2i6 CHILDHOOD OF ANIMALS 



Even if they were suitable otherwise as pets, young tame ungulates 

 must be kept out of doors, for none of them, or almost none of them, 

 has the natural habit of cleanliness, and so they cannot be trained to 

 observe the proprieties. The best-known exceptions are the swine, 

 which will not foul their own litter if they have an opportunity of 

 choice, and will generally select a remote comer of their run to 

 deposit their droppings. One other exception was a great surprise 

 to me. My tame tree-hyrax, almost as soon as it came into my 

 possession, chose the old green baize cover of a typewriter, which 

 happened to have been thrown down in a comer of my study, and 

 afterwards remained faithful to this selection. When it was kept 

 ready for it, it would seek it out of its own accord, and when the 

 little animal was taken there at night, before going to bed, it at once 

 made use of it. The coney, another species of hjnrax, is, accord- 

 ing to the Bible, " exceeding wise," but this particular form of 

 wisdom was very unexpected, and very unlike the habits of other 

 hoofed animals. 



Every one knows that young elephants are gentle, plajrful and 

 friendly, and that they attach themselves strongly to their keepers. 

 Their memory is very good, and neither young nor old elephants 

 forget an injury or a kindness easily. Their powers of climbing, 

 balancing and jumping, often seen in trained performing elephants, 

 are quite natural developments of their capacities, for elephants 

 are extremely active in their native haunts and climb steep rocks 

 very well. They usually retain their tameness when they grow 

 up, except at special seasons when males are dangerous. Their 

 docUity is the result of their natural disposition, their long associa- 

 tion with their mother and their social habits. It is not due to 

 domestication. Even the Indian elephant is a tamed rather than 

 a domesticated animal. The stock is kept up much more by the 

 capture of wild animals than by breeding in captivity, and young 

 and old African elephants, which have not been domesticated in 

 the sense that has happened in Asia, are just as docile and easy to 

 manage. 



I have already spoken repeatedly of the hyrax. It is in every 

 sense a wild animal, and although it has bred in captivity, I do 

 not know of this having gone on for more than one generation. Nor 

 do I know any one, except myself, who has had the good fortune 

 to own a tame tree-hyrax, but tame examples of the animal from 

 South Africa, East Africa and Syria have been known, and their 

 owners agree as to their engaging character. They are amusing. 



