s can smell the tiger when he is coming; then they
call out to their Mammas by making a queer rumbling sound in their
throats, and the Mammas come to them at once, before the tiger can get
there.

So all the grown-up elephants can go into the water, without any
worry. And at first they have a regular shower bath.

How do they do that? Why, each elephant fills his trunk with water;
then he curls up the trunk in the air over his head and squirts the
water out, and it falls in a shower all over his body. You can see how
he does it in the picture. All the grown-up elephants do that, and
even those that are half grown.

After the shower bath, they swim about; but the Mamma elephants do not
do that. Why? Because they have to get busy and bathe their little
children. They call to the children to stop playing, and come and have
a bath--just as our Mammas do.

How do they call? Why, I must tell you at once that all kinds of
animals have _a language of their own_. They do not speak exactly as
we do, but make different sounds through their mouth or nose, and each
sound _means_ something.

If the Mamma elephant wants to say "Come here," she makes one kind of
sound, and the baby elephant has learned to know exactly what that
means. And if the Mamma elephant wants to say "Keep still," she makes
another kind of sound, and the baby knows also what that means.

[Illustration: An Elephant Giving himself a Shower Bath]

In this way all animals can talk among themselves. Of course they
cannot say many things, as we do, but quite enough to tell what they
want.

So each Mamma elephant calls to her child to come and stand on the
bank. Now, many of our children often hate to be bathed; and the
elephant children are just the same! In fact, the very small ones
actually cry and shriek, just like our babies!

_Elephant Child Obeys Mamma--or Gets Spanked_

But when the Mamma elephant calls to the baby to stop playing and come
and stand by the bank, the baby comes at once, even though it hates to
be bathed. The baby elephant obeys its Mamma almost the first time,
whatever she tells it to do.

But if the baby does not obey, does its Mamma spank it? Of course she
does--like all Mammas! The elephant Mamma does the spanking with her
trunk.

But I must tell you at once that an elephant child never gets spanked
more than once in its life--and that is enough! And some are so good
that they _never_ get spanked!

The elephant child learns