple, ba-nana, orange, bread fruit, and that mosthealthful and serving of all Siamese fruits,the papaya, which grows back from thewater and is a greenish oval melon thatsuggests cantalope when opened.

We did not get really outside of Bangkokthe first day of our up-river journey, as wespent the night at the home of one of Choo’sadmiring friends, in the center of a littlefloating community, where a “poey” wasgiven in honor of The King’s Mahout. Nowa poey may take several different directionsof hilarity, but is always an excuse for eatingand gambling. The poey in honor of Chooappeared scheduled to include about every-thing on the entertainment catalogue. Firstwas a feast which overflowed from the houseof Choo’s friend into adjoining ones, at-tended by two dozen men and women who

The tame tusker sometimes plays the role of bouncer.

sat in groups on the floors eating a loudsmelling fish sauce with gusto—and withtheir fingers; neither wine nor spirits werein evidence—the Siamese as a rule stickingto water. Then came adjournment to theriver bank, where on a raised platform,roofed, but open on its four sides, three girlsdanced and posed after the gracefully de-liberate Siamese fashion, accompanied bythe melodious, always quick time, though

dirge-like music of a small native orchestra.Nearby, and attracting at least an equalnumber of spectators was another platformlevel with the ground, where gamblingproceeded industriously.

Siamese silver money seems to have beenfashioned to meet the native passion forgambling. It ranges in value (gold) fromsix to seven cents up to sixty cents, and inshape, beginning at the sixty cent piece


which is called a tical, from about the sizeof a small marble with its four sides flat-tened, down to the size of a French pea.There is, as well, much copper money, alsomoney made of glass and china, rangingto fractions of a cent. The favorite gameis a species of roulette and the money is ad-mirably suited to the rake of the croupier.Comparatively recently the government hasbeen issuing flat ten cent silver pieces, andthe extent of gambling is suggested by thegreat number of ten cent pieces coming toone in the ordinary course of the day’sbusiness, that have been cupped to facilitatetheir handling on the gaming board.

After four days on the Meinam we turnedoff on a smaller river somewhere belowAyuthia, and took a northeasterly directionthrough heavy foliage and more monkeysthan I had ever seen. The first night westopped at a house dilapidated rather morethan ordinarily, where inside a lone oldwoman sat weaving a varied colored cloth,while outside on the veranda-like addition,which is practically half of every up-countrySiamese abode, were a girl and a boy mak-ing water buckets and ornaments of bam-boo.

I often wondered what these Far Easternpeople would do without bamboo. It is

Thus handcuffed the captive is led away to the royal stables—and toil.

The King’s Mahout 6 5everything in life to them. Bamboo growsin groves ranging from twenty to forty feetin height, though I have seen some higher,and varies in diameter according to theheight from two to fifteen or sixteen inches.The tender shoots of the young bambooare good eating, while the tree in its differentsizes and conditions of growth provides avaluable article of export, the timber forhouse making, the fiber for mats, andbaskets, and, in hollowed sections, is usedfor buckets, water pipes, and such things.

Another day’s travel on the smallerriver brought us to the encampment ofthe elephant catchers. Here I foundabout one hundred men, bared to thewaist, and a score of tuskers in service,the men divided among a small colonyof elevated bamboo houses, and thescattered elephants at graze in the sur-rounding jungle, wearing rattan hobblesaround their feet, and a bell of hollowbamboo about their necks. This was whatmight be called the home camp, and pre-parations had been making in leisurelyand truly Oriental fashion for the starttoward the interior, but on the evening ofour arrival all were stirred to a moderatestate of excitement by a native bringing inthe report, which he had got third hand,of a large white elephant seen in the jungle.

The day was in Siam when the luckyman who discovered a white elephant wasraised to the rank of nobility, and in caseof capture, very likely was given one of theking’s gross of daughters in marriage.In the old days the catching of such anelephant was a signal for general holiday-making and feasting; nobles were sentto the jungle to guard it, and ropes of silkwere considered the only suitable tetherfor an animal entitled to such deferentialtreatment.

