ELEPHANT LIFE LN ENGLAND 
147 
in the keddahs. They are brought over to Europe 
when quite young, and are now so cheap that any one 
who pleases may become the owner of a sober, well- 
behaved little elephant from four to five feet high, 
delivered at the docks, for from 38105 to ^120, 
or not more than the average price paid for first- 
class shire-horses. Their subsequent development de- 
pends mainly upon their daily treatment. In those 
which spend their lives at ease in the elephant palaces 
at the Zoological Gardens the rate of growth is 
surprising, and they soon develop into magnificent 
animals, not surpassed in size by the finest creatures 
in the stables of Indian rajahs. The pair of Indian 
elephants now in the Gardens are already nine feet 
and ten feet high at the shoulder respectively, though 
when they reached the Gardens in 1876 they were 
hardly bigger than a Shetland pony. But the greater 
number of English elephants spend their time as 
hard-working members of the large circuses and 
travelling menageries, and lead a wandering, homeless 
life, in curious contrast to the comfort which sur- 
rounds the fortunate inmates of the gardens of 
learned societies. Their deliberate movements mask 
a wakeful self-possession which hardly ever deserts 
them, and whether marching by the cornfields on 
the open downs, or through the streets of a manu- 
facturing town, the elephant never misses a chance of 
levying contributions of food on the road. “ Where 
didst thou teach thy elephant that trick ? ” says 
Petersen Sahib, in Mr. Rudyard Kipling’s charming 
