712 THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE ELEPHANT, RHINOCEROS, HIPPOPOTAMUS, CAMEL, ZEBRA. 



The Great Tropical Pachydermati. — The Elephant: Difference between the tame and wild 

 Elephant — His Instinctive Timidity— Acuteness of His Senses — His Sagacity in Climbing 

 Hills — His wonderful Trunk — His Tusks — Elephant Herds — The Rogue, or Solitary Ele- 

 phant—The Asiatic and African Species— The African Elephant tamed in Ancient Times- 

 Present Range of the African Elephant — Native Modes of Hunting the African Elephant— 

 The Elephant and the Rifle— Perils of Elephant-Hunters— Elephant-Hunting in Abyssinia— 

 The Asiatic Elephant — Elephant-Hunting in Ceylon — The Panickeas, or Native Eiephant- 

 Hunters— Elephantine Head-Work — Obstinate Brutes. — The Rhinoceros .•— Range and Char- 

 acter of the Rhinoceros — Two Species, the Black and the "White— Size of the Rhinoceros — 

 Acuteness of its Senses — Its winged Attendant — Its parental Affection — Its nocturnal 

 Habits— Modes of Hunting the Rhinoceros— The One-Horned or Indian Rhinoceros — The 

 Two-Horned Rhinoceros of the Malay Archipelago — Rhinoceros-Paths in Java. — The Hip- 

 popotamus :— Is the Hippopotamus the Behemoth of Job? — Habits of the Hippopotamus — 

 Its uncouth Aspect — Rogue Hippopotami — Intelligence of the Hippopotamus — Uses of its 

 Skin and Teeth— Mode of Killing the Hippopotamus. — The Camel: Its Adaptation to the 

 Tropical Sand-Wastes — Its Physical Organization adapted to its Mode of Life — Its Foot 

 and its Stomach— Its Desert Home — The Camel -and the Arab — The Two-Humped and 

 One-Humped Camels — The Camel an immemorial Serf— Its Aspect and Temper.— r^e 

 Giraffe: Beauty 'of the Giraffe— Its Means of Defense— Its special Organization— The 

 Lion and the Giraffe — The Giraffe known to the Ancients. — Zebra and Quaggas: Their 

 Abundance in Southern Africa — Distinction Between the Quagga and the Zebra — Capacity 

 for Domestication — Their Union for Defense — The Gnu, the Quagga, and the Zebra— The 

 Zebra the Tiger-Horse of the Ancients— The African Boar— The Malayan Babirusa. Finis. 



AMONG the animals belonging to the Tropical World there are none more dis- 

 tinctive than the great Pachydermati, the Elephant, the Rhinoceros, and the 

 Hippopotamus. To these huge beasts, the largest that walk the earth, we propose to 

 devote a chapter ; supplementing it with a few pages concerning the Giraffe, the Camel, 

 and a few other animals of large size, exclusively tropical. First and foremost we will 

 speak of the Elephant : 



A tamed elephant, as we see him in menageries, compelled to go through his round 

 of tricks for the amusement of everybody who will pay the required quarter of a dol- 

 lar, is apparently a stupid beast. He seems a very mountain of flesh, covered with a 

 loose and ill-fitting skin. His great, clumsy legs look like those of a gouty alderman ; 

 he writhes his huge trunk about with an air of hopeless imbecility ; all his energies 

 seem to be concentrated upon the feat of conveying to his mouth the apples and nuts 

 held out to him by gaping urchins. A very different animal is the same elephant in 

 his native haunts. There he is the keenest wariest, and most cunning of beasts. 

 The little sharp eye is alight with intelligence ; the ponderous ears are alive to the 



