The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1882-09-16
THE ELEPHANTS HIND LEGS.

IN connection with the employment
CT the elephant by man, there is an allie
gorical fable which, although it has
probably no basis of fact, may possess a
certain interest for these who are fond
Of investigating the reasons of things.
According to this story there was, at
one time. comparatively small number
of elephants upon the earth. and these
lived together in one great herd They
were quiet, docile animals, and did no
injury to any one. They were formed,
however, somewhat differently from the
elephant of the present day. You may
have noticed that the hind legs of these
animals bend forward like the legs of a
man, while the hind legs of nearly all
other quadrupeds bend out backward.
In the days of which this allegory tells,
the elephants hind legs were formed
in the same way: they bent out back
ward like the legs of dog, horse, or
a cow. The people in that part of the
country where these elephants lived
had no beasts of burden, or wagons, or
carts. and they often thought what an
excellent thing it would be if the great
strong elephants would carry them and
their families about on their broad backs,
or bear for them the heavy loads which
they were often obliged to carry from
place to place. 49,
One day. several of the men saw the
leader OF the herd of elephants stand
ing in the shade of clump of trees,
and they went to him to talk upon this
subject. They told him of the difficulty
they had in taking journeys with their
wives and children, especially in the
| fho Il
and muddy, and explained to him how
hard it was for them to carry loads of
provisions and other things from one vii
lage to another. o.
"Now, twenty of these loads" said
the spokesman of the men,, would be
nothing for one of you to carry; and If
one of us, and all his family, and even
some of his household goods, were upon
your great back, you could walk off
with ease. Now, what we wish to pro-
pose to you is this: If some of your herd
will consent to carry us when we wish
to make a journey, and to bear about
our heavy goods for us. we will give you
grass, rice and banyan-leaves and
melons from our gardens, and such 9th
er things as may be proper. for your
services. BY this arrangement both
| SIDES Will be benefited.
The elephant listened with great at
| tention, and when the man had finished
| speaking he replied:
"Melons are very tempting, for these
we seldom find in the forest, and fresh
leaves from the luxuriant banyans which
| grow about your houses are highly at
tractive to elephants; but, in spite OF the
inducements you offer, there are objec-
tons to the plan you propose which will,
| fear, prevent it from being carried
out. If, for instance, one of your fami-
lies wished to get upon my back, or if
! you desired to place heavy load there
! on, it would be necessary for me to lie
! down, wouldn't it?''
''Oh, yes" said the man. -.
There comes in the difficulty" said
the elephant. "Our bodies are so large
and heavy that when we lie down it is
as much as we can do to get up. In
deed, most of US prefer to sleep leaning
against a tree, because when we lie
down at night we often find in the
morning that it is almost impossible for
us to rise Now, if we find it difficult
to get up from the ground when we
have nothing but ourselves to lift. it is
quite plain that we could not rise at all
II we had load upon our backs. That
is clear to your mind, is it not?''
Yes" said the man, rather ruefully.
al see that what you say is true. You
would be of no service to us if YOU could
not get up after we had placed our loads
upon your backs"
And he and his fellows returned sadly
to their village.
But some of the people, when they
heard this story, were not willing TO give
up the matter so easily. There was a
witch of great wisdom who lived in the
neighborhood, and they went and con-
suited her. She considered the matter
for three days and nights, and then she
told them that, if they would give her
twenty pots OF rice and bronze gong,
she would make it alright. The twenty
pots of rice and the bronze gong were
speedily brought to her; and thatnight,
when the elephants were all fast asleep,
she went to the place where they were
lying on the ground, or leaning against
the trees, and bewitched them. She
managed her witcheries in such a way
that the hind legs of the elephants all
bent inward instead of outward, as they
bad done before.
When the head elephant awoke and
walked from under the tree against
which he had been leaning. he was very
much surprised at the change in his gait.
he shuffied along in a very different
way from that in which he had always
walked before.
IL feel as if were all shoulders" he
said to his wife.