The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-04-02
THE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
From the New York Quarterly.
Instinct of the Elephant.


The elephant, unwieldy and uncouth as he seems.
presents some remarkable features OF character, cor.
bining the fidelity of the dog, the endurance OF the
camel. and the docility of the horse, with singular
sagacity. prudence, and courage. There are many
affecting instances of his fidelity on record: lie l re-
lated of one of the soldiers OF Pyrrnus, AinS u %o
rus, that when, fighting in the territory OF argos, ne
fell wounded from his elephant, he rusheo Iurlousiy
among the combatants till he found has master,
him gently from the ground with MS uuhA' IL
placing him ON his tusks, carried HIM pack u te
town. A similar anecdote is given OF King Forus'
who. in an engagement with Alexander the Great
meeting with q similar casualty, his fnthiuI ere
plant is said to have kept the enemy y .; ~ ,
had replaced the monarch ON his back with ms truhA,
aIthouoh the poor animal, in this heroic deieh0e, %~
severely wounded. An oriental traVeier .nan5
some amusing incidents respecting the uocn1y -.
sagaciousness of this monstrous creature
;onrneys. he saws. if he wished to stop to ADMIRE "
beautiful prospect, the animal remained immoVaoe
until his sketch was finished; if he wished 1or hlan
goes growing out OF his reach, inns SnOat;nr Il off
selected the most fruitful branch, and, BREAKING on
with his trunk for him, accepting very thankdohy "a
any part for himself, respectfully ana p0n.eiy o.
knowledging the compliment by raising n S
three times above his head, in the manner Oh oile AN~5
obeisance. Docile as he is, this noble quaurupeu
seems conscious of his superiority over the ies. H.
brute creation: a proof of this may De % ras.ern
following circumstance related ny aho NH.h the Rrit-
tourist. Some young camels travelling WIN 'uo ~
ish army in India, when, having occasion tocrooo' guy
Jumna in a boat, and the driver being unape " "S
them forward, the elephant was appealeo " "
complish the task. The animal Immediately asSun
q furious appearance, trumpeted with his proposcis,
shook his ears, roared, struck the grcund rien' 9Ie
left, and blew the dust in clouds towards .hen' -.
camels, in their fear of the elephant Iois0; to
dread of the boat, and they rushed INTO u III ~
greatest hurry, when the elephant resumed MS c0m-
posture, and deliberately returned to his post. =
celebrated Locke says: " 1t seems as evldenI ~ mo,
that some animals do, in certain instances reason,
that they have sense This certainly derives some.
thing like confederation from the following statement
of facts:-
At the siege of Burtpore, in 1906, the British army
with its countless host of followers and attendanIs'
and thousands of cattle, had been for a long time DC
fore the city, when on the approach of the not sea
son. the supply of water generally falls. Oh ms
casion, two drivers, each with his elephant-tne II
large and strong. the other rather small and weak
were at the we'll together. The smaller ANNA "@9
provided with a bucket which he carried at the 4
of his trunk; but the other elephant, not nelng iuI-
nished with this needful appendage, seized the puche''
and easily wrested it away from his less powerful tel
low. The latter was too sensible of his lnterlorlty
openly to resent the insult, though he evidently 1elt
it; but the keepers began to contend and abuse each
other. At length the injured brute, watching the
opportunity when the other was standing Win MS
side to the well, retired backwards a few PAGES very
Quietly, and rushing forward with all his might, ne
drove his adversary into the well. 1t may be sup
posed great CONSERVATION among the company was
the result; and some fourteen hours asslduous anu
ingenious labor was required to restore the ponderous
animal from his novel, though not unpleasant, De-
cause cool, situation.
If a helpless living creature, or q wounded person
lie in his way, the elephant will protect and succor
him. An incident is recorded In the history OF the
siege of Seringapatam, to this effect :-"I have seen,
saws the officer referred to, "the wife of q Mahoot
give an infant in charge of an elephant, while she
went about some business, and have been much
amused in observing the sagacity and care OF the un-
wieldy nurse. The child, which, like most children,
did not like to lie still in one position, would, as soon
as left to itself, begin crawling about; in which exer-
else it would probably get among the legs of the
animal, or entangled in the branches OF the trees on
which he was feeding, when the elephant would, in
the most tender manner, disengage his charge,
either by lifting it out of the way with his trunk, or
by removing the impediments to its free progress. Ii
the little creature should happen to stray away too
far, its mammoth guardian would lift it back as
gently as possible to the spot whence it had started
Take yet another example of the shrewd wit OF this
colossal creature. Some men were teasing an elephant
they were conveying across a river. In the boat that
was towed alongside they had a dog, which began to
torment it by pulling its ears. The elephant was
resolved to resent the impertinence, and what do you
suppose was her eXpedient? She filled her prOboscls
with water, and then deluged the whole party. At
first the men laughed at the maneuvre, but She per-
sisted until they were compelled to bale to keep from
sinking; when, seeing this, she redoubled her efforts,
and it is said she certainly would have swamped the
boat, had the passage across been prolonged a few
minutes longer. Thus much-although much more
might be presented-in behalf of the noble qualities
of the elephant. We thus see that he is In no respect
inferior to the dog in character, and yet-since the
most excellent things are said to lie in a small COM
pass-and the dog does not, like his monstrous con-
temporary, require two hundred pounds of solid meat
per diem, or take up so much room-the prevailing
preference for the canine will doubtless long continue.
Somnini mentions an elephant, at Naples, which
was employed with others in fetching water in a cop
per vessel, and perceiving that the water escaped
from some fracture, he took it of his own accord to a
smiths for repair, in imitation of what he had seen
done before by his master.
M1sER1Es OF A LEcTuRER.-Rev. DIR. Bethune, in
Al oourco IF a oofy1ra az NouarE N OaUp an
amusing sketch of the miseries of a public lecturer,
in which he is reported to have said:
Then again, the reporters, (whose irate quilts he
would no sooner provoke than those of a hundred
fretful pocupines,) often made him say very queer
things. Once when he stated that he was not by
birth, but only enthusiastically, a Dutchman, the re-
porter made him an &c ecclesiastical deduction" at
another time he spoke of the devil as sowing tares,
and was astonished the next morning to read that he