rtain of the abler elephants could be trusted
to walk behind each piece, where they would in a fashion control its
movements, steadying or lifting it as the occasion demanded without
any directions from the driver.

[Illustration: An Indian Elephant]

Elephants can be trained to pile up sticks of timber, such as railway
ties, placing the layers alternately in opposite directions, as is the
custom in such work. There is an excellent and well-attested story of
an elephant who, without a driver, was bearing a stick of timber
through a narrow wood path. Meeting a man on horseback, and
perceiving that the way was not wide enough for both himself and the
oncomer, the sagacious animal deliberately backed his huge body into
the chaparral so as to clear the way, and then trumpeted as if to
signal the horseman that the path was free.

The emotions as well as the intelligence of elephants are singularly
like those of human kind. It is said by those who know them well that
if when in their stubborn fits they are brutally overborne, they are
apt to die of what seems to be pure chagrin. Their states of grief,
despair, and rage much resemble those which are exhibited by violent
children or men unaccustomed to control. Their affections and
animosities have also a curious human cast. They readily form
attachments which appear to be quite as enduring as those exhibited by
dogs, and their memory of injuries remains quick for years after they
have received the harm. Well-verified anecdotes showing the likeness
of these emotional qualities to our own exist in such numbers that it
would be easy to fill a volume with them. They are, however, not
necessary to show the likeness of the creature to ourselves. This is
sufficiently exhibited by their daily behavior under domestication. In
noting this we should remember that the male elephant is the only
large mammal the males of which it has proved safe to use in the
ordinary work of life. Even our bulls and stallions, though they
belong to species which have been domesticated for thousands of years,
are so violent and untrustworthy as to be of little value except for
breeding purposes. Bulls, even of the tamer breeds, are a constant
menace to the lives of their masters; yet an adult male elephant
recently made captive may, except when seriously diseased, be trusted
to obey the mere signals of the driver, who has no such control over
him as the bit affords in the case of horses. The creature has