THE GREAT HERBIVORES 157 
poison, but although the quantity used would have pretty well 
sufficed to finish off the entire population of Hamburg, the 
wretched elephant survived the ordeal. At last, in despera- 
tion at the pertinacity with which the animal clung to life, the 
people fastened him up by the trunk, and stuck him like a pig. 
The reader may be inclined to infer from all these stories 
of accidents and other misfortunes that I have had ill-luck 
with elephants, and that they are very difficult creatures to 
manage in captivity. There is no doubt that they are apt 
to be awkward customers on occasion, and to the dangerous 
incidents which I have related I could add others of a similar 
character. Some of my elephants, for instance, once ran 
amok in Munich. Nevertheless, the vicious elephants are 
the exceptions. Most of my trunked friends live in my 
memory not because of their objectionable propensities but 
because of their intelligence, their good nature, and their 
wonderful fidelity. One of the most docile and affectionate 
beasts which I have ever known was a bull which I obtained 
some twenty years ago from a Hamburg trader. He stood 
seven feet high, and had tusks measuring two feet. When 
this animal was first offered to me he was still on the high seas, 
on the passage to Europe, but from the accounts of him which 
I received I gathered that he was unusually tame. As a 
rule, I am loath to buy male elephants, because, as I have 
previously explained, after they arrive at a certain age they 
are subject to periodic moods, during which their tempers 
are exceedingly uncertain. When the ship arrived in port 
I went on board to inspect the bull, and I speedily discovered 
that the stories | had heard of his tameness were in no way 
exaggerated. The poor beast was in a pitiful plight, however. 
It was already late in the autumn, and he was standing on 
the deck, in the open air, literally shaking and trembling with 
cold. Various other symptoms made it obvious that he 
was in ill-health. I thereupon agreed with the owner to take 
the animal to Neuer Pferdemarkt to see if a short residence 
there would improve his condition. A good warm stable, a nice 
