III
CLOVEN-HOOFED DRAUGHT ANIMALS

Now we come to the two-toed animals, those called the cloven-hoofed. Looking at our own arms and legs we find five toes on each foot and five fingers on each hand and might fancy that this is the natural number. We find it to be so with the monkeys and with many other animals but we soon find some with fewer toes. Thus the dog, while it has five toes on its fore feet, has only four on its hind feet.

In the tapir and the rhinoceros we meet with three-toed animals and soon come across two-toed and one-toed animals. The two-toed are very common, for we find them in the sheep and cattle of our fields, the pig of the barnyard, the camel, the deer, the antelope, and several other kinds. As for the one-toed, their story has just been told.

Is it not worth knowing that the fewer toes an animal has the faster and longer it can run? We find this in the one-toed horse, and its cousins, the ass and the zebra, the greatest runners of all animals. Next to them come the two-toed animals. Of these the deer and antelopes are fast runners, though some of them run very little. We do not find many runners among the five-toed animals. Those of the cat tribe are better at jumping than running. In the dog tribe, in which are the wolves and foxes, there are good runners, but these animals trust to their wits as much as to their legs, catching their game often by cunning tricks.

Another matter of some interest is the fact that all the one-toed animals are much alike in form and habit, while the two-toed differ so much that we can find little or no likeness between them. Take the ox, the goat, the pig, the buffalo, and the camel. Are these alike in anything except their split hoofs? The fact is that the single hoof seems to fit animals only for running, while the double hoof fits them for various kinds of life. We find them at home in the desert, on the mountains and plains, in the forest depths, and in swampy regions, their forms and habits changing to suit the kind of life they lead.

Many of these animals have been tamed and made to serve man in various ways. We can see them all about us, some of them kept for food, some for work in the field or on the road. Let us take a look at those used for work.

THE OX AND BUFFALO

That great lumbering beast we call the ox, with his long horns and his slow, lazy walk, is one of the strong workers of the world. Go where we will we see him, pulling the plough or the cart and wagon. If we leave home and go over the world we shall find many people using the ox. In South Africa we may see long teams of them pulling the heavy wagons of the farmers. In India the Hindu people eat no meat, but they keep many cattle to work in their fields. It is the same in many other countries both of the Old and the New World.

Among our own people the ox is much used as a working animal. While large use is made of the horse and donkey, the strength and patience of the ox give it great value and it is used for many kinds of work. Though a slow, plodding animal, it can pull a big load by the aid of its wooden yoke. In the fields of the South the farmers and planters could not well get along without it.

Our ox is not the only worker of his kind. In far-off Asia there are two other animals which are cousins of the ox and are made to work like him. Their names belong to the end of the alphabet, for they are called the Yak and the Zebu. The Yak is found in Tibet and other parts of Central Asia, where it is tamed and put to work, but not to pull the cart or the plough. It can carry heavy loads and travel twenty miles a day.

This animal has a thick coat of long, silky hair, which hangs nearly to the ground. Ropes and cloth are made from it. The tail is just a great bunch of long hair. The Yak does not bellow like the ox but gives a short grunt. Its milk is very rich, and fine butter is made from it.

The Zebu is kept in India, China, East Africa and the islands of the eastern seas. It is much like the ox but has a big hump of fat on its shoulders. Sometimes there are two humps. In this way it is like the camel. Some of the zebus are larger than any oxen and some are only as big as a large mastiff dog. They are quiet, gentle animals, made to work in the plough and in the road and also used for riding. They can travel from twenty to thirty miles a day.

There is another animal much used for the same kind of work, the Buffalo. This is not the animal long known in our country as the buffalo, but which is really not a buffalo, its proper name being bison. It is not a savage animal and could easily have been tamed and put to work. But as the settlers in the colonies had the ox and the horse already trained to their work no one tried to tame the bison. Since no one cared for these great animals, the hunters got after them and shot them in such vast numbers that now they are nearly all gone. Where fifty years ago there were millions of them in the West, to-day there are only a few hundreds to be found anywhere.

The real buffalo is found in the south of Asia and Europe, where it is tamed and put to work, much use being made of it. There is another species found in Africa which is very fierce and savage, hunters often being more afraid of it than they are of the lion. The buffalo of India is also savage in its wild state and the princes of that country set it to fight with the tiger in their public shows. Armed with great, sharp horns, it is more than a match for the tiger.

