Elephant - Devil or God?, 1930s

[Music] near the northern Frontier of Kenya colony in East Africa this huge crer forming nearly a perfect circle slightly over a mile across drops away from the level of the surrounding velt to a depth of 2400 ft in this crater our largest land animal tries to hide away from his enemy man and although an abundance of other animal life is to be found on its grassy bottom it has been well named The Elephant Bowl in many places The Thorn brush and Tall Grass is so thick that only the waving of huge ears shows the location of members of The Herd occasionally elephants will go on a marauding Expedition laying waste native Villages destroying their crops and sometimes killing many of the tribesmen for this reason and the fact that the African elephant is practically impossible to domesticate the black man usually refers to him as devil the enormous ears of the African elephant are the most easily remembered features which distinguishes him from his Asiatic cousin who has much smaller ears in the wild State African elephants live largely on roots and branches of trees and it was mighty reassuring for us to see them continue peacefully with their feeding for photographing them at such close range was extremely dangerous although the elephant can neither see nor hear very well he sense a smell is highly developed had the shifting air currents of the crater bottom carried even one whiff of the hated man sent to some nearby elephant our peaceful scene would have been changed abruptly with one shrill warning trumpet into a wild confusion of huge crashing bodies so close were we to this great East that it seemed almost impossible to avoid Discovery especially when he turned and started directly towards us but fortunately the wind held true and we were not detected since 1900 the Belgian government has maintained farms in the Congo for the purpose of training elephants for useful work at the present station at gangal of Bodo on the Uli River we find nearly 100 that have been captured from the numerous herds in the surrounding ing forests they are chained in two long rows facing each other and twice a day when a native beats a drum as a signal they are taken to the nearby River for a drink and bath each large elephant which has been trained has its own keeper a black boy from a local tribe it is his duty to feed it and to take care of its every requirement to these domesticated animals are rope the newly captured young Devils one on each side in this way they are LED around and slowly taught obedience and the performance of such tasks as their masters desire all elephants love water and for these captive beasts the daily trips to the river must seem like welcome recesses from schoolwork they are not content merely to wait around and get a drink but go into the deeper water where they are almost completely submerged just like human school children these elephants are supposed to be kept reasonably clean so their keepers St around on top and busily scrub their hides and even wash behind their ears although unwilling to leave the Cool Waters of the river they are finely lined up and started back to the Stables with the black boys clinging like monkeys to their wet slippery backs although intelligent the African elephant is a devilish sirly giant that does not take kindly to captivity he prefers to refuse the Friendship of man and remains essentially a wild animal that would rather shift for himself and face the dangers of nature in the jingles in his own way for this reason the few that have been successfully trained here represent only a small percentage of those that have been captured for schooling we have been observing the African elephant in his native habitat in Kenya colony and in the Belgian Congo let us now cross the Indian Ocean to the southern Asiatic Mainland where his cousin the Indian elephant has for centuries been known as man's faithful friend indeed in India one seldom sees elephants which are not engaged in some useful work like these plotting surefooted beasts climbing to the hilltop Temple of the sun god in jaur carrying swaying hudas full of tourists evidence of the high regard Hindus have for the elephant is found in statues they have placed on Ancient temples and carvings on palaces and sacred shrines over the doorway of an age-old Temple that stands in historic Amber deep in the hills of Jaipur the elephant god of the Hindus is worked in beautiful mosa castings of elephants decorate the gateway to the seat of British power in India the vice Regal Lodge in New Delhi in certain parts of India and not in sonon there still exist herds of wild elephants they are found in country quite different from that of the African animal although not always in such open country as this the herge are small and there seem to be numbers of babies but this may only appear to be the case as in the African elephant country the high grass makes it difficult to see the smaller animals a family group father mother and child when elephants are captured from Wild herds it is the young animals that are taken breaking up such families as this lone Bulls are often found trekking in places where a person would least expect to find them these two old fellows are plotting along half asleep Bound for no particular place Indian elephants live mostly on grass and twigs and travel long distances while feeding seldom visiting a watering place until dusk or later from the wild herds are replenished The Stables of the princes of India such as the Royal Stables of udur in the courtyard of the palace in udur we watch the elephants at their exercises they are being led by two small animals exactly as in many processions in udur there is a state department of elephants and the animals are attended by rajut Nobles and their surfs members of families that have held these responsible places for many generations the baby animals soon become attached to their Keepers who cater to the animals every want but it seems that even Royal elephants have to do their own scratching this mahoot demonstrates the intelligence and training of his charge a sharp command and his let down the side elevator and then lifted up the main trunk line these Royal elephants of udur are used by the Maharaja himself in sacred processions highly skilled Craftsmen decorate these animals with brush and multicolored paints symbolizing the occasion and offering praise to their many gods here a decorated worshipping elephant is in route to The Palace to receive his passengers princes and Nobles for the coming procession starting from the palace seen in the distance this procession celebrates the birthday of His Highness the Maharaja of udur and serves to display his wealth to his subjects thereby impressing upon them his riches and exalted rank each elephant is carrying an average of a quart of a million dollars worth of jewels and trappings over the cloth of gold coverings are hung decorations of silver and gold studded with precious rubies emeralds diamonds and other Jewels the ruling House of udur is known as the solar Dynasty the princes of this line tracing their descent direct from the Sun the word udur itself is a contraction meaning City of Sunrise the r puts are a fine race of men and their military history is filled with Deeds of outstanding heroism it was they who stood fast against the great muls until after the rest of India had accepted the rule of the mohamedan Invaders but in udur time has stood still and a modified feudal system is still in force the Maharaja with his court and Nobles rules the country all others are his tenants and must pay tribute to Raja and Noble during this celebration there are many games and contests one of the most interesting being a battle between two huge bull elephants His Highness appears on the balcony of his Palace to watch the fight for many centuries elephants were especially trained for fighting and were allowed to battle to the death certain famed elephants were taken all over India to Stage these contests and history records these Earth shaking battles held in the ancient city of Delhi in modern times more Humane rules have been adopted and the animals are no longer allowed to batter each other to death instead the fighting beasts now come to grips over this slow wall which prevents the contestants from getting a death hole as the battle progresses the animals become more and more infuriated and with screams and Loud trumping they push and shove in their attempts to defeat their rival the men who ride the enraged animals deserve gold medals for courage as In the Heat of battle they might easily be knocked off and trampled to death it has been a great day for the people of udur and for their friends the elephants whom they still worship among their gods and so the fight ends with victory for a veteran of many batt battles [Music]