When My Lord the Elephant had restedat the end of his silken tether sufficientlyto have become reconciled to his encom-passed condition and respectful man, hewas taken in much glory to, Bangkok,where, after being paraded and saluted,he was lodged in a specially preparedpalace; he was sung to and danced before,given exalted titles, shaded by goldenumbrellas and decorated with trappingsof great value. In fact the white elephantwas once made a great deal of, but neverreally worshiped, as some writers havedeclared. It is still very highly prized by

the king because of its rarity, and thoughcapture is unusual enough to create excite-ment, yet popular rejoicing and honors forthe catcher do not nowadays attend theevent.

But the white elephant continue tostand unemployed in the royal stables atBangkok, where western ideas are becom-ing evident in electric lighting and trolleycars. There were four in the royalstables at the time of my visit, leadinglives of luxurious ease. The real localconsequence of the white elephant restsin it being to Siam what the eagle is toAmerica, the lion is to England—thenational emblem. On a scarlet back-ground it forms the Siamese imperial flag,and gives name to one of the highest ordersof merit in the gift of the king.

So while the little colony of catchers inthe jungle lost no sleep and missed nofish curry on account of the reported whiteelephant, which, let me say here, did notmaterialize, yet the movement toward theinterior began on the day after our arrival.We moved slowly—very slowly, for the ele-phant normally does not travel over aboutfour miles an hour—through heavy, ratheropen forest, and stretches of thinnish wood-land, where the jungle undergrowth grewso dense even the elephants avoided it.Quite the most interesting jungle thing Isaw on these several days’ of inland travelwas the Poh tree, sacred to the Siamesebecause, it is said, under its shade Buddhahad his last earthly sleep.

At night we camped in groups; themahouts in two, the beaters or scouts,who walked, in a dozen others. Thewhole formed a large circle, the inner partof which was covered with little bambooplatforms raised four or five feet above theground for sleeping, while on an outer yetlarger circle flamed the fires of each group,first for cooking, later as a danger signalto prowling beasts, and an inadequate pro-tector against mosquitoes, of which therewere myriads. Choo and I made a groupof our own, and although the mahout didnot exactly fill the rôle of servant tome, he did my cooking, and kept the fireburning. Outside the circle of fire in thenearby jungle grazed the hobbled ele-phants.

The King’s Mahout had offered me aseat behind where he rode on the ele-phant’s neck, with his knees just back of


its ears, but I preferred to walk, and was through a funnel-shaped runway reachingwell repaid by the little side excursions I to the human circle, the frightened, scram-was thus able to make, and the various bling, grunting herd is urged by theflying insects and birds, and many closer beaters on tame elephants; once within,inspections afforded of small red deer. For the wild elephants are noosed one by onea week we continued our northeasterly by the legs and tied to trees by the catcherstravel by day and our mosquito lighting mounted on the tame elephants. All theby night, slowly drawing closer to the while the human circle is in evidencesection where the scouts reported wild around the outside of the keddah to helpelephants in several herds; for always as on the deception, played upon the hugewe moved in the day the scouts kept well beasts, that they cannot escape.ahead, prospecting. Finally one night The native way of catching elephantsChoo made me understand that our out- both in India and in the Far East, isposts, so to say, were in touch with the usually by the simple means of diggingenemy. pitfalls along their routes to the rivers;

