ch. x] ELEPHANT AND RHINOCEROS 235 
the kings of Egypt, Babylon, and Nineveh show the 
immense importance which attached, in the eyes of the 
mightiest monarchs of the then world, to the chase and 
the trophies of this great strange beast. The ancient 
civilization of India boasts as one of its achievements 
the taming of the elephant; and in the ancient lore of 
that civilization it plays a distinguished part. 
The elephant is unique among the beasts of great 
bulk in the fact that his growth in size has been accom¬ 
panied by growth in brain power. With other beasts 
growth in bulk of body has not been accompanied by 
similar growth of mind. Indeed, sometimes there 
seems to have been mental retrogression. The rhino¬ 
ceros, in several different forms, is found in the same 
regions as the elephant, and in one of its forms it is in 
point of size second only to the elephant among terres¬ 
trial animals. Seemingly the ancestors of the two 
creatures, in that period, separated from us by uncounted 
hundreds of thousands of years, which we may con¬ 
veniently designate as late miocene or early pliocene, 
were substantially equal in brain development. But in 
one case increase in bulk seems to have induced lethargy 
and atrophy of brain power, while in the other case 
brain and body have both grown. At any rate the 
elephant is now one of the wisest and the rhinoceros 
one of the stupidest of big mammals. In consequence 
the elephant outlasts the rhino, although he is the 
largest, carries infinitely more valuable spoils, and is far 
more eagerly and persistently hunted. Both animals 
wandered freely over the open country of East Africa 
thirty years ago. But the elephant learns by experience 
infinitely more readily than the rhinoceros. As a rule, 
the former no longer lives in the open plains, and in 
many places now even crosses them if possible only at 
