402 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



A captured elephant after he has been taught his ordinary duty^ 

 say about three months after he is taken, is taught to pick up 

 things from the ground and give them to his mahout sitting on 

 his shoulders. Now for the first few months it is dangerous to 

 require him to pick up anything but soft articles, such as 

 clothes, because the things are often handed up with consider- 

 able force. After a time, longer with some elephants than 

 others, they appear to take in a knowledge of the nature of the^ 

 things they are required to lift, and the bundle of clothes will 

 be thrown up sharply as before, but heavy things, such as a 

 crowbar or piece of iron chain, will be handed up in a gentle 

 manner ; a sharp knife will be picked up by its handle and 

 placed on the elephant's head, so that the mahout can also take 

 it by the handle. I have purposely given elephants things to 

 lift which they could never have seen before, and they were all 

 handled in such a manner as to convince me that they recog- 

 nised such qualities as hardness, sharpness, and weight. You 

 are quite at liberty to make any use of these remarks you please 

 if they are of service. 



Again, as Dr. Lindley Kemp observes,^ ' the manner 

 in which tame elephants assist in capturing wild ones 

 affords us an instance of reasoning in an animal,' &c. ; and 

 similarly, Mr. Darwin observes: *It is, I think, im- 

 possible to read the account given by Sir E. Tennent 

 of the behaviour of the female elephants used as de- 

 coys, without admitting that they intentionally practise 

 deceit.' 2 



The following is an extract from the more interesting^ 

 of the observations to which Mr. Darwin here alludes, and 

 I think it is impossible to read them without assenting to 

 his judgment. Several herds of wild elephants havings 

 been driven into a corral, two tame decoys were ridden 

 into it : — 



One was of prodigious age, having been in the service of the 

 Dutch and English Governments in succession for upwards of 

 a century. The other, called by her keeper ' Siribeddi,' was 

 about fifty years old, and distinguished for gentleness and doci- 

 lity. She was a most accomplished decoy, and evinced the 

 utmost relish for the sport. Having entered the corral noise- 

 lessly, carrying a mahout on her shoulders with the headman of 



^ Indications of Instinct, p. ]29. ^ j)esGent of Man, p. 69. 