In its tame state the buffalo is a very docile animal when it is well treated, but will not bear bad treatment. In size and shape it is like a large, clumsy ox, but it is much stronger than the ox and can carry or draw a much heavier load. Thus it is of great value as a working animal.

It is used in many parts of the East. The farmer in the Philippine Islands could not get along without it, as it is his common helper in the fields. Known there by the name of Carabao, it is loved by its owner and played with by his children, and is the plough-horse of the islands. It can be driven by a mere child. The plough used there is no more than a heavy stick of wood sharpened to a point at one end, with a handle for the farmer and a beam to which the buffalo is harnessed.

This is the way in which the rice fields of the East are worked. The buffalo is also kept in Egypt, Greece, Italy and some other countries and everywhere is a very useful working animal. But it has one habit that needs to be looked after.

By nature it is a swamp dweller, and can keep its head under water for two minutes at a time, feeling at the bottom of pools and streams for certain favorite plants. If it is to be kept in health it must have its daily mud-bath. It loves to fling itself in the mire and shuffle about until it is covered with mud from its tail to its eyes. When it has dried itself in the sun it looks like a huge clay image. It has its reason for this, for in those swamp regions are millions of stinging flies and the mud is intended as a coat of armor.

Strong as the buffalo is, it cannot work for more than two hours without rest, and will not live long if kept at a distance from streams. Its fondness for mud and water is the habit that needs to be looked after. It is not safe to load it with any goods that are likely to be spoiled by water, for it will lie down with its load in any stream it comes near.

Travellers who have ridden on the Philippine Carabaos have found out this habit in a way not to their liking, for they have more than once been flung suddenly into a mud-bath by their ugly steeds. If the animal sees a bed of mud along the road he is sure to fling himself into it unless kept out by a strong rein. And unless his rider gets off in a hurry he will be treated in the same way. In Italy the buffalo is most at home in the Pontine Marshes, and no one can keep it anywhere unless there are mud and water near at hand.

THE LAPLAND REINDEER

While the buffalo is the draught animal of the sultry south and the ox of the more temperate regions, in the freezing north the Reindeer takes their place. Among the many species of deer, some of which, as the moose and elk, are large and strong, this is the only one that has been made to work for man. The people of Lapland could not live without it, and it is also of very much use to the tribes of northern Siberia. We have the same animal in the northern parts of America, where it is called the Caribou, but there it has rarely been tamed and is hunted as game.

The Laplander uses the reindeer as we use the horse and as the Eskimo uses the dog, as a travelling animal. It is strong and swift and can easily draw a weight of two hundred pounds on a sledge. It can travel for a long time at a speed of nine or ten miles an hour.

A rich Laplander is a man who owns a great many reindeer, some of them having herds of two thousand or more. To the men of Lapland, as we are told, "the reindeer serves as a substitute for horse, cow, sheep, and goat." It gives fine milk, is a good traveller, its hair is of use, and its flesh and skin are of much value. Almost every part of the dead animal can be used in some way, so that it serves the Laplander dead or alive.

It is not hard to keep. In the summer it feeds on the shoots of the willow and the birch, and in winter on the reindeer-moss and other snow-covered plants. To get at these it uses both its hoofs and its long, branching antlers in digging through the snow. This is the way in which various hoofed animals keep themselves in the winter, such as the musk-ox of the far north. The horse does the same in such cold countries as Iceland.

As I have said, we have a reindeer of our own in the Caribou, but no one has really tamed it and put it to work. Yet it would be useful in the north of Canada, and reindeer have been brought from Lapland to Alaska and Labrador. They seem to do well there and may in time become of much service to the Indians and to white settlers.

THE SHIP OF THE DESERT

Far away from where we live, in what may be called the world of the East, there are mighty deserts, almost oceans of sand. These are oceans without water, vast tracts of land in which no blade of grass can grow, except where a green oasis rises like an island in their midst. Such a desert covers nearly the whole of Arabia and other wide regions in Asia. On the map of Africa may be seen a still greater one, that which bears the name of the Sahara.

In these deserts no rain falls to water the thirsty soil, springs are few and far apart, and those who travel through them must carry food and water on their journeys. These great sand oceans have their native animal, the humped and long-necked Camel, the "ship of the desert," as it is fitly called, since it carries freight and passengers over the sand-strewn lands as ships do over the wide seas.

