times this feathered friend and a baby elephant may both be seen riding on Mama Elephant's back.
Of two things the elephant is afraid—fences and mice. A fence looks like some of the traps used by native tusk-hunters. The flimsiest fence of reeds, bamboo or barbed wire will usually keep a herd of hungry elephants out of a sugar or yam field, or will keep them prisoners inside a stockade. As for a mouse, very likely the elephant thinks it a big insect that will run up his trunk. He throws the trunk up out of danger, bellows with rage and trembles with fear.
The huge African elephant is very wild, hard to tame and teach, and is of uncertain temper. Even the cows have tusks. A good specimen is not often seen in a menagerie. Your papa and mama will remember Mr. Barnum's famous African elephant "Jumbo." The East Indian elephant is smaller, more easily captured and tamed. He readily learns to do useful work and to perform tricks. He becomes fond of a kind master, and likes children, dogs and peaceable animals. He is not brighter than the dog, but because of his size and strength and his wonderful tusks and trunk, he can do a great many things that a dog cannot do. In India, the elephant piles half-ton teak logs in lumber yards, and is used in the timber and stone work of roads and bridges. He can push a cannon across a bog, carry a load over a mountain, and help sportsmen hunt and kill tigers. East Indian rulers all have troops of elephants to use in warfare, and to ride in royal processions. In Siam, the white elephant is a sacred animal and has a place on the national flag.
How old and wise the elephant in the menagerie looks. It is very comical to see such a heavy, clumsy animal stand on his hind legs or his head, dance to music, blow a horn, beat a drum, ring a bell or fire a gun. He kneels to let children and dogs and monkeys climb into a canopied throne on his back, then rises and takes them for a ride. He plays see-saw with another elephant, forms pyramids, rolls barrels, piles boxes and does many other hard things. The elephant has a good memory. He never forgets a trick he has once learned. He remembers an unkindness for years, and is sure to watch patiently for his chance, and to take terrible revenge on a keeper who mistreats him.
Hundreds of years ago the Greeks and Romans trained elephants to perform in their open-air circuses. Ancient writers tell of elephants that rocked cradles of babies whenever they cried, and of others that walked and danced on tight ropes. One writer says that
