ELEPHANT— GENERAL INTELLiaENCE. 40^ 



Placing it under foot, it broke a piece off with the trunk, and 

 after hfting it to its mouth threw it away. It repeated this 

 twice or thrice, and then drew another stake and began again. 

 Seeing that the bamboo was old and dry I asked the reason of 

 this, and was told to wait and see what it would do. At last it 

 seemed to get a piece that suited, and holding it in the trunk 

 firmly, and stepping the left fore-leg well forward, passed the 

 piece of bamboo under the armpit, so to speak, and began to 

 scratch with some force. My surprise reached its climax when 

 I saw a large elephant leech fall on the ground, quite six inches 

 long and thick as one's finger, and which, from its position, 

 could not easily be detached without this scraper or scratcher 

 which was deliberately made by the elephant. I subsequently 

 found that it was a common occurrence. Such scrapers are 

 used by every elephant daily. 



On another occasion, when travelling at a time of the year 

 when the large flies are so tormenting to an elephant, I noticed 

 that the one I rode had no fan or wisp to beat them off with. 

 The mahout, at my order, slackened pace and allowed her to 

 go to the side of the road, when for some moments she moved 

 along rummaging the smaller jungle on the bank ; at last she 

 came to a cluster of young shoots well branched, and after 

 feeling among them and selecting one, raised her trunk and 

 neatly stripped down the stem, taking off all the lower branches 

 and leaving a fine bunch on top. She deliberately cleaned it 

 down several times, and then laying hold at the lower end 

 broke off a beautiful fan or switch about five feet long, handle 

 included. With this she kept the flies at bay as we went along, 

 flapping them off on each side. 



Say what we may, these are both really bond fide implements, 

 each inteUigently made for a definite purpose. 



My friend Mrs. A. S. H. Eichardson sends me the 

 following. The Eev. Mr. Townsend, who narrated the epi- 

 sode, is personally known to her : — 



An elephant was chained to a tree in the compound opposite 

 Mr. Townsend's house. Its driver made an oven at a short 

 distance, in which he put his rice-cakes to bake, and then 

 covered them with stones and grass and went away. When he 

 was gone, the elephant with his trunk unfastened the chain 

 round his foot, went to the oven and uncovered it, took out 

 and ate the cakes, re-covered the oven with the stones and 

 grass as before, and went back to his place. He could not 