And now began the, to me, only inter- for the elephant is a thirsty beast andesting work of reconnoitering the ele- when in herds makes beaten paths tophants; of obtaining positive knowledge water, always returning by the same way.as to the number of herds, the location Thus easily they fall into the waylayingOf each herd with relation to the surround- pits, which are about eight feet wide oning country and to the other herds, the the top, six feet wide at the bottom andnumber of elephants in each—their size, eight feet deep.and their apparent temper collectively and In Siam, catching elephants is a differentindividually. Elephant catching in Siam and an easier game for several reasons;differs quite materially in procedure and because (1) the region over which theyin difficulties from catching elephants in roam is much more confined than in India,India, where also its economical value is and (2) as the so-called hunt is a period-appreciated. The Indian Government ical event of many years standing, largemaintains an official department, with numbers of jungle elephants have beenmen well paid to study the ways of the rounded up and corralled so comparativelyelephant and the best method of catching often as to have become semi-tame. Ofand subsequently training them which course there are many in every drive thatmeans training schools scattered over the have not been corralled, and some that docountry. In India no systematic attempt not take kindly to the king’s utilitarianis made to consolidate two or more wild and amusement making scheme. Asideherds, but when the scouts have discovered from the white elephant, which is an albino,one it is stealthily surrounded, and held a freak, there are two varieties in Siam: atogether by a ring of men, two about every smallish kind with tusks, quite easilyforty feet, who keep the elephants intact, broken to work if not too old; and a larger,as well as in control, by days of exploding stronger, tuskless species that is not soguns, and nights of crashing gongs and easily handled, is something of a fighterblazing fires. Meanwhile a log keddah and avoided in the royal hunt in favor of(corral) is building close at hand with all the smaller, some of which, however, carrythe speed possible to be got out of several ivory of splendid proportion. The Siam-hundred natives by a terribly earnest white ese elephant belongs, of course, to theheadman who sleeps neither day nor night. Asiatic species, which in size both of bodyIn fact no one sleeps much in the few and tusks, is inferior to the African. Ofanxious days between surrounding the the Asiatic, the Siamese averages neitherherd and constructing the corral. From so large as the Indian nor so small as thetwo to four days are required to build the Malayan;keddah, which when completed is an eight spectably sized ivory. The largest tusk

and sometimes it has very re-

to ten foot high stockade formed of good- ever taken from a Siamese elephant meas-sized logs, one end planted firmly in the ures 9 feet, 10½ inches in length, and 8ground, and the whole securely bound inches in diameter at the base, and is nowtogether by rattan, thus enclosing about in the Royal Museum at Bangkok. Inci-an acre of partially cleared jungle, with dentally I wish to say that almost neverbig trees left standing. Into this keddah, are tusks of the same length, one showing

The King’s Mahout

usually more wear from root digging ortree stripping than the other.

So soon as the scouts brought backword of our being in touch with the herds,camp was pitched and the tame elephantshobbled; and then the entire force, spreadout so that a full one hundred yards sepa-rated one man from another, made apainstaking and wide survey of the coun-try within a five-mile radius. The campand the scouts were kept some distancefrom where the elephants had been lo-cated, and withdrew from their immediateneighborhood so fast as others were dis-covered, because the elephant, beingmostly nocturnal and hence with its sensesof smell and touch very acutely developedto enable it to distinguish the variouskinds of trees and shrubs upon which itfeeds, would be warned by the man scentand move off. For that reason our ad-vance party, through all the manœuversof locating the elephants, became a thinbrown line of scouts. It was not so diffi-cult to find the elephants, moving casuallyin herds of varying sizes up hill and down,for they are very noisy and destructive;the difficulty was to escape detection,which, in this preliminary survey mightresult in frightening them away.

Working in this way the scouts hadwithin two days located one fairly sizedherd and two smaller ones, besides somescattered, making altogether about twohundred and forty. And this successfuland rather speedy result was not to becredited entirely to their efforts on thepresent hunt; a large share being due thesystem in vogue. These men are moreor less in touch with the elephants most ofthe time; in fact, in a measure they are tothe elephant range what the cowboys areto the cattle range. In a large way theelephants are practically always undertheir eyes—not immediately of course, butthey know where to find them and thedirection of their migrations. Yet sometimes weeks and months are spent bythese elephant catchers in rounding upand heading straying herds preparatoryto starting the final gathering for the drivetowards Ayuthia.

