stance, of which he was an eye-witness. In the progress of the embassy from the Vizier of Oude, to Calcutta, to meet Lord Cornwallis, a male baggage elephant, carrying a number of people on his back, was suddenly irritated by his mohout, who struck him violently with his hawkuss. The unhappy man was in an instant pulled from his seat by the enraged beast, who suspended him by his trunk in a way which rendered escape impossible, and then dashed him to pieces. The foregoing wood-cut is taken from the principal group in Mr. Zoffany's representation. Examples, such as this, of sudden and violent revenge, are comparatively rare. The elephant, however, is mindful of injuries, exactly in the same measure that he is grateful for benefits. The modes in which he avenges trifling wrongs are often ́ extremely ludicrous; and these seem to be employed as if to afford satisfaction to his own consciousness of physical power. Every one recollects the story of the elephant at Delhi, that half-drowned an unhappy tailor with water from his trunk, because the man had pricked him with his needle, instead of giving him an apple. Mr. Williamson tells an anecdote of an elephant who used to be called the Paugul, or fool, but who vindicated his claim to another character in a very singular manner. He had refused to bear a greater weight upon a march than was agreeable to him, by constantly pulling part of the load off his back; and a quarter-master of brigade, irritated at his obstinacy, threw a tent-pin at his head. In a few days after, as the animal was going from the camp to water, he overtook the quarter-master, and, seizing him with his trunk, lifted him into a large tamarind tree which overhung the road, leaving him to cling to the boughs, and get down as well as he could. Lieut. Shipp, to try this memory of injuries, gave an ele phant a large quantity of Cayenne pepper between some bread. The animal was much irritated by the offence; and about six weeks after, when the unsuspecting joker went to fondle him, he endured the caresses very placidly, but finished the affair by drenching his persecutor with dirty water, from head to foot*. The keepers of our menageries have always some stories of the odd methods in which elephants avenge their wrongs. In a very pleasant book for young persons, abounding in valuable information, mention is made of a recent instance of this quality-a man took hold of an elephant's tail in the streets of London, when the animal was so displeased by the indignity, that he turned suddenly round, and grasping the man with his trunk, placed him against some iron rails, where he kept him prisoner, till the keeper, by his entreaties, procured the offender's release †. That the elephant should be sensible of injuries is not surprising; for, when once domesticated, he is of a confiding nature, and capable of strong attachment to human beings. Ælian tells us of an elephant that was passionately fond of a girl that sold flowers in the streets of Antioch; and Athenæus of one that so attached himself to a child, that he would only eat in his favourite's presence, and, when the little one slept, was incessantly occupied in driving away the flies which surrounded him. Strabo says that, sometimes, when the driver of an elephant is removed from him, he will pine to death. Lieut. Shipp has a very minute account of an elephant, who, having killed his mohout in a fit of rage, was so sensible of his offence, that he gradually lost his health, and died six months afterwards. In Purchas's *Shipp's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 268. † Bertha's Visit to her Uncle in England. collection of voyages there is a story of an elephant that mourned fifteen days for his master, the king of Ava, who was slain in battle, In such stories there is always some allowance to be made for the imagination of the persons who relate them; for it is to be observed that, of all subjects, that of the sagacity of animals admits of most exaggeration. We must believe just as much as is consistent with what we really know, and no more. It is not incredible that an elephant should feel the loss of his driver, in the same degree that a dog will exhibit unequivocal symptoms of grief in the absence of his master, and watch over his grave when he dies, The elephant, even as much, and perhaps more, than the dog, is indebted to those who have the care of him for a variety of agreeable sensations. In the East he is not only regularly fed, but carefully tended, so as to prevent the annoyances of heat and insects. "We went," says Tavernier, " to the river, to see the king's and great noblemen's elephants washed. When they have soaked themselves in the water, they are rubbed and cleaned with pumicestone, and after they are dry they are rubbed with oil of cocoa." The elephant, too," has learned to have a pride in the ornaments and trappings with which man, for the purpose of pomp and parade, has clothed him." The painted hide, the embroidered housing, the silver bells suspended over the back by a massy chain, the rings of gold upon the tusks,— these are delights to the elephant, who, like other quadrupeds, and some bipeds, is proud of the badges of his slavery. Pliny, upon the authority of Antipater, relates that one of the elephants of Antiochus, being deprived of his silver trappings for refusing to sound the depth of a river, refused to eat, and died under * Home, Comp, Anat., vol. iii. p. 181. the disgrace. This is, doubtless, an exaggeration of a quality in the animal which was observed by the ancients as well as the moderns. But, unquestionably, the domesticated elephant delights in magnificence; and thus he is peculiarly adapted for the cumbrous pageantry of an Asiatic court. That he should adapt himself to the circumstances around him, and, as Bernier describes him, move with a solemn and dignified step, as if proud of his gorgeous attire, is a natural consequence of his extraordinary docility. But that he should have any instinctive veneration for the pageants of which he forms a part, or any natural reverence for the despots whose pride is flattered by them, is just as unlikely as that all other elephants should salam (make obedience) to those of Ceylon, in deference to their superior merits, as the Cingalese believe *. He becomes proud of his trappings because he is habituated to them upon all occasions of ceremonial, when he readily receives impressions in unison with the general pomp, from the words and gestures of those around him. And this consideration brings us to the various modes by which his docility is maintained. The obedience of the elephant to his mohout is a habit which he acquires from the earliest hours of his captivity. One man invariably attends upon himfeeds, caresses, punishes him. On a journey," the mohout says nothing, but guides him by pressing his legs to his neck, on the side to which he wishes him to turn, urging him forwards by the point of a formidable goad, and stopping him by a blow on the forehead with the butt-end of the same instrument t." The mohout is the real moving power of the elephant's services; the animal knows who bestrides him, and his obedience is rarely withheld. The |