Illustrative Anecdotes of the Animal Kingdom

The animals in this order are not numerous, but they are marked with very peculiar characteristics. The chief species are the sloths, armadilloes, ant-eaters, and pangolins, of South America, and the platypus of Australia. Most of these are too little known to have furnished us with characteristic anecdotes.

THE SLOTH

This singular animal is destined by nature to live upon the trees. He is rare and solitary; and, as he is good for food, he is much sought after by the Indians and negroes. He is ill at ease on the ground, having no soles to his feet, which are so formed as to enable him to cling to the branches of trees, from which he suspends himself.

Mr. Waterton kept one of these animals in his room for several months. "I often took him out of the house," says he, "and placed him on the ground, in order to get a good opportunity of observing his motions. If the ground was rough, he would pull himself forward, by means of his fore legs, at a pretty good pace; but he invariably shaped his course towards the nearest tree. But if I put him upon a smooth and well-trodden part of the road, he appeared to be in trouble and distress: his favorite abode was on the back of a chair; and after getting all his legs in a line upon the topmost part of it, he would hang there for hours together, and often, with a low and inward cry, would seem to invite me to take notice of him."

The same author thus describes an adventure with a sloth: "One day, as we were crossing the Essequibo, I saw a large two-toed sloth on the ground upon the bank. How he got there was a mystery. The Indian who was with me said that he never surprised a sloth in such a situation before. He could hardly have come there to drink; for, both above and below, the branches of the trees touched the water, and afforded him a safe and easy access to it. Be this as it may, he could not make his way through the sand time enough to escape before we landed. As soon as we got up to him, he threw himself upon his back, and defended himself in gallant style with his fore legs. 'Come, poor fellow,' said I to him, 'if thou hast had a hobble to-day, thou shalt not suffer for it; I'll take no advantage of thee in misfortune. The forest is large enough for thee and me to rove in; go thy ways up above, and enjoy thyself in these endless wilds. It is more than probable thou wilt never again have an interview with man. So, fare thee well!'

"Saying this, I took up a long stick which was lying there, held it for him to hook on, and then conveyed him to a high and stately tree. He ascended with wonderful rapidity, and in about a minute he was at the top. He now went off in a side direction, and caught hold of the branch of a neighboring tree. He then proceeded towards the heart of the forest. I stood looking on, lost in amazement at his singular mode of progression, and followed him with my eyes till I lost sight of him."

THE PLATYPUS

Among the strange and interesting productions of Australia, no one is more wonderful than the ornithorynchus, platypus, or water-mole. It is aquatic in its habits, frequenting quiet streams, where it excavates burrows to a great depth. It is about eighteen inches long, and is covered with fur. It is web-footed, at the same time that its feet are well fitted for burrowing in the earth. Its head terminates in a broad bill, like that of a duck.

Mr. G. Bennett procured several specimens of this curious creature, but did not succeed in taking them to England. One of them was caught at the mouth of its burrow, and taken by Mr. B. to Lansdowne Park. "Here," says he, "I availed myself of the vicinity of some ponds, to give my platypus a little recreation. On opening the box where I kept it, it was lying in a corner, contracted into a very small compass, and fast asleep. I tied a very long cord to its hind leg, and roused it; in return for which, I received numerous growls. When placed on the bank, it soon found its way into the water, and travelled up the stream, apparently delighting in those places which most abounded in aquatic weeds. Although it would dive in deep water, yet it always preferred keeping close to the bank, occasionally thrusting its beak into the mud, and at the roots of the various weeds on the margin of the pond, as if in search of insects.

"After it had wandered some time, it crawled up the bank, and enjoyed the luxury of scratching itself, and rolling about. In the process of cleaning itself, the hind claws were alone brought into use for the operation – first the claws of one hind leg, then the claws of the other. The animal remained for more than an hour cleaning itself, after which, it had a more sleek and glossy appearance than before. It never became familiar, and always manifested the greatest reluctance to be placed in the box. One night it escaped, and I was never able to find it again."

This is the largest quadruped at present extant on the earth. It is nine feet high, and in some cases has risen to the height of fifteen feet. Its weight varies from four to nine thousand pounds. Nor is it more distinguished for its size than its sagacity. When tamed, it becomes the most gentle, obedient, and affectionate of domestic animals, capable of being trained to any service which may be required of it.

There are two species of elephant – the Asiatic and the African. The former is the largest and best known. In the mighty forests which they inhabit, they hold undisputed sway; their immense size, strength, and swiftness, enabling them to dislodge all intruders from their abodes. Even the lion and tiger fear their united attacks, and avoid being in their vicinity. They are excellent swimmers, and are capable of crossing the largest rivers. This power seems essential, for the quantity of food they consume renders it necessary for them to remove often from one region to another.