brown line stretched its two halves, oneacross the north and the other to the southof the herds, while the tame tuskers andtheir mahouts covered the east approach.As the big herd was at the south, the planwas to form a juncture by driving thetwo smaller ones and the scattering indi-viduals down to the larger. Beginningunobtrusively, it was three days beforethe individuals had joined the smallerherds, and it took two days more beforeall these were headed south. Short aswas the distance, it required six dayslonger to consolidate those herds; patientdays and anxious nights, for the danger inelephant catching is the beast’s nervous,fearful temperament which subjects him toungovernable fits of panic. Romanticwriters to the contrary notwithstanding,the elephant is a most undependablebeast. Hence everything is done quietly,with no sudden movements to startle theelephants, or any unnecessary directnessof approach. The entire movement ingathering scattered herds is furtive asmuch as the circumstances will allow.Once the elephants have been got togetherinto one herd, the thin brown line of scoutsbecomes a circle with a human post and alurid brush fire alternating every ten yardsaround its length; but no noise is madeexcept in cases where elephants move tooclosely to the limits of the enclosure.Elephants have broken through and es-caped, but rarely.

Choo’s fitness for the post of head ma-hout was evident from the day of leavingthe home camp back on the little river;but only when the drive of the consolidatedherd toward Auythia began, did his con-summate skill manifest itself. His hand-ling not only of his own elephant, but hisexecutive ability in placing the other ele-phants, and the beaters, made perfectlyeasy of comprehension why he had ad-vanced so rapidly among his fellows.Although he was kind to his elephants,Choo never showed them the slightestaffection; holding them under the strictestdiscipline and exacting instant obedienceunder penalty of severe punishment. Atrainer of reputation with whom in myboyhood days I was on terms of daily in-tercourse, once told me that there are twothings you must never do with an elephantif you wish to control him: First, neverdisappoint him, and second, never show

With the three herds located, perhapsfive miles separating the one on the ex-treme north from the stragglers at theextreme south, the plan of consolidationwas begun. For this purpose the thin

67


him any affection, as the animal’s ownregard for you will be sure to diminish inproportion as you are demonstrative.Certainly Choo achieved brilliant successwith just such methods. Often, however,he talked to his elephant, sometimes en-couragingly, sometimes sharply, as theoccasion warranted, but never affection-ately. His usual tone was a complainingone, and though I could not understandwhat he said, I have heard him for severalminutes at a time in an uninterruptedhigh-pitched oratorical effort, which sug-gested a rather reading the riot act to asluggard son. Perhaps it was my imagi-nation—and at all events I don’t offer it asa contribution to the new school of animalstory-tellers—but it always seemed to methat Choo’s mount showed unmistakablecontrition in the, as it appeared to me,absurdly abashed expression which cameinto his face, and the droopiness of thependant trunk. Often I went into roarsof laughter at sight of Choo leaning overthe elephant’s ear solemnly lecturing,while the beast blinked its uninvitinglittle pig eyes. At such times The King’sMahout included me in the tale of woe heconfided to his elephant’s great floppingear. Always Choo wore an amulet of jadeand now that he had doffed his yellow silkjacket and, like the others, wore a cottonpanung, and, more often than not, bareupper body, I noticed that he also worearound his neck a tiny human image of akind I had seen Buddhist priests makingof tree roots and selling to ease nativesuperstition.