An ugly brute is the camel, with its humped back, its long neck, short legs, and bunches of shaggy hair. But ugly as it is the Arab finds something in it to praise, and could not well live in the desert without it. Arabia and the other deserts of Asia are the camel's native soil, and nature has fitted it well for its home in the sands. It does not belong to the Sahara, but was taken there by the Arabs. But it finds itself much at home on that world of sand. It is not well suited for fertile countries, though it is used in India and China to carry loads for their people.

The camel is a two-toed animal but is like the horse in having only one hoof. This is a broad pad or cushion which takes in both its toes and fits it to travel over the soft sand. It is not hard, like the horse's hoof, but elastic so as to yield at every step.

It is not only by its foot that the camel is fitted to dwell in the realms of sand, for it seems made for the desert in every part of its body. There are two kinds of camels, the Arabian, with one hump, and the Bactrian, of the northern deserts, with two humps, and it is these which give it so ugly a shape.

Are these humps a kind of saddle made for man's use, you ask? Not at all, for the camel had them before there were any men to ride him. They are really food supplies, masses of fat which help to keep the animals alive on long journeys. No wise Arab will set out to cross the desert without feeding his camel until its hump is full and plump, for in this the animal carries its own food. It dines and sups on its hump when there is nothing else to eat, so that the hump shrinks and grows smaller.

But how does the camel find water to drink in the dry desert? Has it a water supply as well as a food supply? We should not think this possible, yet it has. In long journeys it needs water as well as food and inside it is a well-filled water vessel. There are "water-cells" in its stomach, in which about a gallon and a half of water can be stored away, enough to last for three days if no water is found. At times, when the rider is in great need of water, he will kill his camel so as to get this store from its stomach.

There are still other ways in which the camel is fitted for a desert life. Thus it has fine powers of sight and smell. It can smell water when it is more than a mile away and if tethered will break its halter and run in a straight line for the well or spring. Its nostrils are mere slits, which it can close when the wind fills the air with sand. At times a burning wind called the simoon blows fiercely across the desert. Then the camel falls on its knees, stretches its long neck like a snake along the sand, and closes its nostrils to keep out the sand carried by the wind. Thus it stays till the storm is past. At the same time the driver wraps his face in his mantle and hides himself behind his beast.

There is one other thing to say. The camel likes good food when it is to be had, but it can live on any kind of plants. It will eat anything in the way of leaves, shrubs, dry sticks, or vegetable matter of any sort, and can live on food on which many animals would starve. You may see from all this how wonderfully it is fitted for a desert life.

Are we not right in saying that without the camel the Arab would find it hard to live in the desert? For ages past long caravans of camels have been crossing the sea of sand from the fertile lands of the nearby countries to the oases where the settled Arabs dwell. Not until the camel is four years old does its training as a carrier of loads begin. Then it is taught to kneel down and to rise at a given signal, light weights being at first put on it and heavier ones afterwards.

It can carry heavy weights, its loads ranging from 500 to 1000 pounds, some breeds of camels being much stronger than others. In desert journeys it is expected to carry this load twenty-five miles a day for three days without drink. The swift animals used for riding will carry their rider with his food and water fifty miles a day for five days without drinking. A camel lives from forty to fifty years, so you may see that it is of great value to its master.

If too heavy a load is put on its back the camel will not rise from its knees; but when once on foot it is very patient and will plod on under its heavy load until it is ready to die. When its load is taken off it does not seek the shade, like other animals, but kneels down in the full glare of the sun, as if it loved the burning sand.

THE DROMEDARY

There are almost as many breeds of camels as there are of horses, and the kind used for riding is as different from the load-carrier as the race-horse is from the cart-horse. The burden-bearer has a thick body, heavy feet, coarse hair, and a slow pace. The racing breed is thin of body, fine-haired, and much more elegant in shape. It is as celebrated for its swift speed as is the Arabian horse, and a good animal is able to carry its rider a hundred miles in a day.

While all the single-humped camels are often called dromedaries, it is more correct to speak of the racing camel as the dromedary. An Arab sheik is as proud of a fine animal of this kind as an American or Englishman is of his fine race-horse.

But if any of you should ever be asked to mount a camel it would be wise to decline the honor, unless you are good at holding on, for camel-riding is an art that must be learned. The awkward animal has a swinging and jolting gait that is hard to get used to. During the world's fair at Chicago in 1893 one of the greatest amusements of the Midway was to see people trying to ride the camels which had been brought to the Egyptian section of the fair. It was much better fun for the lookers-on than for the riders. In camel-riding a saddle is not used, as on the horse, but a sort of platform is fastened on the hump.

