UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 119 



in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, saw his 

 distant friends. She said, she had very little 

 doubt that this must have alluded to some optical 

 instrument, and even that the carpet by which 

 Prince Houssain transported himself through the 

 air was of the nature of a balloon. Both these 

 inventions are generally ascribed to the moderns, 

 but she thinks they must have been formerly 

 known in the East, where, indeed, all knowledge 

 seems to have begun. 



Mr. Lumley was so good as to join our circle; 

 and having been given the word elephant, he 

 mentioned a laughable anecdote of a man who 

 took hold of an elephant's tail lately in the streets 

 of London. The animal was so displeased by 

 this indignity, that he turned suddenly round, 

 and grasping the man with his trunk, placed him 

 against the iron rails where he kept him prisoner 

 for some time. The keeper at last prevailed on 

 the elephant to let the offender go, but not till 

 after he had received some hard squeezes, for 

 which he complained to a magistrate, who of 

 course gave him no redress, as he was the first 

 aggressor. 



Mr. L. also told us that a friend of his in 

 India, when riding on an elephant through a rice 

 field, observed that the sagacious creature plucked 

 a considerable quantity of the ears and carried 

 them behind his trunk till the party stopped, 

 when he ate them at leisure. 



