148 THE REASON WHY I 



" The elephant hath joints ; but none for courtesy ; his 

 re for necessity, not flexure." SHAKSPEKB. 



leg. 



441. Why does the elephant seize a man with his trunk, yet 

 never use it when he attacks a tiger? 



The elephant is gifted with a high order of instinct, which 

 prompts him to entertain great concern for the preservation of his 

 trunk, the most essential of his external members. The animal 

 knows that the terrible claws of the tiger might at one stroke 

 lacerate and destroy % that essential organ ; but he does not fear 

 to attack man with it. 



442. When the elephant is provoked to take vengeance on man, he does not 

 scruple to sei/.e him with his trunk, but never employs that member to grapple 

 with a tiger, nor to hurl him in the air with it. He scents the tiger's lair at a 

 distance, and instantly elevates his trunk on high, so that it may be as far as 

 possible removed from the reach or spring of his stealthy adversary. So much 

 does he dread the spring of the wild beast's attack upon this important organ, that 

 he will throw it out of reach even when a dead tiger is brought into his presence. 

 The following paragraph in an account of an elephant accidentally burnt at 

 Dublin serves to illustrate the elephant's care for his trunk still more strongly : 

 " Doubtless the elephant's care to preserve his trunk was great, for when we 

 dissected him we found it thrust nearly two feet into the very ground, upon which 

 account we thought it had been burned, till the head was divided from the body, 

 and then we found it was kept fast to the ground by the trunk, which had actually 

 been buried therein. 



443. Wliy has the elephant the unusual power of bending the 

 hind leg forward at the knee joint ? 



By this arrangement, which brings all the muscular force of the 

 leg to act immediately underneath the 

 body, the animal is enabled to raise 

 its enormous bulk much more quickly 

 and certainly than it could possibly 

 do if its hind legs bent outwards, as 

 is the case with other animals. 



The elephant is very fond of rolling 

 its unweildy form in the ooze and 

 mud of groves and jungles ; and in 

 this enjoyment it is assisted by 

 the facility by which it gets up or lies down. 



