f these might be lowered into
the well, on which the animal might be raised to the top, if it could be
instructed as to the necessary means of laying them in regular
succession under its feet. Permission having accordingly been obtained
from the engineers to use the fascines, the keeper had to teach the
elephant the lesson, which, by means of that extraordinary ascendency
these men attain over their charge, joined with the intellectual
resources of the animal itself, he was soon enabled to do; and the
elephant began quickly to place each fascine, as it was lowered,
successively under him, until, in a little time, he was enabled to stand
upon them. By this time, however, the cunning brute, enjoying the
pleasure of his situation, after the heat and partial privation of water
to which he had been lately exposed, was unwilling to work any longer;
and all the threats of his keeper could not induce him to place another
fascine. The man then opposed cunning to cunning, and began to caress
and praise the elephant; and what he could not effect by threats he was
enabled to do by the repeated promise of plenty of arrack, a spirituous
beverage composed of rum, of which the elephant is very fond. Incited by
this, the animal again set to work, raised himself considerably higher,
until, by a partial removal of the masonry round the top of the well, he
was enabled to step out, after having been in the water about fourteen
hours."

"That was very cunning, Uncle Thomas. The keepers seem to attain great
ascendency over the animals."

"The attachment of the elephant to its keeper, and the command which
some of these men acquire over the objects of their care by appealing
to their affections is very extraordinary. The mere sound of the
keeper's voice has been known to reclaim an animal which escaped from
domestication and resumed its original freedom:--

"A female elephant, belonging to a gentleman in Calcutta, who was
ordered from the upper country to Chittagong, in the route thither,
broke loose from her keeper, and, making her way to the woods, was lost.
The keeper made every excuse to vindicate himself, which the master of
the animal would not listen to, but branded the man with dishonesty; for
it was instantly supposed that he had sold the elephant. He was tried
for it, and condemned to work on the roads for life, and his wife and
children sold for slaves.

"About twelve years afterwards, this man, who was known to be well
acquain