ANECDOTES OF THE ELEPHANT
The stories just told show that the great beast we are talking about has a keen idea of danger, often a better one than his drivers, and is more careful than a good many men we have seen. We give them as examples of the wit and wisdom of this sensible animal. If we look for stories of this kind among the other working animals, such as the ox, the buffalo, and the camel, we find little show of powers of thought, but of the elephant as a thinker there are very many interesting anecdotes. Some of these you may like to read.
The story has often been told that the elephant, when he wants to get something a little out of reach, will blow on the ground or a wall beyond, so as to drive it inward by the wind of his breath. Here is the story of an elephant in which the cunning fellow took a different way of doing this.
"I was one day feeding an elephant with potatoes, which he took out of my hand. One of them, a round one, fell on the floor, just out of reach of his trunk. After trying in vain to reach it, he at length blew the potato against the opposite wall with such force as to make it rebound, and he then without difficulty secured it." That is much like what a boy does in playing hand ball.
The elephant has a good memory and also a fine sense of justice. It is not a safe animal to play tricks upon, for it does not forget the man who did this and will wait long for a chance to get even with him. Here is an instance told by a Captain Shipp, who wished to learn for himself if the elephant would bear in mind an injury and try to repay it.
One day he gave an elephant a sandwich of bread, butter and cayenne pepper. After he had waited for six months he visited the animal to see how it would act and began to fondle it as he had been used to do. The great beast showed no signs of anger and the captain thought that it must have forgotten him and his pepper sandwich. But suddenly, while he was not looking, the elephant filled his trunk with dirty water and drenched the captain from head to foot.
You may see from this that elephants have very good memories.
One gentleman tells of visiting some elephants in London, and moving out of reach with his cane a part of the hay one of them was feeding on. The great beast showed much anger at this act. "Look out for him," said the keeper; "he will never forget it." The joker forgot it, for some weeks later he visited the same place and came within reach of the animal's trunk. Instantly it made a savage blow at him, that would have cracked his skull and killed him on the spot if he had not jumped back.
In fact, many instances might be given where elephants have killed those who had injured them. Numbers of such tales could be told. Here is a story that teaches more than one lesson of elephant nature.
An English gentleman, Mr. G. L. Layard, was visiting Ceylon and there saw a troop of working elephants coming up the road in the evening. Mrs. Layard asked if she might go down from the bungalow and see them nearer at hand. "Certainly," said Mr. Birch, the gentleman who had them in charge.
He took a bunch of bananas from the lunch table and led the way to a fine female elephant, who was swinging her trunk about and looking at them. He gave the fruit to the lady and said:—
"You may give them to her, Mrs. Layard; she is a nice, quiet beast."
Mrs. Layard held them out to the elephant, who took them gently, put them in her mouth and swallowed them, and then fondled the giver with her trunk. After patting and talking to her for some time they walked back to the house, where something was said in praise of the animal.
"Yes," said Mr. Birch, "she is a noble beast, and very intelligent. She has killed two of her keepers within the last month."
The lady grew pale as death on hearing this, and Layard turned on the speaker in a rage.
"And you let my wife put herself in that creature's power!" he cried. "What do you mean by that?"
"Oh," said Birch quietly, "do you think I would have let Mrs. Layard go near her if there had been any danger! She is the quietest and best tempered beast in the stud. She was quite right to kill her keepers. They had robbed her of her food."
You may see from this that there is a code of right and wrong among elephants. Kind treatment they meet with kindness and ill treatment with revenge, and while they have a sense of justice they also have a sense of humor, and can give trick for trick. You can at times see them fairly laughing at some trick they have played.
While an elephant was being shown at Dublin, doing a number of things he had been taught, a little boy, full of mischief but not of sense, was doing everything he could to annoy the great beast. The elephant gave no sign of taking notice, but it saw all that was passing, and when the boy came near enough thrust out its trunk and snatched his hat from his head. Then it turned half round, snorted loudly, and acted its part so well that all who were there thought it had swallowed the hat.
The imp of mischief stood scratching his head and looking very blank, while the great animal appeared as if he enjoyed the joke highly. By the twinkle in his eyes he seemed to be laughing inwardly. In the end he drew the missing cap from his mouth and flung it into the boy's face with such an air of fun-making that all present broke into a loud roar of laughter.
One would not think of such a huge brute playing tricks, but the elephant is fond of a joke and seems to enjoy it as much as one of us would. Elephants will raise latches, open doors, and show a fondness for mischief in other ways. They will also steal and hide their theft if the chance offers. An American showman saw one of them pull up the stake to which he was chained, go to an oat-bin, wrench off the lock, raise the lid, and eat all he wanted. Then he put down the lid again, went back to his place, poked the stake into the same hole, and stamped it down with his foot.