The camel we have so far spoken of is the one-humped Arabian kind. The two-humped or Bactrian species is larger and stronger but is not nearly so common. It is found in the desert region of the north from the Black Sea to China. Both kinds are found in Central Asia, but the Bactrian goes as far north as Siberia, where the cold is often very severe and it has to live on the leaves and twigs of the willow and birch trees.

Though the camel is fitted by nature for life in the desert, it is much used elsewhere. For ages past it has been the great carrier in Asia, long camel trains, or caravans, taking the place of the modern railroad train. It is also used for pulling carts and for ploughing, in which yokes of four camels may be seen. You could not think of anything more awkward or clumsy-looking than a camel harnessed to a cart.

If any one asks about the intellect of the camel we can only say that it does not show much sign of having any. It seems to be a stupid creature, with only sense enough to protest against bad treatment. In most cases it is very docile but if ill-treated it can be as obstinate as a mule. Also it bears in mind a wrong done to it and will at times wait a long time to revenge itself. The camel-driver knows this and if he thinks the animal is waiting its chance to attack him he will throw his clothes before it. These the animal tosses and tramps on in a wild rage. After that it appears to forget the wrong done it and the man is safe.

The camel is useful to its owner in other ways than those mentioned. Thus it supplies him with food, the Arabs being fond of the flesh of the young camel, which tastes like veal. Camel's milk is also excellent to drink and can be made to yield butter and cheese. The hair is woven by the Arab into cloths suitable for clothing and for tent covers and the finer hair is used for paint brushes. So living and dead the camel serves his master.

THE LLAMAS AND ALPACAS

If my readers are now ready to leave the deserts of Asia and go with me to the mountains of South America they will find there the only animals on the earth that are relatives of the camel. How the family of the camels came to be so widely separated no one knows. As it is, we find than on two sides of the earth with no links to join them.

In Peru and Chile there are four different kinds of these camels of the New World, two of which, the Llama and Alpaca, have been tamed, the others being wild. These are not animals of the desert, but lovers of the hills, as they dwell on the highest parts of the Andes. Like the camels of the East, they have long been in the service of man. The Llama was the bearer of burdens for the old Peruvians and is a burden-bearer to-day, though the mule is beginning to take its place.

These animals do not look like the camel. Their backs have no humps and their heads are more like that of the deer. Instead of the small ears of the camel they have erect ears like the mule. But they have long necks like the camel, also cushioned feet and a stomach that is fitted to hold water. This is strange in animals that have no need to store up water. It seems as if the habit of storing water began very long ago among the ancestors of the camel tribe.

The Llama is a much smaller animal than the camel, being about three feet high at the shoulders. It keeps its head raised like a deer and is a gentle and docile animal, though it has a habit that is not much liked by those that make it angry. This is to squirt a mouthful of its yellow spittle into their faces. This has an unpleasant odor and this nasty habit makes drivers careful not to overwork the animals.

The Llama is a sure-footed creature, knows how to find food for itself, and can carry a weight of a hundred pounds about twelve miles a day. This makes it very useful for the miners of the Andes, who use it to carry their ore down the rough and steep mountain paths. When the animals are tired they will lie down, and the only way to make them get up is to take off their loads. That is another way they have to make their drivers treat them kindly.

The Alpaca is a smaller animal than the Llama and is not used to carry goods, but for all that it has its uses and is kept in large flocks on the high levels of the Andes. Its value lies in its wool. While the hair of the Llama is coarse and of little use, the Alpaca is covered with a long, fine wool, of a silky lustre, which if left uncut will grow to twenty, and even to thirty inches in length. If cut every year it grows to be about six or eight inches in length. Its color is often a yellowish-brown, but is sometimes gray or black.

For very many years the Indians have made their blankets and cloaks of alpaca wool, and for more than fifty years it has been used in Europe and America to make shawls, coat-linings, umbrella-covers and other goods. The wild species have also a very delicate and soft wool, of high value in weaving, but it is not nearly so long as that of the alpaca.

