3-011-927 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Mode of capturing wild elephants in Ceylon: taming a wild elephant, 1864. Engraving of a photograph '...of the great elephant-catching expedition to a place called Ebbewellepittia...so as to afford the utmost sport and entertainment to their European visitors...Nothing was more remarkable than the...kind consideration shown by the tame elephants in their treatment of the young wild ones...During the process of noosing a young one they would try and coax him into obedience by stroking him with their trunks...When the noosed elephant had remained tied for a few hours, and his spirit was somewhat broken, he was led down to the river between two of the tame ones, being firmly secured by ropes which were passed round his neck and the necks of his conductors. In one case an elephant more refractory than the rest required an escort of five tame ones to lead him to the river. Here the poor animals were able at last to slake their burning thirst and lave their heated bodies in the fresh, cool water of the river which they drank and drank again with ever-renewed avidity'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.