When his keeper came the cunning brute looked as innocent as a lamb. The keeper raged and stormed on finding that he had been robbed, while the big thief stood quietly by, with an odd twinkle in its little eyes.
Here is another story of the same kind. "An elephant in India was chained to a tree, and his 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 unfastened with his trunk the chain round his foot, went to the oven and uncovered it, took out and ate the cakes, re-covered the oven with the grass and stones as before, and went back to his place.
"He could not fasten the chain again round his own foot, so he twisted it round and round it in order to look the same, and when the driver returned the elephant was standing with his back to the oven. The driver went to his cakes, discovered the theft, and, looking round, caught the elephant's eye as he looked back over his shoulder out of the corner of it. Instantly he detected the culprit and punishment followed. The whole affair was seen from the windows by the family."
No other animal has a weapon that can compare with the trunk of the elephant. With this long and flexible nose he can tear off great limbs from trees, and with the same trunk can be taught to pick up a pin. But great and strong as he is, the elephant is very nervous. He is ready to fight a tiger, yet mosquitoes disturb him very much and we are told that he is as much afraid of a mouse as any nervous girl, and will trumpet with terror if one comes near him.
Elephants like bright colors and sweet perfumes, they are very dainty in their tastes, and are as fond of bathing as any one of us could be. They dearly love to revel in the water, and an elephant bath is something worth seeing. It is wonderful what tricks they can be taught and how neatly they will go through with them.
In circuses and menageries the tricks of trained elephants are things people like to see. Most of us have seen how these animals, clumsy as they look, can balance themselves on tubs, stand on their hind legs like a poodle, with their fore-feet in the air, and do many other tricks, such as standing on their heads, with their hind feet raised.
Reproduced by Permission of the Philadelphia Museums
A State Elephant of India with Howdah
Baby-elephants also can be taught to play many tricks, such as to sit at table, use the fan, and the like. We are told of two of them named Jock and Jenny, that would come in, bow to the audience, mount on a plank, and see-saw like a couple of children. One of them would then walk on the tops of a double row of bottles. They would also play on an organ and drum, dance to the sound of bells, and do other clever tricks.
If we seek elephant stories of another kind there are a number of cases in which the animals have been hurt and borne surgical treatment with great patience. There is a case where one went blind through some disease in its eyes. Nitrate of silver was applied to one eye and caused so great a pain that the animal roared wildly. But the treatment did the eyes so much good that when the doctor came the next day to try it on the other eye, the animal lay down, placed his head quietly to one side, and drew in his breath as we would do when expecting to be hurt. When it was over he gave a sigh of relief, and showed how grateful he was by movements of his trunk.
This is one out of various tales of this kind that could be told. The elephant here learned by the good done to one eye that he was going to be helped with the other, and made up his mind to bear the pain for the good it would bring him.
Not many animals can learn things without being taught, but the elephant can. One thing a tamed elephant is taught to do is to pick up things from the ground and hand them to the driver on his shoulders. At first he is made to pick up only soft articles, for he is apt to throw them up with force and might hurt the man above.
After a time the animal gets to notice the difference between soft things and hard things. A bundle of clothes may still be thrown up with force, but a hard and heavy thing, such as a piece of iron chain, will be handed up gently. The wise creature learns in time to pick up a sharp knife by its handle and lay it on his head so that the driver can also take it up by the handle, and when made to pick up things it has never seen before it shows that it knows how to deal with them.
We might go on and give many other examples of the mental powers of the elephant, but enough have been given to show that this great creature is one of the most sensible of all beasts and is as quick at learning the best way to do things as any others of the animal tribe. And it can think out things for itself, which shows finer thought than to have them taught it by others.
IV
ANIMALS USED FOR FOOD AND CLOTHING
When we think of the many things man does with the animals he has tamed, the first that comes into our minds is their use in hunting and as house guards and pets. But we must not forget how useful they are as workers, in the fields and in the roads, in war and in peace. For long ages they were the only helpers that men had in work and travel. Only within our own times have we found out how to put the forces of nature at work for us and how much stronger those are than any animals. The animals kept by us have one value for which the forces of nature can never serve. That is their value for food. While we can use the power of the winds and of coal and iron in doing work, we cannot feed upon these or anything of this kind. To live we must have food, and this we can get only from the world of plants and animals. We also use the skins and furs of animals for clothing, and weave warm cloths out of their wool and hair. These are the things I now propose to talk about.