284 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



Difficult as it is to rear the wild things, for they seldom take 

 kindly to artificial surroundings, we never had any anxiety 

 about the little elephant, who throve apace, neither pining 

 nor ailing, though sometimes sulking. 



At first he decided to take nourishment only by means 

 of a rag, and would not look at a pail of milk to help himself ; 

 but one day being left alone with one, by way of teaching 

 him, he made trial, and found the art of drinking so easily 

 acquired that he never stopped till he had drained the pail 

 of its last drop ; then, finding that he was getting no more, 

 his anger rose, and he lifted up his baby trunk and squealed, 

 at the same time picking up and putting down again the — 

 even at that age — ready forefoot several times in quick 

 succession, sure sign of an elephant's displeasure. Given 

 as much as was good for him, namely, two gallons a day 

 in the beginning, he finished up the milk regimen of infancy 

 by demanding his six gallons. If that seem hard to believe, 

 it was not so to him to drink that quantity, as he did daily, 

 none being booked to his account wrongfully ; and if he 

 kicked the pail over for fun, he was not the loser. Fresh 

 milk in such quantities was out of the question, but con- 

 densed suited ' Bux ' quite as well. His appetite was the 

 same when he began to take solids ; boiled rice, and gram, 

 like the horses, with vegetables, plantains, native bread, 

 and, of course, forest leaves and boughs by degrees, as he 

 grew — nothing came amiss to him. His accommodating 

 disposition helped him to thrive — accommodating, that is, 

 according to the general habit of men and animals alike, 

 just so far as all went as he liked and he had both plenty 

 and variety within trunk reach. But the instant he missed 

 anything, or suddenly wanted what was not to be seen, 

 having, perhaps, been given boiled rice when he fancied 

 soaked gram, or cocoanuts instead of blocks of jaggheri, then 

 his way was to go off by himself to sulk, refusing all over- 

 tures, even if offered what we knew he really wanted, or else 



