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THE TROPICAL WOKLU. 



CHAPTER XV. 



THE ELEPHANT, RHINOCEROS, HIPPOPOTAMUS, CAMEL, ZEBRA. 



The Great Tropical Pachydermati. — The Elephant: Diflference between the tame and wild 

 Elephant — His Instinctive Timidity — Acuteness of His Senses — His Sagacity in Climbing 

 Hills — His wonderful Trunk — His Tusks — Elephant Herds — The Rogue, or Solitary Ele- 

 phant — The Asiatic and x\frican Species — The African Elephant tamed in Ancient Times— 

 Present Range of the African Elephant — Native Modes of Hunting the African Elephant— 

 The Elephant and the Rifle — Perils of Elephant-Hunters — Elephant-Hunting in Abyssinia — 

 The Asiatic Elephant — Elephant-Hunting in Ceylon — The Panickeas, or Native Elephant- 

 Hunters — Elephantine Head-Work — Obstinate Brutes. — The Rhinoceros : — Range and Char- 

 acter of the Rhinoceros — Two Species, the Black and the White — Size of the Rhinoceros — 

 Acuteness of its Senses — Its winged Attendant — Its parental Affection — Its nooturnal 

 Habits — Modes of Hunting the Rhinoceros — The One-Horned or Indian Rhinoceros — The 

 Two-Horned Rhinoceros of the Malay Archipelago — Rhinoceros-Paths in Java. — The Hip- 

 popotamus : — Is the Hippopotamus the Behemoth of Job 1 — Habits of the Hippopotamus — 

 Its uncouth Aspect — Rogue Hippopotami — Intelligence of the Hippopotamus — Uses of its 

 Skin and Teeth — Mode of Killing the Hippopotamus. — The Camel: Its Adaptation to the 

 Tropical Sand-Wastes — Its Physical Organization adapted to its Mode of Life— Its Eoot 

 and its Stomach — Its Desert Home — The Camel and the Arab — The Two-Humped and 

 One-Humped Camels — The Camel an immemorial Serf— Its Aspect and Temper. — The 

 Giraffe: Beauty of the Giraffe — Its Means of Defense — Its special Organization — The 

 Lion and the Giraffe — The Giraffe known to the Ancients. — Zebra and Quaggas: Their 

 Abundance in Southern Africa — Distinction Between the Quagga and the Zebra — Capacity 

 for Domestication — Their Union for Defense — The Gnu, the Quagga, and the Zebra — The 

 Zebra the Tiger-Horse of the Ancients— The African Boar — The Malayan Babirusa. Finis, 



AMONG the animals belonging to the Tropical World there are none more dis- 

 tinctive^ than the great Pachydermati, the Elephant, the Rhinoceros, and the 

 Hippopotamus. To these huge beasts, the largest that walk the earth, we propose to 

 devote a chapter ; supplementing it with a few pages concerning the Giraffe, the Camel, 

 and a few other animals of large size, exclusively tropical. First and foremost we will 

 speak of the Elephant : 



A tamed elephant, as we see him in menageries, compelled to go through his round 

 of tricks for the amusement of everybody who will pay the required quarter of a dol- 

 lar, is apparently a stupid beast. He seems a very mountain of flesh, covered with a 

 loose and ill-fitting skin. His great, clumsy legs look like those of a gouty alderman ; 

 he writhes his huge trunk about with an air of hopeless imbecility ; all his energies 

 seem to be concentrated upon the feat of conveying to his mouth the apples and nuts 

 held out to him by gaping urchins. A very different animal is the same elephant in 

 his native haunts. There he is the keenest wariest, and most cunning of beasts. 

 The little sharp eye is alight with intelligence ; the ponderous ears are alive to the 



