WILD BEASTS 



THE ELEPHANT 



THE elephant — "My Lord the Elephant," as he is 

 called in India — takes precedence of other quadru- 

 peds upon several counts. Among these appear conspicu- 

 ously the facts that he belongs to an ancient and isolated 

 family, which has no near relations occupying lower sta- 

 tions in life ; likewise, that from time immemorial these 

 creatures have been strong enough to do as they pleased. 

 This latter circumstance more particularly ensured the 

 sincere respect of mankind, and throughout the records of 

 the race we find its members in distinguished positions. 

 Ganesha, the Hindu god of wisdom, had an elephant's 

 head, and Elephas Indicus was worshipped from Eastern 

 China to the highlands of Central India. In Africa this 

 species only escaped adoration because the natives of that 

 country were incapable of conceiving any of those abstract 

 ideas which the animal embodied. Wherever an elephant 

 has existed, however, men have looked up to him, and as 

 he was not carnivorous, it comported with human reason- 



