6l2 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



lievo she deserted liini. Tlie little fellow was 

 drafiged and butted to a convenient tree, to 

 which he was securely tied by both ankles, 

 while a decoy on each side alternately bullied 

 and cozened him. The moment he was tie^, 

 just as he was on the point of thinkinp; his 

 new-found friends not such bad fellows after 

 all, and was preparing to console himself for 

 the loss of his mother, they heartlessly left 

 him. Oh, how angry he was! He screamed, 

 frothed, lunged and lunged against his fet- 

 ters, bit the earth, and broke off the point 

 of his embryonic tiisk trying to demolish a 

 stone he had dug up in liis frenzy. But it 

 was all in vain; and at last the poor little 

 baby, just like other babies, broke down and 

 cried. I saw him. and later I saw h's mother, 

 the terrible old cow, crying, and they shed 

 real tears. 



THE FIGHT OF THE OLD COW. 



The old cow was so furious that it 



^\ as finally decided to ro]5e her so that 



the rest could be subjujrated more easily. 



She was a tactician of the highest order 



though, and her gifts as a fighter 



amounted to positive genius Several 



times thev had her cornered, but she 



smashed her way through. 



I was in time to see tlie defeat of the old 

 empress. After many vain and furious strug- 

 gles she was noosed around the left ankle 

 with the rope attached to the biggest of all 

 the decoys. At the word, this magnificent, 

 six-ton brute picked out a tree, and without 



even a pause dragged the old lady off her 

 feet. To make her humiliation more com- 

 ))lete. he actually " wiped up the earth with 

 her " when she spread herself out on the 

 ground in protest, dragging her along with 

 no more effort than if she had been a baby- 

 carriage. But madam had not done with 

 tliem yet. Arrived at the tree, she put up 

 a glorious fight, even breaking tw'o ropes, 

 and she might have won a brief liberty had 

 not two of the decoys shown marvellous in- 

 telligence in blocking her flight, butting her 

 into place, and firmly lashing her there by 

 winding their powerful trunks around her 

 neck from each side. Then, while the ropes 

 that for ever withheld her from her liberty 

 were being securely knotted about her legs, 

 these t.M-0 gigantic old frauds, looking all the 

 wliile wonderfully benignant and solemn, al- 

 ternately bullied and flattered her. 



Mr. Moser gives several instances of 

 the almost uncanny reasoning powers of 

 elephants. Those trained by man have 

 the finest intelligence and a majesty of 

 port rarely, if ever, observed in the wild 

 ones. The\' impress one as having be- 

 come grand under servitude. He con- 

 cludes : — 



I have always been fond of big-game shoot- 

 ing, and 1 have longed to include this mighti- 

 est of beasts in my huntsman's bag ; but I 

 came away from the kraal with one clear idea 

 in my mind, dominating all others: I never 

 .shall willingly kill an elephant. 



THE LAND OF SPLENDOUR. 



The Maharajah of Mysore is a poten- 

 tate who combines the magnificence of 

 the East with the progress of the W'est. 

 Saint Nihal Singh pictures the splen- 

 dours of his rule m a contribution to 

 the June number of the London. 



On the occasion of the Maharajah's 

 birthday, about a week following his 

 marriage, in 1900, to the twelve-year-old 

 daughter of the Rana Saheb of Vana, 

 the city of ^^lysore, lavishly decorated 

 with gay-hued flags and bunting, bathed 

 under a soft flood of light, resembling 

 a dream city, witnessed a wondrous 

 triumphal procession. It was headed by 

 two gaily-decorated camels and eight 

 elephants, with fantastically painted 

 faces and jmgling ornaments, bearing 

 superb howdahs on their backs. 

 . There followed detachments of native 

 regiments, both cavalry and infantry, 

 brass bands, drum and fife bands, and 

 native bands, torch bearers, and nautch 

 girls. 



In the middle of the procession 



walked an enormous elephant with 

 gilded tusks, wearing a garland of 

 flowers around its huge neck, a heavy 

 gold flap falling over his forehead and 

 trunk, gold anklets, gold ornaments on 

 his tail, and a beautiful saddle-cloth of 

 gold tissue ; while jewelled gold chains 

 hung down from his head to his feet. 

 On his back he bore a howda-h of solid 

 gold, covered with a canopy of the same 

 precious metal, in which sat the Maha- 

 rajah and the Maharam, both aflame with 

 jewels, that scintillated all the more 

 radiantly in the flare of the red, green, 

 and blue lights whose rays were thrown 

 in a never-ending stream upon their per- 

 sons as the procession wended its way 

 through the streets of the city. 



Behind their Highnesses, on another 

 elephant, in a gold howdah only slightly 

 inferior to that of the ruler, rode his 

 younger sister and her bridegroom. 

 Four more sets of nautch girls followed, 

 each with its own band, and singing its 

 own songs, irrespective of the others. 