THE ARCTIC BEAST OF BURDEN

A fact many of you may know is that nearly all the animals kept by man for work or for food are those with hoofed feet. Among other animals that he puts to work may be named the dog, and this is not used much as a worker. A little has been said in former pages about working dogs, but the only region in which the dog is kept only for work is in the Arctic zone. The dog is the working animal of the Eskimo and the only one. Therefore in speaking of animals that work for man we must not forget the Eskimo dog.

These big, strong, savage, thick-coated dogs of the realm of ice, are so much like the wolf that if let loose they would soon begin to make their living in the wolf's way. Their owners do not think of making pets or hunters of them. They simply feed and drive them and keep them in order with the whip. What the Eskimo dog dearly loves is a fight, and they snarl and snap at one another as savagely as any wolf could do. Only the sharp use of the whip can keep them from fighting.

The Eskimos could not live in their cold country without the aid of these hardy animals. No other creatures could be found so well suited to their needs. With their thick and warm coat of hair these dogs can bear the greatest cold, and at night all they need for bed or shelter is a snow-bank into which they can dig and bury themselves. Here they sleep as cosily as if they were in a bed of feathers.

They will eat any kind of meat or fish, and can drag a sledge with great speed and for hours at a time over the ice. Thus it may be seen that the Eskimos and Indians of the north have a useful servant in the dog. They hitch it to their sledges, the number of dogs varying with the load to be drawn. No reins are needed. There is a leader to the team trained to follow a trail and to obey its master's orders. The driver also carries a long, stinging whip with which he is very expert and can reach any dog in the team. If they get into a fight, as they are apt to do even when drawing a sledge, the whip is used to bring them back to their work.

What would travellers in the sea of ice or seekers for the North Pole have done without the dog? It has drawn them and their food in all their journeys over the ice and the Eskimo dog is the only animal besides man that ever reached the Pole. Without its aid Peary, the great explorer, would never have got to the North Pole or got back again to his ship. Is it not well to speak, then, about how the dog helped him in this famous discovery?

When Peary took his ship, the Roosevelt, far to the north, he had on board more than two hundred dogs and plenty of walrus meat to feed them. When he went north over the ice these dogs were used to draw the sledges loaded with food and other supplies. The explorers had to walk; no dogs could be spared to draw them.

On his last dash to the north, from 87° 57´ north latitude to 90° (a distance of about 140 miles), he had five sledges and forty dogs. The sledges were the pick of twenty-five that had started from the ship and the dogs were the best of all his teams. Also for drivers he had his four best Eskimos. With these sledges and men and dogs he got to the North Pole, which no one had ever reached before, and the faithful dogs shared the glory of the discovery. They came back with him—some of them, for some died on the way. The poor brutes did not know what they had done, and no doubt thought a good meal of walrus meat better than a dozen Poles, either North or South.

Now shall we say something about the South Pole? Dogs have been used there too, but when Lieutenant Shackleton, the English explorer, made his famous journey in that region in 1909, he took with him four of the hardy ponies of the North, thinking they would be better than dogs. But his ponies died, one by one, and he and his men had to drag their sledges back by hand, eating the frozen pony meat as they toiled along over mountains of ice. Later explorers have taken dogs with them as better fitted for the work than the best ponies.

THE ELEPHANT IN MAN'S SERVICE

I do not need to tell you what the Elephant is like. Almost everybody has seen this noble creature, the largest of all animals except the whale. It belongs in its way to the hoofed animals, though it has five toes on each foot. For these are covered by a sort of elastic hoof, something like that of the camel, which gives it an easy, springy step. Though its home is in Asia and Africa, it has often been brought to America and shown in menageries and other places. It is a great, clumsy-looking brute, with a long, flexible trunk, ivory tusks, great flapping ears, stout legs and broad hoofs. The tusks, you know, are great overgrown teeth made of hard ivory.

It does not look like an animal that could think, but few of the animals below man have done so many wise and smart things. Only the dog and the monkey are its equals. I shall speak of its thinking powers further on, but here I wish to deal with the elephant as a worker for man.

The wild elephant loves its freedom and fights hard against those who seek to capture it, but when taken and tamed is often very mild and gentle. In India large parties of men, four hundred or more in number, are sent out to drive the wild elephants into great, strong pens that have been built of heavy timbers. Here tame elephants are used to hold the wild ones while they are being tied fast. By these and other means many of them are made captives and they soon become man's willing friends and helpers.

