The Elephant 15 



that have not been removed from the corral frequently 

 attack each other, and when some lost or exiled wanderer 

 attempts in his distress and loneliness to join another 

 band, its champion at once assails him. 



There is one detestable trait, not uncommon among 

 many species, and shared by a portion* of savage man- 

 kind, which elephants do not display. They never destroy 

 injured or disabled animals of their own kind. On the 

 contrary, when sympathy does not involve self-sacrifice, 

 they sometimes (not always by any means) show that 

 they are not without the feeling, and this conclusion 

 seems to be quite capable of resisting all the destructive 

 criticism that can be brought to bear upon it. 



Wild beasts have usually been written about both care- 

 lessly and dogmatically. Men, for the most part, no 

 doubt unconsciously, speak of them as if they knew what 

 it is impossible that they should know ; and it is difficult 

 to banish the suggestion that many of our prevailing 

 opinions are in fact survivals from savagery. Public 

 feeling towards elephants is undoubtedly swayed by their 

 size, and by involuntary apprehension. We are struck by 

 the contrast between the animal's placid appearance and 

 those powers it embodies. In short, people do not study 

 elephants, or reason about them ; they feel in a modified 

 form those original impressions which operated upon their 

 remote ancestors. Hence, in great measure probably, 

 Buffon's ipse dixit, "dans Pttat satwdge, Vttfyhant riest 

 ni sanguinaire, ni ftroce, il est d"un natural doux, et 

 jamais il ne fait abus de ses armes, ou de sa force" It is 

 not so much the verbal statement that need be objected 



