able to prevent him; but
the other _elephants_ could, and they would.

Nobody need tell the other elephants to do that. Without being told to
do so, they would rush to him, surround him, and prevent him from doing
any mischief. And if only one bull elephant happened to be near enough
to him at that time, he would at least head him off--that is, throw
himself in the way of the angry elephant. I shall tell you a wonderful
story about that presently.

I have said that nobody need tell the other elephants to prevent a bad
elephant from committing a crime. The other elephants would do that
themselves, because _they have got into the habit of doing so in the
jungle_.

I must tell you that almost all the elephants you see in a zoo or a
circus were once wild in the jungle; they have been caught, then tamed,
then trained. But they still remember the laws of the jungle; and they
follow those laws whenever necessary--just as children who get into the
habit of keeping the rules of their school also form the habit of
keeping the law when they grow up. So the men who use elephants allow
them to practice this particular law; that is, they allow and encourage
the elephants to continue this police system among themselves.

From this you will understand that people do not usually use a bull
elephant singly; that is, they usually use a number of bull elephants
together, so that all the others would prevent a bad elephant from doing
any sudden mischief.

Wise people who know the habits of elephants usually use a number of
them at a time. But there have been many foolish people who have used a
bull elephant by himself; then somebody has ill-treated that elephant,
and in his rage he has done a lot of harm.

That actually happened in a big zoo recently. Then they had to shoot the
elephant. That shows that the people at that zoo knew very little about
the habits of elephants. They should have kept that elephant with a few
other elephants.

You may like to know how wise people in Europe and America have learned
the habits of elephants. They learned them from the people of India many
centuries ago. The people of India first observed wild elephants in the
jungle; and they discovered that the elephants had wonderful laws in
their herds--which I have described to you. Then the people of India
caught the wild elephants, and tamed them, then trained them to do
tricks and also useful work.

About 2250 years ago there was a famous king in Eur