ELEPHANT— GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. 409 
Placing it under foot, it broke a piece off with the trunk, and 
after lifting it to its mouth threw it away. It repeated this 
twice or thrice, and then drew another stake and began again. 
Seeing that the bamboo was old and dry I asked the reason of 
this, and was told to wait and see what it would do. At last it 
seemed to get a piece that suited, and holding it in the trunk 
firmly, and stepping the left fore-leg well forward, passed the 
piece of bamboo under the armpit, so to speak, and began to 
scratch with some force. My surprise reached its climax when 
I saw a large elephant leech fall on the ground, quite six inches 
long and thick as one’s finger, and which, from its position, 
could not easily be detached without this scraper or scratcher 
which was deliberately made by the elephant. I subsequently 
found that it was a common occurrence. Such scrapers are 
used by every elephant daily. 
On another occasion, when travelling at a time of the year 
when the large flies are so tormenting to an elephant, I noticed 
that the one I rode had no fan or wisp to beat them off with. 
The mahout, at my order, slackened pace and allowed her to 
go to the side of the road, when for some moments she moved 
along rummaging the smaller jungle on the bank ; at last she 
came to a cluster of young shoots well branched, and after 
feeling among them and selecting one, raised her trunk and 
neatly stripped down the stem, taking off all the lower branches 
and leaving a fine bunch on top. She deliberately cleaned it 
down several times, and then laying hold at the lower end 
broke off a beautiful fan or switch about five feet long, handle 
included. With this she kept the flies at bay as we went along, 
flapping them off on each side. 
Say what we may, these are both really bond fide implements, 
each intelligently made for a definite purpose. 
My friend Mrs. A. S. H. Richardson sends me the 
following. The Rev. Mr. Townsend, who narrated the epi- 
sode, is personally known to her 
An elephant was chained to a tree in the compound opposite 
Mr. Townsend’s house. Its driver made an oven at a short 
distance, in which he put his rice-cakes to bake, and then 
covered them with stones and grass and went away. When he 
was gone, the elephant with his trunk unfastened the chain 
round his foot, went to the oven and uncovered it, took out 
and ate the cakes, re-covered the oven with the stones and 
grass as before, and went back to his place. He could not 
