Chapter 7. From the mouth of the Mahout

Introduction People have been catching and taming elephants for thousands of years (Sukumar, 2011; Trautmann, 2015). The ability to keep and ride elephants changed the course of history. However, the origin of the art of elephant taming is shrouded in mystery. We do not know when or where elephant culture originated or how it spread. Some clues come from the peculiar jargon that mahouts use to command elephants. Studying the variation of these command words may help reveal the origin of the .