470 HISTOIiY OF 



The elephant's conductor is usually mounted upon its neck, 

 and makes use of a rod of iron to guide it, which is sometimes 

 pointed, and at others bent into a hook. With this the animal 

 is spurred forward when dull or disobedient ; but, in general, a 



tliirst by an ample draught, she would exhibit her ingenuity in emptying 

 the cDiitents of a soda-water bottle, wliich was tightly corked. This she 

 effected in a singularly adroit manner. Pressing the small bottle against 

 the groimd with her enormous foot, so as to hold it securely at an angle of 

 about forty-five degrees, she gradually twisted out the cork with her trunk, 

 although it was very little above the edge of the neck ; then without alter- 

 ing the position, she turned her trunk round the bottle, so that she might 

 re\'erse it, and thus empty the water into the extremity of the proboscis. 

 This she accomplished without spilling a drop ; and she delivered the empty 

 bottle to her keeper before she attempted to discharge the contents of the 

 trunk into the mouth. She performed another trick which required equal 

 nicety and patience. The keeper, who was accustomed to ride on her neck 

 like the mahouts, or elephant-drivers of India, had a large cloth or housing 

 which he spread over her, when he tlius bestrode her in somewhat of orien- 

 tal state. Upon alighting, which she allowed him to do by kneeling, he de- 

 sired her to take off the cloth. This she effected by putting the muscles of 

 her loins in action, so that the shrinking of her loose sldn gave motion to 

 the cloth, and it gradually wriggled on one side, till it fell by its own weight. 

 Tlie cloth was then, of course, in a heap ; but the elephant, spreading it 

 carefully upon the grass with her tru*k, folded it up, as a napkin is folded, 

 till it was sufficiently compact for her purpose. She then poised it vAth. her 

 trunk for a few seconds, and by one jerk threw it over her head to the cen- 

 tre of her back, where it remained as steady as if the biu-den had been ad- 

 iusted by humal^ hands. The affection of tliis poor animal for her keeper 

 wa.= very great. The man who had the charge of her in 1828, had attended 

 her for five years, having succeeded another who had been with her eight or 

 ten years. When first placed under Iiis charge, she was intractable for some 

 time, evidently resent>iig the loss of her former friend; but she gradually 

 became obedient and attached, and would cry after him whenever he Avas 

 absent for more than a few hoiu-s. The elephants of India, in the same way, 

 cannot easily be brought to obey a stranger, and manifest a remarkable 

 knowledge of their old makouU if they should meet after adong separation. 

 The elephant of the Duke of Devonsliire was about twenty.one years old 

 when she died, early in 1829. We have understood that the disease wliich 

 carried her off w;is pulmonary consumption. 



The inhabitants of this country recently %vitnessed the dramatic exhibi. 

 tiou of an elephant, which afforded them a more remarkable example of the 

 sagacity of this quadruped than the ordinary docility wliirh it manifests at the 

 command of the showman. This elephant was a large female from Siam, named 

 Mademoiselle D'Jeck, and was exhibited in the Adelphi Theatre, London, 

 and various provincial theatres. Last year (1830) she was taken to America. 

 She was well disciplined, and exhibited her feats with considerable effect, 

 by their adaptation to scenic display. To march in a procession, to kneel 

 down Avithout any more perreptilile bidding than the waving of a hand, to 

 salute a particular individual, to place a crown upon the head of " the true 



