A HORSE TRAINED TO FEIGN DEATH. 205 



she appears to have acted more from experience than 

 instinct. Before I was aware of her design, the 

 dairy-maid had set her on a clutch of duck-eggs: 

 when they were hatched, she showed the usual anx- 

 iety at their going into the water, and made a very 

 attentive, good mother. Her next brood was chick- 

 ens, which, I suppose, from recollection of the success 

 of her former charge, she immediately led to the 

 water : in consequence of this mistake, they were 

 drowned.* 



During a few days' stay in London, I went to see 

 the entertainment of the Blood Red Knight, at Ast- 

 ley's Riding Theatre, in which a horse is introduced, 

 that mimics death so completely, that he suffers him- 

 self to be handled and examined, without showing the 

 least voluntary motion, or any symptoms of life or 

 feeling. The docility of this creature, and the skill 

 of his teachers, are truly astonishing; but not more 

 so than that of some elephants belonging to Rayobah, 

 an Asiatic chief, once in alliance with the English.t 



The elephants form a necessary and important ap- 

 pendage to a Mahratta camp, and are attended with 

 the greatest care, and fed on the choicest food, even 



* Mrs. Smith, of Parndon, 



t Communicated by James Forbes, Esq. to whom I owe many 

 obligations, for miscellaneous observations scattered in this 

 work. 



