452 THE pmiOSOPHY 



elephant fhows a relu6lance to the tafk, the coruack promif- 

 es to give him wine, arrack, or any other article that he is 

 fond of, and then the animal exerts his utmoft efforts. But 

 to break any promife made to him is extremely dangerous. 

 Many cornacks have fallen vidlims to indifcretlons of this 

 kind. < At Dehan,* fays M. de Bufley, * an elephant, from 

 « revenge, killed his cornack. The man's wife, who beheld 

 ^ the dreadful fcene, took her two children, and threw them 



* at the feet of the enraged animal, faying, St?ice you have Jlain 



* my hujhand^ take my life alfo, as ivell as that of my children, 

 « The elephant inftantly flopped, relented, and, as if ftung 

 < with remorfe, took the oldeft boy in its trunk, placed him 



* on its neck, adopted him foi* hi| cornack, and v/ould never 

 « allow any other perforl to mount it/ 



From the members of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 

 we learn fome curious fa£ts with regard to the manners of 

 the Verfailles elephant. This elephant, they remark, feem- 

 ed to know when it was mocked, and remembered the affront 

 till it had an opportunity of revenge. A man deceived it, 

 by pretending to throw fome food into its mouth. The ani- 

 mal gave him fuch a blow with its trunk as knocked him 

 down, and broke two of his ribs. A painter wanted to draw 

 the animal in an unufual attitude, with its truuk elevated, 

 and its mouth open. The painter's fervant, to make it re- 

 main in this pofition, threw fruits into its mouth, but gener- 

 ally made only a faint of throwing them. This conduct en- 

 raged the elephant ; and, as if it knew that the painter was 

 the caufe of this teazing impertinence, inflead of attacking 

 the fervant, it eyed the mafler, and fquirted at him from its 

 trunk fuch a quantity of water as fpoiled the paper on which 

 he was drawing. This elephant commonly made lefs ufe 

 of its ftrength than its addrefs. It loofed, with great eafe 

 and coolnefs, the buckle of a large double leathern flrap, 

 with which its leg was fixed •, and, as the fervants had 