Choo’s plan of driving the herd wasmasterful; there was no confusion, notany sign to indicate the task a difficult one.Perhaps a quarter mile area was occupiedby the gathered elephants when the finaldrive began, and it was not possible fromone side of the herd to see the otherin the jungle. Choo placed four of hislargest elephants, two at each opening, asextreme western outposts of the drivingline, and somewhat closer to the herd.The remaining elephants were dividedamong the north and south sides and therear, with more of them at the sides thanin the rear, where on the contrary werethe most beaters. So far as I could see,the only apparent anxious moment was ingetting the herd started, and that wasfinally accomplished by half a dozen tame

elephants taking positions at the headof the lot. In fact, Choo kept severalof the tame huskers at the head of theherd, throughout the drive to the river.Sometimes the elephants would move rightalong as though really traveling some-where; again they fed along leisurely,scattered over the considerable enclosureinside the driving lines. Sometimesseveral would come against one side ofthe driving line and be startled into sud-den retreat, or stand in questioning atti-tude before backing into the main body.But always the herd moved on, day andnight, though sometimes not over fivemiles would be covered in twelve hours.It was a leisurely saunter, but never amoment did Choo relax his vigilance.

There was not the amount of trumpet-ing some of us have been led to believe.Once in a while the shrill trunk call offear would be heard, but more often thelow mouth note, a sort of grunting orquestioning sound, and not at all on thedrive toward the river was heard thethroat roar of rage. It was, in fact,because of Choo’s generalship and in-dividual skill, a very well behaved herdof elephants that pursued its snail-likecourse river-wards without accident.

On the tenth day Choo brought theherd to the jungle at the river’s edge justin front of Ayuthia, and early the followingmorning four Siamese imperial flagsfloated above the kraal as signal for himto begin the final drive into the enclosure.Instanter the camp was in a buzz ofserious-faced preparation for the final,and in some respects the most difficult,stage of the elephant catching; weeks ofpatient toil and a successful drive mightbe lost by a mishap in getting the herdacross the river and remaining couple ofmiles. The King’s Mahout prepared forthe test with the apparent confidence andthoroughness that had stamped all hiswork on the drive. First he put two menon each of his score of tame elephants, thesecond carrying a bamboo pole; then hesent three of the tuskers thus equippedinto the side of the herd nearest the river.These made their way slowly, never hur-riedly, yet always unswervingly amongthe wild ones, cutting out a group of eightwhich they headed riverwards. Thentwo other tuskers entered the herd andbegan similar tactics; and simultaneously

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the tuskers guarding the outer circle, andthe beaters crowded forward. Some-times one of the wild ones, being movedoutside of the herd in the lead, wouldescape and return. Then shone out inbold relief Choo’s unflinching grasp ofhis business. There would be no chasingof that escaped elephant, no hustlingmovement by anyone to suggest thatthe unusual had occurred; but threeother mounted tuskers would work intoand through the herd in apparent aimless-ness, yet always toward the truant. Theescaped one might shift about among itsfellows, might dodge, but sooner or laterit found itself between two of the tuskers,with the third at its stern; and eventually itwas back whence it had broken away, allwithout fuss or excitement by either thetuskers or the mahouts on their backs.Sometimes an hour would be consumedreturning such a one; but the return wascertain.

Choo knew, with the river once in sight,at least half his troubles would be over,for elephants take to water like ducks;so be maintained the arrangement ofbeaters and the several tuskers in the lead,the lot traveling at not more than a mile anhour, until the bank was reached, wherethe tuskers slipped to one side and theentire herd was soon in the river, bathingand blowing water through their trunks,to indicate in elephantine way their joyof living. With spectators on the banksand afloat in numberless small craft, thedrive out of the river into the wingsrunning down to the kraal entrance isalways a critical period, so Choo per-mitted the herd to wallow and squirt waterover themselves to their heart’s content;for nearly an hour in fact. Then heplaced fully half his tuskers at the headof the herd and with the remainder coveringits rear, began the move toward the kraal,less than a quarter mile distant. Happilyfor Choo the elephants had been madecontent and moved forward, following thetuskers unhesitatingly out onto the bank,despite the fact that all Ayuthia and manybesides were holiday making within a fewhundred yards. As the herd swung alongponderously into the funnel-shaped en-closure, which is made of massive twelvefoot high posts firmly planted every twofeet and leads directly to the gate of thekraal, Choo withdrew from the lead to the

