534 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
of a steam vessel, finally discovered their mistake, and all escaped but a calf, 
which was captured and towed along by its proboscis. A frenzied sportman 
slashed the proboscis with his knife, and though the wound was immediately 
sewed up the calf died—possibly from surgical malpractice. As a rule the ele¬ 
phant, like most animals in their natural state, is temperate and abstemious, 
but there are temptations which even good elephants cannot withstand. If they 
can find the right kind of tree the elephant will get drunk on unguana. Theu 
there ensues scenes of revelry similar to those which occur among men. 
Antics of all kinds; playfulness, sullenness, amiability, quarrelsomeness—all 
these are exhibited. The great creatures go reeling about until the scene looks 
almost like a Walpurgis night. Many have been the occasions when a domes¬ 
ticated elephant, escaping from a menagerie and its keeper, has spread terror 
among quiet people who neither expected nor desired their strange visitor. On 
one occasion an elephant undertook to run a foundry. Entering and putting 
to flight the merely human mechanics, it began the conduct of the shop upon 
a plan of its own. It tried hammers and other tools, and was quite happy in 
its work of devastation until at last it was tempted by a vaulting ambition to- 
fool with the heated forge, whereupon it desisted, and with a roar of anger and 
of anguish rushed forth into the street, where it was captured and led back to- 
a more orderly and familiar life. The wild elephant, as has been said, is fre¬ 
quently caught in pit-falls, so that if he escapes he retains a lively recollection 
of their possible danger. When a herd is moving, the old male, with parental 
solicitude, moves on in advance, and uses his trunk in testing every place that 
seems to him the possible trap laid by his enemies for him and his. The ele¬ 
phant loves seclusion and prefers to pass his time in the depths of the forest, 
coming forth only to get water, and this at times only once in several days. 
He never approaches nor retires from his watering place by the same routes, 
seeming never to forget that “ eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” Ele¬ 
phants, as a rule, sleep standing, but bulls will sometimes lie down on their 
side. They take but little sleep and always feed upon awakening. They are 
destructive not solely because of their enormous appetites, but also because they 
will wantonly destroy branches which they leave untasted. 
ANECDOTES OF THE ELEPHANT. 
The fact that the elephant’s feet are padded renders his step noiseless in 
spite of his great weight, and his extraordinary nimbleness seems almost 
incompatible with his great bulk. Livingstone in his “ South Africa ” tells of 
a party of natives who hunted an elephant with spears. When first seen 
the cow was suckling her calf, and upon discovering danger at hand, imme¬ 
diately put herself between danger and her young. The natives began with a 
triumphant song, and then threw a volley of spears which fastened themselves 
in the body of the elephant. She retreated, all bleeding as she was, keeping 
guard, however, over her calf. In crossing a stream the young was killed and 
the mother shot so full of spears as to resemble a mammoth hedgehog. Upon 
discovering the loss of her calf, the cow became furious, and charged again 
and again upon the natives, who escaped only by taking advantage of the 
elephant’s inability to turn quickly. Finally, weak with loss of blood, the 
fond mother fell to the ground and, with a last roar, died and became the 
prize of the hunters. 
