Arrangements were made, and at six o'clock
one morning in March I met the Franklins at the little railway station
on the Lampong Canal. Grace and I were dressed in our thinnest frocks
- we knew it would be a long, hot day. I felt sorry for Robert,
required to be dressed in his starched white drill coat with military
collar. The train was crowded to capacity by the time we reached
Ayuthia, the former capital of Siam.
From my study of the history, I knew that the city, built in 1545,
had had a population equal to that of London at that time. After
the Burmese destroyed it by fire, and the pervasive jungle took
possession of its temples and palaces, it was never rebuilt. A crude
village grew up near the railway station and along the river within
sight of the ruins. However, it took us another hour from the train
station by sampan to navigate the canals with their floating houses
and shops moored to rise and fall with the tidal water, and to reach
the elephant stockade.
Two pavilions had been built at right angles at one corner of the
kraal [large enclosure for elephants] by the stockade. We went to
the one reserved for officials and foreign guests and at once met
a nobleman in the Government Service who had a son in Robert's school.
This was great good luck for us. He had been educated abroad and
spoke English, so was able to explain the events to us.
The other large pavilion was filled with royalty in full view for
us to see. His Majesty, an amateur photographer, was already busily
taking pictures. The women in his entourage were like exquisite
dolls, bejeweled and dressed in colorful costumes. The lesser queens
and favorites, and the princesses, were each surrounded with their
special coterie of women. Some were proudly unconcerned, others
plainly bored, and a few unashamedly excited by the brief freedom
from their restricted harem life in the royal palace-city with its
Amazon guards, spies and intrigues.
My attention was drawn from watching the fascinating Court scene,
to the area around the stockades, the colorfully arrayed people,
accented by the monks, in robes of varying shades from dark orange
to light yellow.
"There must be thousands of people here!" I exclaimed.
"I'd say closer to tens of thousands," Robert put in.
"I'm still fascinated by the variety of costumes I see."
"So am I, Edna," Grace agreed.
It sounded so good to hear my name! Only when I was with the Franklins
was I called by my first name.
Inside the kraal a hundred enormous wild elephants milled about
constantly. Tame elephants, each mounted by two men with long lances,
moved among the wild ones.
"Would you tell me about the tame elephants and their riders,"
I asked our nobleman friend.
"Those are mahouts [elephant trainers], Mem," he explained.
"and the elephants they are riding are indeed tame and have
been trained for many years. They are like police, and they prevent
fighting and disorder among the wild elephants."
"Still, it must take a great deal of courage to be among so
many wild elephants."
"Indeed, Mem, they are brave men, trained from childhood as
were their fathers and grandfathers. They come from distant places,
far from towns, and spend their lives with elephants in the jungles."
"What about their families? What is the effect of all this
on them?"
"They will be glad to get home after the many months of hardship
and danger and their wives will be glad to see them. For,"
he went on to explain, "binding taboos are put upon the women
for the protection of the men's homes. From the day the mahout starts
out on the long, dangerous expedition, his wife must sleep on a
bare mat. She may never sit with her legs over the door sill. She
may not allow wood or trash to accumulate under the house, and she
is not allowed to use any cosmetics. She is solemnly pledged to
observe all these conditions. Failure to do so in any single case
would cause her husband to fall and be killed, and every one would
know that she was to blame."
"Very clever!" Robert looked at Grace mischievously. "We
American men should have something like that when we leave home."
"You'd love that, wouldn't you?"
Not quite understanding this repartee, the nobleman went on. "It
is too bad, Mem, that you did not come the first day. All the mahouts
burned incense at that shrine you see in the center of the kraal.
The leader made his elephant kneel and salute the King several times.
It is a great honor to be leader of the hunt. His Majesty will reward
him."
My attention was drawn to the stockade
itself. I could see that it was built of stout tree trunks about
twenty feet high. The double gateway between the two pavilions formed
what looked like a pen.
Noticing where I was looking, he continued. "That is the pen
where single elephants can be captured for training when they herd
them out to bathe twice each day. Only a few are chosen. All the
other elephants are returned to the jungle to roam free again. See
there. The double gates that make the pen are loose logs that are
raised and lowered by the men standing on the framework above."
In the middle of the forenoon as the herd began to file out to a
pond a few hundred yards away, the mass of spectators parted to
form a wide swath for their passage. There was visible excitement
as the largest tusker approached the gate-pen. It's keen intelligence
had kept it from getting caught thus far.
There was a tense moment as it neared the gate-pen hemmed in closely
by other frightened animals being driven by the tame elephants in
their rear. But in a flash it had bolted ahead so close to the one
in front that it could not be isolated. Again, on the return to
the stockade, it was too clever to be caught alone in the trap.
When the herd was being released again in the afternoon there was
intense excitement, because all knew that the capture of the giant
tusker would have to be the final triumph of the hunt. As the animals
were let through the gateway, a few at a time, the trained elephants
and their mahouts were working inside. There was perfect coordination
between them and the men on top of the stockade gates. The pen was
cleared in time as the mammoth tusker's turn came. It could not
move backwards to avoid it, being too tightly wedged in - their
lances saw to that. As it was forced through the first gate into
the pen, a baby elephant slipped in, unseen.
When the gate logs crashed down and the huge beast saw that it was
at last a prisoner, there was an exhibition of appallingly savage
rage. There was not the usual cheering and laughter from the crowd
now, for with ear-piercing screams and furious trumpeting, the huge
tusker stood on its hind legs and plunged with all its weight down
on the innocent youngster, again and again, goring it with its powerful
tusks in concentrated fury.
A hush fell over the crowd as they witnessed
this brutal display. I felt as if I had been hit in the pit of my
stomach. I caught Grace's eyes. I knew she had tried not to see
it.
Gradually the caged beast became calmer and seemed to accept its
fate. Heavy rope cables were attached to all four feet and its training
began then and there along side the royal pavilion, with four tame
elephants and their mahouts leading the prisoner back and forth,
to the great delight now of the court and the crowds. The show had
culminated as they had all hoped.
We did not stay to see the other elephants released, or to witness
any other of the festivities surrounding the kraal, knowing it would
last well into the night, as was customary. What I had seen would
remain in my memory a long, long, time.
