h Dowlah chose once to take the
diversion of hunting in the neighborhood of Lucknow, where there was a
great abundance of game. The grand vizier rode his favorite elephant,
and was accompanied by a train of Indian nobility. They had to pass
through a ravine leading to a meadow, in which several sick persons
were lying on the ground, in order to receive what benefit they could
from exposure to the air and the rays of the sun. As the vizier
approached with his numerous hunting party, the attendants of these
sick persons betook themselves to flight, leaving the helpless patients
to their fate. The nabob seriously intended to pass with his elephants
over the bodies of these poor wretches. He therefore ordered the driver
to goad on his beast. The elephant, as long as he had a free path, went
on at full trot; but, as soon as he came to the first of the sick
people, he stopped. The driver goaded him, and the vizier cursed; but
in vain. "Stick the beast in the ear!" cried the nabob. It was done;
but the animal remained steadfast before the helpless human creatures.
At length, when the elephant saw that no one came to remove the
patients, he took up one of them with his trunk, and laid him
cautiously and gently to a side. He proceeded in the same way with a
second and a third; and, in short, with as many as it was necessary to
remove, in order to form a free passage, through which the nabob's
retinue could pass without injuring any of them. How little did this
noble animal deserve to be rode by such an unfeeling brute in human
form!

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.

This is among the largest of quadrupeds, being sometimes twelve feet
long, and six feet high. Its body is very massive, its legs short, and
its head large. The skin is extremely thick. It lives on the muddy
banks of rivers in Africa, diving on the approach of danger. It eats
grass, and generally feeds at night. It swims well, and walks on the
bottom with ease. The negroes of Africa hunt this animal for his flesh,
and when one of them is captured, it is the signal for a general feast.

_Effect of Music._--The enterprising and lamented traveller Clapperton
informs us that, when he was departing on a warlike expedition from
Lake Muggaby, he had convincing proofs that the hippopotami are
sensibly affected by musical sounds. "As the expedition passed along
the banks of the lake at sunrise," says he, "these uncouth and
stupendous animals followed the drums the whole length of the w