The Elephant 25 



In the latter event the motive (hatred) displays itself, and 

 the manner in which the design is carried out can be 

 studied ; but with respect to the determining causes of 

 conduct in the first instance we know nothing. An intel- 

 ligent animal has been told to do something which it 

 understands, and does it to the best of its ability. That is 

 all the facts warrant us in saying. 



One way of estimating the degree of feeling in any case 

 is to measure the actions that express it by what they cost 

 the individual who performs them. An elephant's oppor- 

 tunities for displaying self-abnegation can be but few, and 

 most of those voluntary deeds upon which his reputation 

 rests require little or no self-forgetfulness. In the hunt- 

 ing-field he is under coercion. A hunted elephant, how- 

 ever, is not in this position, and it is in its conduct 

 that we notice such examples of this kind of behavior as 

 may be regarded in the light of cases in point. Elephants 

 — females most frequently — sometimes fight in defence 

 of their associates when they themselves are not directly 

 attacked. Both sexes have been occasionally known to 

 give assistance to each other when they might have been 

 killed in doing so. But for the most part they are very 

 far from acting in this way. Fishes, reptiles, birds, to- 

 gether with a large number of land animals, have fully 

 equalled elephants in everything they have done in this 

 direction. Much has been said of the affection an elephant 

 feels for the person who feeds and tends it, of the care, 

 consideration, respect, and obedience it renders to a being 

 whose superiority this amazing brute recognizes. Never- 

 theless, it is most probable that this individual had better 



