Elephantiana* 191 



size and brute strength are of small avail before 

 practised skill. The professional fighting elephant 

 knows beforehand every move in the game, when to 

 bump his antagonist against a tree and thrash him 

 on the neck with his trunk before he can recover 

 from the shock, when and how to use his tusks, and 

 when to charge with his whole weight against his 

 adversary. 



Some of these trained elephants have been sent to 

 Africa for the double purpose of capturing African 

 elephants and of showing the more intelligent tribes 

 how to take elephants alive instead of merely killing 

 them for the sake of the ivory. 



The account of their transit is a very interesting 

 one, but too long to be given in full. There was 

 much the same difficult}' in embarking them as was 

 found with " Jumbo," but there was much more 

 difficulty in landing them. 



Owing to the peculiar shore of Zanzibar, the ship 

 could not approach within two miles of land. At 

 last it was decided to lower one of them, poetically 

 named " Budding Lily," into the water, and induce 

 her to swim ashore. 



So she was slung over the side, and let gently into 

 the sea, with the mahout on her neck. Now ele- 

 phants, when bathing, are rather fond of playing a 

 practical joke on the mahout. They sink them- 

 selves beneath the water so as to give the mahout a 

 sound ducking, while they can breathe through the 

 end of the proboscis, which is held out of the water. 

 " Budding Lily " played this same joke, but when 

 she rose to the surface became alarmed and tried to 

 scramble on board again. The captain of the ship 

 sent a boat, which tried to tow the elephant land 

 wards, but the animal was too strong, and dragged 

 the boat back to the ship's side, up which it vainly 

 attempted to climb. 



