I38 THEIR INTELLIGENCE. 



this instrument had a tendency to fester, so we only allowed a 

 light bamboo cane to be used, not thicker than one's little 

 finger, and this answered perfectly. Few people are aware 

 that the elephant with a skin nearly an inch in thickness is 

 one of the most sensitive of animals, and will be as much 

 annoyed or even more so by the sting of a mosquito than by 

 a prod from the Mahout. A blow from a bamboo switch wilL 

 make an elephant roar out much louder than a school boy 

 does when he has to hold out his hand for punishment. Now 

 by this little bamboo switch the elephants were maintained 

 in perfect order. The Mahout if he had to leave the 

 elephant for a time in the forest would take the animal up 

 to a fallen tree and make him put one forefoot on it, and the 

 bamboo stick would then be balanced on that foot. I have 

 often passed an elephant standing perfectly still with one foot 

 on a fallen tree balancing the stick, and half an hour after 

 found him still in the same position, though the jungle around 

 was teeming with all kinds of elephant luxuries — a wonderful 

 instance of obedience and docility quite apart from their 

 intelligence. 



Some of the best working elephants I had were those 

 that had been captured when full grown, yet these, and in fact 

 all tame elephants, have a great dread of the wild ones. On 

 Sundays we used to let all the tame elephants loose, and they 

 had a day to themselves in the forest. They were quite un- 

 fettered except by a chain attached to one of the hind legs, 

 and they have often come rushing into the station alarmed 

 by the presence of wild ones in the neighbourhood. There 

 was no fear of their running away ; what with their dread of 

 the wild ones and their attachment to, I was going to say, 

 their keepers, but I ought to say their rice puddings, they 



