ElepJiantiana. 179 



measurements of his travelling box should be taken, 

 so that it might lie decorated with wreaths of flowers. 



Can anything be much more absurd than such con- 

 duct as the following ? " On Wednesday, we saw 

 a ladv weeping copiously in the Gardens. With 

 streaming eyes and a moist handkerchief, she was 

 testifying to the violence of her grief, inveighing 

 against the brutality of allowing Jumbo to catch cold 

 in his legs!" 



It is impossible not to recall Trinculo's soliloquy 

 on discovering Caliban : " Were I in England now, 

 as once I was, and had this fish painted, not a 

 holiday fool but would give a piece of silver. When 

 they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, 

 they will lay out ten to see a dead Indian." 



One case, however, outdoes in absurdity all the 

 previous instances of human folly. Here is an extract 

 from the first column of a daily newspaper, the 

 names being suppressed : 



" Onthe'zyth ult." (i.e., February, 1882) "at , 



the wife of H B , Ksq., of a son and heir 



(Jumbo)." 



Here each sex is equally responsible, as both 

 husband and wife must have concurred in saddling 

 their unfortunate "son and heir" with a name that 

 will afflict him during the whole of his life, and, 

 if he should goto a public school, will be a perpetual 

 torment to him. "Tristram Shandy," of Sterne, or 

 Lord Lytton's "Anachronism," "Pisistratus Caxton," 

 were nothing in comparison of "Jumbo B ." 



Then legendary history was foisted upon Jumbo, and 

 among other fables we were told that " he had been 

 on exhibition at the London ' Zoo ' for nearly sixty 

 years, and that upon his back Queen Victoria and the 

 royal family and thousands of children have ridden." 



Now, all this outburst of Jumbo-worship was the 



