ORDER PACHYDERM ATA. 377 



cessary for the supply of so many beings began to fail; the 

 ponds or tanks had dried up, and no more water was left 

 than the immense wells of the country would furnish. The 

 multitude of men and cattle that were unceasingly at the 

 wells, particularly the largest, occasioned no inconsiderable 

 struggle for the priority in procuring the supply for which 

 each were there to seek, and the consequent confusion on 

 the spot was frequently very considerable. On one occa- 

 sion two elephant drivers, each with his elephant, the one 

 remarkably large and strong, and the other comparatively 

 small and weak, were at the well together; the small ele- 

 phant had been provided by his master with a bucket for 

 the occasion, which he carried at the end of his proboscis ; 

 but the larger animal being destitute of this necessary 

 vessel, either spontaneously or by desire of his keeper, seized 

 the bucket, and easily wrested it away from his less power- 

 ful fellow-servant : the latter was too sensible of his inferi- 

 ority, openly to resent the insult, though it is obvious that 

 he felt it ; but great squabbling and abuse ensued between 

 the keepers. At length the weaker animal, watching the 

 opportunity when the other was standing with his side to 

 the well, retired backwards a few paces in a very quiet, un- 

 suspicious manner, and then rushing forward with all his 

 might, drove his head against the side of the other, and 

 fairly pushed him into the well. 



An inquiry might naturally be made here, whether these 

 animals were in the case in question possessed of anything 

 like a moral sense ? We should certainly have no inclination 

 to refer a moral sense, strictly speaking, in any case to the 

 lower animals : its existence, independently of education 

 and habit in man, may be problematical ; but there seems 

 little doubt that the animals in question had acquired a 

 principle, not far, if at all removed from a partial know- 

 ledge of right and wrong: being constantly fed by portions 

 or messes, it may be easily supposed that it attained a 



