6/8 PROBOSCIDEA. 



revenging itself on the servant, addressed itself to the master, and dis- 

 charged at him, through his trunk, a quantity of water, with which it 

 spoiled the paper on which he was drawing." 



In the London Zoological Garden the largest African elephant broke 

 off his tusks. The stumps grew into the cheeks, causing intense pain. 

 The intrepid superintendent undertook to perform a surgical operation 

 and relieve the poor beast. Having prepared a gigantic hook-shaped 

 lancet, he bandaged the creature's eyes, and proceeded to his task. It 

 was an anxious moment, for there was absolutely nothing to prevent the 

 animal killing his medical attendants upon the spot, and to rely upon the 

 common sense and good nature of a creature weighing many tons and 

 suffering from facial abscesses and neuralgia, argues, to say the least of 

 it, the possession of considerable nerve. But Mr. Bartlett did not hesi- 

 tate, and climbing up within reach of his patient, he lanced the swollen 

 cheek. His courage was rewarded, for the beast at once perceived that 

 the proceedings were for his good, and submitted quietly. The next 

 morning, when they came to operate upon the other side, the elephant 

 turned his cheek without being bidden, and endured the second incision 

 without a groan. 



Some elephants possess a taste for music. In 1813, the musicians of 

 Paris met together and gave a concert to the male elephant, which was 

 then in the Jardin des Plantes. The animal showed great pleasure at 

 hearing sung O ma tendre Musette ! But the air of La charmante Gabriclle 

 pleased it so much that it beat time by making its trunk oscillate from 

 right to left, and by rocking its enormous body from side to side. It 

 even uttered a few sounds more or less in harmony with those produced 

 by the orchestra. 



An elephant was used in a spectacular play in Philadelphia. He was 

 kept in a stable several blocks away, and taken to the theatre every 

 evening at the proper point in the piece. One afternoon he took it into 

 his head that the time had come to perform. Throwing his keeper aside, 

 he burst into the street, overturned a wagon and several street-stands on 

 ihis way to the theatre, smashed a door, and took his usual place on the 

 stage. The absence of lights and audience seemed to convince him that 

 he had made a mistake, and he suffered himself to be led back to the 

 stable. 



