CH. x] ELEPHAXT AND RHINOCEROS 235 



the kings of Egypt, Babylon, and Nineveh show the 

 immense importance which attached, in the eyes of the 

 niiglitiest monarchs of the then world, to the chase and 

 the trophies of this great strange beast. The ancient 

 ci\'ilization of India boasts as one of its achievements 

 the taming of the elephant ; and in the ancient lore of 

 that civilization it phiys a distinguished part. 



The elephant is uni(j[ue among the beasts of great 

 bulk in tlie fact that his growth in size has been accom- 

 panied by growth in brain power. With other beasts 

 growth in bulk of body has not been accompanied by 

 similar growth of mind. Indeed, sometimes there 

 seems to have been mental retrogression. The rhino- 

 ceros, in several different forms, is found in the same 

 regions as the elephant, and in one of its forms it is in 

 point of size second only to the elephant among terres- 

 trial animals. Seemingly the ancestors of the two 

 creatures, in that period, separated from us by uncounted 

 liundreds of thousands of years, whicli we may con- 

 veniently designate as late miocene or early pliocene, 

 were substantially equal in brain development. But in 

 I one case increase in bulk seems to have induced lethargy 

 I and atrophy of brain power, while in the other case 

 ! brain and body have both grown. At any rate tlie 

 ' elephant is now one of the wisest and the rhinoceros 

 one of the stupidest of big mammals. In consequence 

 I the elephant outlasts the rhino, although lie is the 

 I largest, carries infinitely more valuable spoils, and is far 

 L more eagerly and persistently hunted. Both animals 

 I wandered freely over the open country of East Africa 

 I thirty years ago. But the elephant learns by experience 

 ( infinitely more readily than the rhinoceros. As a rule, 

 the former no longer lives in the open plains, and in 

 many places now even crosses them if possible only at 



