THE ELEPHANT OF INDIA. 1-J9 



they receive in this way. An artist in Paris wished to draw the elephant in the menagerie at the 

 .lanlin des 1'lantes in an extraordinary attitude, which was with his trunk elevated in the air, and 

 his mouth open. An attendant on the artist, to make the elephant preserve the attitude, threw fruits 

 into his mouth, and often pretended to throw them, without doing so. The animal became irritated, 

 and, seeming to think that the painter was the cause of his annoyance, turned to him, and dashed a 

 quantity of water from his trunk over the paper on which the painter was sketching the portrait. 



Wolf, in his " Voyage to Ceylon," relates the following anecdote : A person in that island, who 

 lived near a place where elephants were daily led to water, and often sat at the door of his house, used 

 occasionally to give one of these animals some fig-leaves a food to which elephants are very part in I. 

 Once he took it into his head to play the elephant a trick. He wrapped a stone round with fig- 

 leaves, and said to the cornac, "This time I will give him a stone to eat, and see how it will 

 agree with him." The cornac answered, " that the elephant would not be such a fool as to swallow 

 a stone." The man, however, handed the stone to the elephant, who, taking it with his trunk, 

 immediately let it fall to the ground. " You see," said the keeper, " that I was right ; " and, without 

 further words, drove away his elephants. After they were watered, he was conducting them again to 

 their stable. The man who had played the elephant the trick was still sitting at his door, when, 

 before he was aware, the animal ran at him, threw his trunk around his body, and, dashing him to the 

 ground, trampled him immediately to death. 



As we issued, some years ago, from the Python-house into the open air of the Zoological Gardens, 

 there stretched before us the whole length of the avenue, aivhed with lime-trees in summer, a veritable 

 scene of verdure. It was a charming picture to see the docile elephant pacing towards us with 

 ponderous and majestic steps, whilst, in the scarlet houda, happy children swayed from side to side as 

 she marched. One of our engravings faithfully represents this animal with her calf, as they appeared 

 in these Gardens. The mother stood seven feet high, and was bought at the fair of Cawnpore, in 

 August, 18-30. The young one was born on the march between that place and Calcutta, about a 

 month, after the purchase of the mother. They arrived in the Gardens in April, 18.31. The calf 

 measured, at the time the two were drawn, five feet two inches at the highest part of the back, ami 

 about four feet eight at the shoulder. At the most tender age it differed very little from an adult, 

 the chief indication of infancy being in its smaller size. 



It was a pleasant thing to watch them take their bath. Most thoroughly did they enjoy it, 

 going down, down, down, into the sloping basin, and indulging in the most vivacious gambols. After 

 bathing they frequently rolled in, and covered themselves with liquid mxid, and the tracks which 

 they left in the soft earth which surrounded their abode, which they made for the purpose of the mud 

 bath, was worthy of notice. 



The mother, after affording delight to the pxiblic for several years, died from the effects of a 

 storm of thunder and lightning. Such, indeed, was what may seem, at first, the singular verdict of 

 the medical man who made his post-mortem. The terror, however, inspired by the storm, appears 

 to have produced some nervous disease, under which she succumbed. The young animal remained, 

 that used to suck his huge mother, to the delight of the crowd of children, and to the disgust of the 

 rhinoceros, who is the sworn enemy to all elephants. 



The tenderest affection, it may be remarked, appears to subsist between the elephant and the 

 calf. Tavernier says, "When merchants bring elephants to any place of sale, 'tis a pleasant sight to 

 see them go along. There are old and young together, and when the old are gone by, the children 

 run after the little ones, and leap upon their backs, giving them something to eat ; but they, per- 

 ceiving their dams are gone forward, throw the children off without hurting them, and double their 

 pace." Bruce mentions that a young elephant came boldly out to defend its wounded mother, and 

 ran upon the men and horses, heedless of its own life or safety, till one of the hunters ran it through 

 with a lance. 



THE AFRICAN ELEPHANT.* 



THE head of the African is smaller, rounder, more elongated, and less irregular than is that of the 

 Asiatic kind ; the ears are nearly twice as large, and the tail not above half the length. 



* Elephas Africanus. Cuvier. 



