378 THE HARMONIES OF NATURE. 



mocketh at danger, and is not affrighted, neither turneth he 

 back from the sword.' 



As the elephant surpasses all that breathes on dry land in 

 bulk and muscular power, his mental faculties also assign to him 

 one of the first places in the animal creation. When tamed he 

 becomes the most gentle and obedient of all domestic quadru- 

 peds, and in most cases is exceedingly fond of his keeper, and 

 soon learns to distinguish the various tones of the human voice, 

 as expressive of anger, approbation, or command. His strength 

 is rendered doubly serviceable to man by the intelligence he 

 evinces in its use. He will load a boat with amazing dexterity, 

 carefully keeping all the articles dry, and disposing them where 

 they ought to be placed. In propelling wheel-carriages heavily 

 laden up a declivity, he pushes them forward with his forehead 

 and supports them with his knees. 



In Ceylon, where the elephants are frequently employed in 

 dragging and piling felled timber, they manifest an intelligence 

 and dexterity which is surprising to a stranger, because the 

 sameness of the operation enables them to go on for hours dis- 

 posing of log after log, almost without a hint or direction from 

 their overseers. Sir E. Tennent mentions two elephants thus 

 employed in the yards attached to the Commissariat Stores at 

 Colombo, who accomplished their work with equal precision 

 and with greater rapidity than if it had been accomplished by 

 dock-labourers. When the pile attained a certain height, and 

 they were no longer able by their conjoint efforts to raise one 

 of the heavy logs of ebony to the summit, they had been taught 

 to lean two pieces against the heap, up the inclined plane of 

 which they gently rolled the remaining logs and placed them 

 trimly on the top. 



The docility of the elephant is all the more surprising, as he 

 is always originally the freeborn son of the forest (for he never 

 propagates in a state of captivity), and is often advanced in 

 years before being obliged to change the independence of the 

 woods for the yoke of thraldom ; while the dog has been the 

 companion of man through many ages, and the acquired habits 

 of successive generations have gradually moulded his physical 

 and moral type to domesticity. What services might not be 

 expected from an animal so sagacious as the elephant, were we 

 able to train the species as we do the individual ! 