About twenty feet inside the brick wallis a smaller enclosure made of huge teaklogs, planted firmly, so as to leave aboutspace enough between each two for a manto squeeze through, and standing abovethe ground full twelve feet. In thecenter of the kraal is a little housestrongly surrounded by logs, which some-times the superintendent in charge usesto direct the selection of elephants to becaught, and sometimes becomes a houseof refuge; and always it serves to break

rear all save two of the tame elephants.Still the herd moved along peacefully untila big female, with its little calf walkingalmost concealed under the mother’sstomach, endeavored to break back fromthe side, and made quite a commotionwhen checked as she reached the rearguard. Although no general panic re-sulted, the row appeared to get on thenerves of the elephants, whose question-ing, expectant expression of countenancesuggested painful timorousness. As theherd neared the kraal, getting more com-pact all the time in the narrowing run-way, the elephants appeared to sense atrap, crowding together and breaking intogroups against the heavy posts, so thatChoo had to bring up several of histuskers whose mahouts prodded the ob-streperous into harmony. It was prettymuch of a rough-and-tumble scramble atthe kraal gate, large enough to admit onlyone at a time. Perhaps a third of the herdfollowed the leading tame tuskers intothe kraal, but the remainder got jammed,and the ensuing scene of confusion andwild endeavor to get somewhere, tested therear guard to its limits and must havegiven The King’s Mahout at least a fewuncomfortable moments. At length, how-ever, the kraal gate closed on the last ele-phant, and Choo had brought his part ofthe royal hunt to a successful conclusion.

The Ayuthia elephant kraal was builtover one hundred years ago, not longafter the seat of the Siamese Governmenthad been moved from this ancient capitalto Bangkok. It is an enclosure abouttwo hundred feet square, surrounded bya brick wall averaging perhaps fourteento fifteen feet in thickness, with a heightof nine feet. On each side is a parapetforming an excellent promenade under theshade of some large trees.


up the herd rounded about it. Threesides of this great square are reached bysteps and open to the public. Along oneside of the wall and over the center of itis a covered platform which holds the royalbox, and more democratic accommoda-tions for natives of nobility and foreigners.There are two entrances to the enclosure,both guarded by very strong heavy timbergates hung on pins from crossbeams above,which, closed, reach below the ground level,where they fit into a groove. Opened, theymake an inverted V, just large enough topermit the passage of one elephant at atime.

The attitude of a herd when first itrealizes that it has been trapped and can-not escape, varies according to the tem-peraments of its members, and is en-lightening, not to say enlivening, at times,to the onlooker. For the herd whichwithout serious opposition has permitteditself to be taken from its jungle and driven,uttering scarcely an objection throughdays and nights, when once in the kraal,throws off its good manners and becomesrampant. Some fight the posts, somefight one another; in groups they surgeagainst the stout sides of the enclosure,grunting prodigiously, and wherever aventuresome spectator shows a head be-tween the posts, it is charged. Not allthe herd are so violent. Some show theirperturbation by thrusting their trunksdown into their stomach reservoir anddrawing forth water which they squirtover their backs; others express contemptfor things generally, by making little dustpiles which they blow over everything insight, including their own legs; some utterthe mouthing low note; some rap theground with their trunks, which let outseveral peculiar rattling crackling highnotes. The calves squeak through theirlittle trunks shrilly and frequently.

The programme extends over threedays; on the first, after the herd is corralled,the head mogul of the royal stables pointsout the young elephants to be caught; onthe second the selected captives are noosed,and on the third day the remaining ele-phants are driven out and across the riverand into the jungle to wander at will,unguarded until such time as His Majestyissues commands for another royal hunt.

