[Rumil]

Hi Eve, the mahout is indeed the 'driver' of the elephant (its an Indian term I believe).

Since you're into pachydermology, a few other oddments,

- Elephants scared horses away, so it was no good attacking them with cavalry, unless you'd trained the horses with real elephants beforehand

- Horses also dislike the smell of camels. Allegedley, in one ancient battle, the camels were disguised as elephants using wicker frames with a grey covering - not entirely sure why, perhaps the opposition were more likely to be scared of elephants than camels?

- Still don't know if they're really afraid of mice!