388 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
weeks before again visiting the animal, when he went 
into the stable and began to fondle the elephant as he had 
previously been accustomed to do. For a time no re- 
sentment was shown, so that the Captain began to think 
that the experiment had failed ; but at last, watching for 
an opportunity, the elephant filled his trunk with dirty 
water, and drenched the Captain from head to foot. 
Griffiths says that at the siege of Bhurtpore, in 1805, 
the British army had been a long time before the city, 
and, owing to the hot dry winds, the ponds and tanks had 
dried up. There used therefore to be no little struggle 
for priority in procuring water at one of the large wells 
which still contained water : — 
On one occasion two elephant-drivers, each with his elephant, 
the one remarkably large and strong, and the other comparatively 
small and weak, were at the well together ; the small elephant 
had been provided by his master with a bucket for the occasion, 
which he carried on the end of his proboscis, but the larger 
animal, being destitute of this necessary vessel, either spon- 
taneously, or by the desire of his keeper, seized the bucket, and 
easily wrested it from his less powerful fellow-servant; the latter 
was too sensible of his inferiority openly to resent the insult, 
though it is obvious that he felt it ; but great squabbling and 
abuse ensued between the keepers. At length the weaker 
animal, watching the opportunity when the other was standing 
with his side to the well, retired backwards a few paces in a 
very quiet and unsuspicious manner, and then, rushing forward 
with all his might, drove his head against the side of the other, 
and fairly pushed him into the well. 
Great trouble was experienced in extricating this 
elephant from the well — a task which would, indeed, have 
been impossible but for the intelligence of the animal 
itself. For when a number of fascines, which had been 
employed by the army in conducting the siege, were 
thrown down the well, the elephant showed sagacity 
enough to arrange them with his trunk so as to construct 
a continuously rising platform, by which he gradually 
raised himself to a level with the ground. 
Allied to vindictiveness for small injuries is revenge for 
large ones, and this is often shown in a terrible manner 
