The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-10-06

wrong stone, he gave snort, and in- dicated better one with his trunk. At last he could stand it no longer, and brushing me aside took hold of the work himself and soon had the young one taught. After that he made no secret of his contempt for me. saw that he was running my stand- ing with the rest of the herd, and l had to send him away"
 This story would have seemed quite ridiculous to me if I had not heard many others more wonderful pass cur rent without question, and had not often seen elephants employed in Ma dras at work which in America would be assigned only to artisans of consid- erable skill.
 "Believe anything you are told about the intelligence of an elephant,' said traveller from India to me once, before I visited that country; "the chances are that it is true."
 engaged an experienced mahout or driver, an intelligent native by the name of Akbar. 1 determined, how ever, to make use of his services just as little as possible, in order that Ulysses might learn to depend upon myself alone. attended personally to the matter of food and drink, and took pains that my protege should re- ceive no tavors from the hand of any one else. I soon learned the things that gave him pleasure, and put my self to no little trouble to gratify him on every possible occasion. I contin- ued this process, combining with it instruction in such small services as "house elephants" in India are always expected to perform, until I saw that I had completely gained his confidence and affection. During this period of tutelage, Ulysses would have trusted and obeyed me to any extent. I think he would willingly have laid down his life or endured torture for my sake. Nothing made him happier than to be near me as sat under the banyan-tree in my garden, smoking and reading. When 1 opened his stall in the mornings and called to him to come out, he fairly quivered with joy at the sound of my voice, and gave vent to his satisfaction at seeing me by shrill trumpetings. His devotion was annoying at times, and one of the first difficulties that had experienced was in teaching him to be less demon strative.
 It is a fact, which most readers of this narrative have proved for them- selves by actual experiment, that ani- malls may be taught the meaning of words. An intelligent dog, for exam- pie, possesses a considerable vocabu- lary; I proposed to undertake sys- tematic course of instruction in the English language with Ulysses, and to ascertain to what extent he was capa- ble of acquiring our vernacular Whenever he learned a new word made note of it in book, and by constant review contrived to fix it in his memory. As soon as he began to comprehend what my purpose was, as he did after had been laboring with him couple of weeks, he became very eager to learn, and greatly increased ehO ho RAOAty VI CIC WOIA.
 The process of teaching him nouns was simple and easy. Each day would produce several new articles, tell him their names, and have him hand them to me as called for them. l taught him to say "yes" and "no" by the waving of his trunk, and made him appreciate that he was to use that means of signifyiDg to me whether he understood me or not.
 After was we'll into the work, the morning lesson would go somewhat as follows:
 "Are you ready for your lesson, Ulysses?"
 Ulysses lifts his trunk affirmatively. Although he does not understand les son, the word @ready" is clear to him by frequent use.
 I hold out ball, new object.
 "This is ball, Ulysses; ball." repeat it several times, until the sound has fastened itself in his mem- ory. Then lay it on the table with a pipe, a cup, and a book. I ask for them, one after another, and he hands them to me. add numerous other objects, the names of which he has already learned, and thus combine re- view with advance instruction. Together with the noun "ball," I teach him the verbs "roll," "throw" and "drop," and perhaps an adverb or two like "fast," or slowly" and an adjective, "round." Sometimes there is an awkward hitch, and I have to abandon the attempt to teach him some particular word, referring to it again when his vocabulary has been increased in some other direction. A certain point once passed, 1t was surprising with what rapidity I pro- ceeded. One word led to another, a number of words to phrases, and these to complete sentences. l finally