The elephant is made use of in various ways. In ancient times it was often used in war. Troops of elephants were made to rush on the ranks of enemies and kill them with trunk and hoofs. In this way even the Roman armies were put to flight, they being scared when they first saw these huge, strange animals. But they soon learned how to frighten them with torches and drive them back upon their friends.

The elephant has long been used in India as a working animal, and for this its great strength makes it of much use. It can lift and move heavy loads and a common elephant can carry half a ton for a long distance. But they need much care and cost a good deal to keep, for it takes about 800 pounds of fodder a day to feed a large one.

When at work they show very good sense and know well how to do things. You would think so if you could see them at work in piling or moving timber. I fancy you would laugh to see how nicely and neatly they do it and what good sense they show.

The female elephants have no large tusks, so that they can use only their trunks in moving the logs, but the male animals use their great tusks as well as the trunk. They will push logs weighing a ton and a half with ease. If the log has to go into the river they will push and roll it along to the bank, and as it slides down the muddy bank to the water will give it a slap with the trunk, as if to say, "Good-bye, old fellow; there you go."

If the log to be moved happens to be jammed among the others, the wise animal soon sets it right. He will begin by getting his tusks under it and lifting it to the proper height. If the log is a heavy one, he will sink down on his knees so as to get a better lift upon it. It is a lesson in elephant wit to see him stack timbers. He will lift one end of the log nine or ten feet, and put it on top of the pile. Then he will go to the other end and push this forward until the log lies straight.

The driver helps him in this by words and signs, all of which he knows as well as a sheep dog knows the words of the shepherd. The best trained animals are put to work in the saw mills, where they move about with much care among the saws and other machines. One man who saw an elephant laying planks and slats to be sawed, said in a newspaper that he saw the animal shut one eye while it squinted along the bench with the other to make sure the timber was laid straight. Perhaps the reporter had both eyes shut when he saw this.

It must be said that elephants are in some ways like men and boys. There are willing ones and lazy ones; some that like to work and some that hate work. You will see the willing ones drag along a log that weighs two tons without a groan. The lazy ones may be as strong as the willing ones, but they will make a dreadful fuss over a log not half as heavy. They are like boys, too, in the fact that some of them have good tempers while others are cross and surly.

There is one thing more to be said about the elephant. It knows how heavy it is and does not like to go over a weak place. Thus it will not walk over a bridge until it has tried it to learn if it is strong enough, and it will not go into a boat without doing the same. You may see that it has sense enough to take care of itself.

Here is the story of an elephant that had every day to go over a small bridge. "He one day refused to go over it, and it was only by goring him most cruelly with the hunkoss (a sharp iron goad) that the driver could get him to venture on the bridge, the strength of which he had first tried with his trunk. At last he went on, but before he could get over the bridge gave way and they fell into the ditch, which killed the driver and greatly injured the elephant." It is very likely that the wise animal had found it to be weak when he last crossed it and knew it was not safe.

I must tell you the story of some elephants that were with a body of troops in the mountain region of India. In their march they came to a steep place where the men laid a stairway of logs for the elephants to climb up. The first elephant came to it, took a good look, shook his head, and backed off. When the driver tried to force him to climb he would not move, but roared like a scared boy. Only when some change was made in the stairs could he be got to set foot on them, and he climbed up with great care, trying every step as he went.

When he was part way up he came to a tree which he tried with his trunk and did not like. It seemed too weak. Again he stopped. The driver tried to get him to go on with such words as "My life," "Well done, my dear," "My son," and other kind words of which elephants are very fond, but he would not be got to move. Then force was tried. The elephant roared terribly but would not stir.

At length some other change was made in the logs. This the wise creature tried and then went on until he reached the top. When he got there he showed the greatest delight, caressing the keeper with his trunk and throwing dirt about in the most playful manner.

The elephant that followed was a much younger one. It had watched its comrade go up with great interest, making movements with its head and trunk as if it was helping him. When he reached the top it gave a salute like the sound of a trumpet. But when it was called on to take its turn it was greatly scared and had to be forced to mount the slope. When it got near the top the older animal reached down his trunk and twined it around that of the younger and thus helped him to the summit.

Then the two animals greeted each other in the most friendly manner, as if they were old friends just met. They embraced each other with their trunks and stood for many minutes face to face as if they were talking over what they had done. All this goes to show that the elephant has a good deal of human nature in his huge carcass, and along with it a good deal of sound sense.

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.