54 THE WILDERNESS AND JUNGLE 



spared unnecessary strain, and the Govern- 

 ment elephants in the Burmese teak forests, 

 rolling and stacking logs with infinite patience 

 and wonderful judgment, use the trunk, as a 

 rule, only in steadying each log on their tusks. 

 Why, indeed, should the elephant hurt his 

 trunk when it is so easy to gore or trample 

 his little enemy, man? That great hunter, 

 F. C. Selous, was once knocked off his 

 frightened horse by a wounded elephant, 

 which then stood over him, where he lay 

 helpless, and drove its tusks into the earth 

 close to his body, one of the most extra- 

 ordinary escapes on record. " Charlie," a 

 tame elephant at the Crystal Palace some 

 years ago, was teased by a man with a spear 

 and just trod the man to death and went quietly 

 back to his quarters. For this "Charlie" was 

 executed, which may have been the proper 

 penalty for taking the law into his own feet, 

 but which seemed hard lines, all the same. One 

 would not have thought a mere spear could do 

 much against an elephant's hide. Elephants 

 have been executed in India also for this offence, 

 and I remember hearing of a case at Mhow. 

 The culprit was a hundred years old, and 

 several rajahs wished to ransom him, but he 

 had killed many natives, so the authorities 

 would not hear of reprieve. In hot weather, 

 or when persecuted by flies, elephants stand 



