I3S THEIK INTELLIGENCE. 
this instrument had a tendency to fester so we only allowed a 
light bamboo caiie to be used, not thicker than one's little 
finger, and this answered perfecdy. Few people are aware 
that the elephant with a skin nearly an inch in thickness is 
one of the most sensitive of animals, and will be as much 
annoyed or even more so by the sting of a mosquito than by 
a prod from the Mahout. A blow from a bamboo switch will 
make an elephant roar out much louder than a school boy 
does when he has to hold out his hand for punishment. Now 
by this little bamboo switch the elephants were maintained 
in perfect order The Mahout if he had to leave the 
elephant for a time in the forest would take the animal up 
to a fallen tree and make him put one forefoot on it, and the 
bamboo stick would then be balanced on that foot. 1 have 
often passed an elephant standing perfectly still with one foot 
on a fallen tree balancing the stick, and half an hour after 
found him still in the same position, though the jungle around 
was teeming with all kinds of elephant luxuries^ — a wonderful 
instance of obedience and docility quite apart from their 
intelligence. 
Some of the best working elephants I had were those 
that had been captured when full grown, yet these, and in fact 
all tame elephants, have a great dread of the wild ones. On 
Sundays we used to let all the tame elephants loose, and they 
had a day to themselves in the forest. They were quite un- 
fettered except by a chain attached to one of the hind legs, 
and they have often come rushing into the station alarmed 
by the presence of wild ones In the neighbourhood. There 
was no fear of their running away ; what with their dread of 
the wild ones and their attachment to, I was going to say, 
their keepers, but I ought to say daeir rice puddings, they 