The most interesting feature of the

performance in the kraal is the workof the trained elephants. You wouldnever think from the peaceful, opencountenance of the trained tusker, that heis in league with the men on his back. Heis the most casual thing you can imagine,sidling up to the victim in manner unpre-meditated and entirely friendly. It isthe same unhurried, unfailing work hedid in the jungle under the eye of Choo,who is now no doubt viewing proceedingscritically from the covered platform.Sometimes a cantankerous elephant islooking for a fight; and then the tusker is abusiness-like and effective bouncer, andsuch “rough house” as results on thisoccasion you have not elsewhere seen.The tusker moves not swiftly but withoverwhelming momentum, and not infre-quently an offender is sent quite off itsfeet surprised and wiser, rolling in the dust.

The actual catching consists in slippingthe noose, held at the end of the bambooprod by the second mahout, over the ele-phant’s foot, when it is at once pulled taut,and the end attached to the tame tusker’srattan girdle let go, to be subsequently,as occasion offers, carried by a dismountedmahout to the edge of the enclosure, whereother attendants fasten it to the post, andtake in the slack as the captive is pushedback by the tuskers. When the victim issnubbed fairly close to the post comes theputting on of the rattan collar, which is ac-complished by the mahouts while two tameelephants hold the victim between them.With the collar lashed on, the captive isbutted out through the gate, where he ispinned between the tuskers and fastened tothem by the collars they also wear for thisvery purpose. Then, thus handcuffed,with noose rope trailing and a third ele-phant behind to keep him moving, thecaptive is carried off to the stables andsecurely tied up. And that is the lastof that elephant’s liberty.

Sometimes the mahout drops to theground under cover of his tusker and slipsthe noose; and it is not so easy as it reads.The elephant’s foot must be caught off theground before the noose is thrown, andsluggish as he seems, the elephant kickslike chain lightning; and the kick of amule is a love pat by comparison. It isa curious but substantiated fact that,while at times there is much fighting, withmahouts, tame tuskers and the wild ele-

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phants in mixed mêlée, it is rare that amahout, so long as he is mounted, is in-jured. Although the mahouts could easilybe pulled off their perch, the wild elephantsnever make even an attempt to do so in thekraal; but the dismounted mahout needsto look out for both trunk and feet. Ac-cidents are rare, although sometimes whenthe elephants are being driven out one willbreak away and require a great deal ofprodding and rough handling beforebrought back into line. Sometimes inlittle groups of twos or threes elephantswill rush at the shifting spectators whocrowd near them; for the Siamese arerather fond of running up by way of adare, to an elephant coming out of thenarrow gateway, and dodging its short-lived pursuit before the mahouts headit back into the herd. This is not sodangerous a game as it seems, for theelephant is by no means the swiftestthing on earth and a man can easily dodgeit if the ground is smooth and firm.Yet fatal accidents have occured to theover-confident who did not dodge fastenough. And there have been times, too,when, enraged at their failure to catch thetormentor, the elephants have wreakedtheir vengeance on nearby fences orbuildings or anything happening to bewithin reach.

The process of elephant catching inIndia as well as in Siam tends to ratherundermine one’s settled notions of elephantsagacity, and to create instead the feelingthat a lot of sentimental tommy rot andmisleading, ignorantly conceived animalstories, have been put forth about MyLord, the elephant. The literal truth isthat the elephant, for all its reputed in-telligence, is driven into places that noother wild animal could possibly be in-duced to enter, is, in its native jungle,held captive within a circle through whichit could pass without an effort, and bul-lied into uncomplaining obedience by aforce the smallest fraction of its ownnumbers. Part of this is, no doubt,due to its exceedingly suspicious nat-ure; the other part to its lack of origin-ality, to which latter defect, however, itsnotable amenability to discipline is at-tributable. Apropos of amenabality San-derson records mounting and taking out ofthe keddah, unaccompanied by a tameelephant, a female on the sixth day afterher capture; and I saw on the lower coast ofSiam an elephant, that had been capturedin a pitfall by natives three weeks pre-viously, rowed out on two lashed sampansto a small coasting steamer and successfullymade to kneel that it might get throughthe port door between decks.

The African Elephant.Copyright photographic study by Gambier Bolton, F.Z.S.

the king’s mahout -...

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