122 THE ELEPHANT OF INDIA. 



has been lately exhibited in England, was that 

 which it was necessary to destroy in Exeter Change, 

 during one of his periodical paroxysms of fury 

 He was, at first, a fine animal, remarkable for 

 docility ; and had previously belonged to Mr Harris 

 of Covent Garden theatre, who paid nine hundred 

 guineas for the animal, and introduced him upon 

 the stage in the procession incidental to a grand 

 pantomime, called Harlequin Padmanaba.* We 

 were fortunate in seeing this animal play his 

 part, apparently with delight, and with great 

 gentleness and docility, moving around the 

 crowded stage, as if conscious of his ponderous 

 bulk, and the feeble resistance that could be 

 made to any opposition which he might offer. 

 His death afterwards was painful, though abso- 

 lutely necessary; nearly two hundred balls must 

 have pierced him ; and when we consider the 

 naked African going out alone to the hunt, and 

 sometimes bringing down this huge animal with 

 a single ball, we cannot help thinking that a little 

 previous coolness and deliberation would have 

 saved both much pain and danger. 



So many anecdotes of this animal are con- 

 tinually before the public, that we do not propose 



* See a lengthened account of the death of this animal 

 in Griffith's Cuvier, p. 348, vol. iii. 



