206 HUNTING IN THE JUNGLE. 



inspiration. Winding his trunk around the trough at 

 the raised end, he hfted it still higher, and with his foot 

 pushed the log from under, replacing the trough at its 

 proper angle in triumph and pumping it full with evident 

 satisfaction. 



Indeed, this animal only lacked speech to he quite 

 human. The same fellow who played this unhandsome 

 trick, from which my friend had come out with such flying 

 colors, was always bothering the elephant, and finally this 

 bad treatment grew to such proportions that even this 

 gentle animal's patience came to an end. Although he 

 might easily have killed the offender with a blow from 

 his mighty trunk, he preferred to take revenge in practical 

 jokes, like crowding the man into a marsh when dressed 

 in his best, or drenching him to the skin with a torrent 

 of muddy water spouted from the creek, or dropping him 

 gently into the centre of a cactus-plant ! His ingenuity 

 in planning and success in executing these little annoy- 

 ances were so great that the unhappy man was actually 

 driven from the monastery, and sought employment 

 elsewhere. 



It is singular how widely distributed the elephant has 

 been, and in how very few countries he can now be found. 

 The skeletons of his ancestors are preserved in many of 

 our museums, and their bones are whitening almost within 

 the polar circle, where the whalers often find them, coated 

 with ice, their tusks adding to the poor sailors' prize- 

 money. 



