1 6 Wild Beasts 



to in this sweeping assertion, as the spirit in which it is 

 made. More is implied than said, and the implication is 

 that an elephant is self-controlled by sentiments that are 

 as foreign to its mind as a pair of wings would be to its 

 body. A wild beast, which while free to follow its own 

 devices and desires, does not conduct itself like a wild 

 beast, is an impossibility in actual life. 



Sanderson supposes that "all catching elephants" — 

 the trained ones used in securing captives — "evince the 

 greatest relish for the sport." This is a mild way of 

 putting Sir Emmerson Tennant's opinion that they show 

 a decided satisfaction, a malignant pjeasure, such as Dr. 

 Kemp (" Indications of Instinct ") describes, in the mis- 

 fortunes of their fellows. Now in what way Sanderson 

 discovered that this state of mind existed cannot be 

 divined, for he gives it as the result of his own direct 

 observations, that " the term decoy is entirely misapplied 

 to tame elephants catching wild ones, as they act by com- 

 mand of their riders, and use no arts. . . . The animal 

 is credited with originating what it has been taught, with 

 doing of itself what it has been instructed to do. . . . 

 I have seen the cream of trained elephants at work . . . 

 in Bengal and Mysore : I have managed them myself under 

 all circumstances . . . and I can say that I never have 

 seen one display any aptitude for dealing undirected with 

 an unexpected emergency." Since he then believes them 

 to be incapable of showing this " relish " by their actions, 

 since he has never known them to do anything of them- 

 selves on these occasions, in what way did he find out 

 how they felt ? 



