Elephant Company: The Inspiring Story of an Unlikely Hero and the Animals Who Helped Him Save Lives in World War II

Referring most often to the onset of the rainy period in tropical climates, the monsoon can bring torrential rains, unleash dangerous insects, and often facilitate fatal diseases. The logging industry is brought largely to a halt during the wet monsoons, though as Williams witnessed, the elephants “knew how to cope with monsoon. If [an elephant] tilted his head forward, his large, bony brow ridge would shield his eyes from rain, and he could keep water from spilling into his nostrils by hanging his trunk down straight” (5). This is one example among many that Williams employs to demonstrate the preeminence of elephants.

This marks the period during which mating becomes urgent for bull elephants, with greatly elevated hormones and glandular excretions that drive aggressive behavior. As the author defines it, “[t]he term musth was derived from the Urdu word for intoxication—appropriate for this state in which a male is drunk on his own testosterone. During musth, levels of the hormone can increase to fifty, or even a hundred, times normal” (97). Bulls in this state are often dangerous, not only to human handlers but also to other elephants, usually male challengers.

This is the name for the collection of spirits, some good and some evil, that reside in the jungle, according to indigenous belief systems. This is how “[i]ndigenous people made sense of” the forest, with its “capricious blessings and curses” (7). Indeed, many believed that the “nats personified the soul of the forest” (7). Williams himself came increasingly to trust in the nats, as, to live in the jungle, “one had to accept phenomena that were beyond logic” (88). Akin to Catholic saints, different nats are delegated to oversee different “spiritual field[s]” (89).

Teakwood was in high demand throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for its resilience and durability. As the author describes it, “[t]he hard, elegant wood, resistant to the elements and impervious to destructive insects such as termites, was highly sought after. The timber even contains a type of oil that prevents metal corrosion” (16). Its qualities made it ideal not merely for constructing houses and designer furniture but also ships and docks. When Williams begins his work with the Bombay Burmah Trading Company, Burma “produced 75 percent of the planet’s teak” (16). This makes it a valuable asset of the British Empire—one that they are determined to protect.

The Burmese term for an elephant handler, the uzi is often consigned to a particular elephant for an entire lifetime. In Williams’s elephant school, a young uzi in training is paired with a calf, and they work together for the rest of their lives. Williams also notes that the uzi had a challenging existence:

He worked to exhaustion, put up with meager accommodations, ate what was available, faced danger not only from the elephants, but from the game he might meet in the forest, and often lived a hundred miles or more from his native village (42).

Nevertheless, the uzis form strong bonds with their elephants and largely treat them with respect. The more common term for elephant handler in colonial literature is “mahout,” derived from the Hindi language.