An Elephant Worker At A Lumber Yard At Ragoon, Burma

No teak or elephants are used in the making of my dulcimers!

An Elephant In Burma, India

Of course you have seen elephants at the zoo or in the circus. Did you ever wish you had one for a pet! What a big room he would need! How much hay would he eat! How much water would you have to carry to him!

Perhaps the man in this picture owns this elephant. Perhaps he is hired to drive for the owner. Anyway, you can see he and the elephant are friends, The stick he holds in his hand has not sharp-pointed iron pron on it. Many drivers use these to prod their elephants.

Have you seen elephants in a circus do tricks? In Burma where this elephant lives, they are trained to work. Some are harnessed and draw plows. Some have little houses fastened on their backs and carry tiger hunters in these. Some are used by postmen and travel through thick jungles. They can swim deep rivers as easily as you can wade across a brook.

Others are trained to carry heavy timbers and blocks of wood in lumber yards. Teakwood grows in India. It is very tough and heavy. This elephant has learned to bend his fore knees, put his tusks under the block and wrap his trunk over the top. Then he can lift it and pile it where he is told.