Miscellaneous Anecdotes.– Bishop Heber, in his approach to Dacca, saw a number of elephants bathing, which he thus describes: "At a distance of about half a mile from those desolate palaces a sound struck my ear, as if from the water itself on which we were riding – the most solemn and singular I can conceive. It was long, loud, deep, and tremulous – something like the blowing of a whale, or, perhaps, more like those roaring buoys which are placed at the mouths of some English harbors, in which the winds make a noise to warn ships off them. 'O,' said Abdallah, 'there are elephants bathing; Dacca much place for elephant.' I looked immediately, and saw about twenty of these fine animals, with their heads and trunks just appearing above the water. Their bellowing it was which I had heard, and which the water conveyed to us with a finer effect than if we had been on shore."

The manner of hunting and taming the wild elephant, in Asia, is curious. In the middle of a forest, where these animals are known to abound, a large piece of ground is marked out, and surrounded with strong stakes driven into the earth, interwoven with branches of trees. One end of this enclosure is narrow, and it gradually widens till it takes in a great extent of country. Several thousand men are employed to surround the herd of elephants, and to prevent their escape. They kindle large fires at certain distances; and, by hallooing, beating drums, and playing discordant instruments, so bewilder the poor animals, that they allow themselves to be insensibly driven, by some thousands more Indians, into the narrow part of the enclosure, into which they are decoyed by tame female elephants, trained to this service. At the extreme end of the large area is a small enclosure, very strongly fenced in, and guarded on all sides, into which the elephants pass by a long, narrow defile. As soon as one enters this strait, a strong bar is thrown across the passage from behind.

He now finds himself separated from his neighbors, and goaded on all sides by huntsmen, who are placed along this passage, till he reaches the smaller area, where two tame female elephants are stationed, who immediately commence disciplining him with their trunks, till he is reduced to obedience, and suffers himself to be conducted to a tree, to which he is bound by the leg, with stout thongs of untanned elk or buckskin. The tame elephants are again conducted to the enclosure, where the same operation is performed on the others, till all are subdued. They are kept bound to trees for several days, and a certain number of attendants left with each animal to supply him with food, by little and little, till he is brought by degrees to be sensible of kindness and caresses, and thus allows himself to be conducted to the stable.

So docile and susceptible of domestication is the elephant, that, in a general way, fourteen days are sufficient to reduce the animals to perfect obedience. During this time, they are fed daily with cocoa-nut leaves, of which they are excessively fond, and are conducted to the water by the tame females. In a short time, they become accustomed to the voice of their keeper, and at last quietly resign their freedom, and great energies, to the dominion of man.

The mode employed by the Africans, to take elephants alive, is by pits. Pliny, whose accounts were in general correct, mentions that, when one of the herd happened to fall into this snare, his companions would throw branches of trees and masses of earth into the pit, with the intention of raising the bottom, so that the animal might effect his escape. Although this appears to be a species of reasoning hardly to be expected from an animal, yet it has in a great measure been confirmed by Mr. Pringle, who says, – "In the year 1821, during one of my excursions in the interior of the Cape Colony, I happened to spend a few days at the Moravian missionary settlement of Enon, or White River. This place is situated in a wild but beautiful valley, near the foot of the Zuurberg Mountains, in the district of Uiterhage, and is surrounded on every side by extensive forests of evergreens, in which numerous herds of elephants still find food and shelter.

"From having been frequently hunted by the Boors and Hottentots, these animals are become so shy as scarcely ever to be seen during the day, except amongst the most remote and inaccessible ravines and jungles; but in the night time they frequently issue forth in large troops, and range, in search of food, through the inhabited farms in the White River valley; and on such occasions they sometimes revenge the wrongs of their race upon the settlers who have taken possession of their ancient haunts, by pulling up fruit-trees, treading down gardens and cornfields, breaking their ploughs, wagons, and so forth. I do not mean, however, to affirm, that the elephants really do all this mischief from feelings of revenge, or with the direct intention of annoying their human persecutors. They pull up the trees, probably, because they want to browse on their soft roots; and they demolish the agricultural implements merely because they happen to be in their way.

"But what I am now about to state assuredly indicates no ordinary intelligence. A few days before my arrival at Enon, a troop of elephants came down, one dark and rainy night, close to the outskirts of the village. The missionaries heard them bellowing, and making an extraordinary noise, for a long time, at the upper end of the orchard; but, knowing well how dangerous it is to encounter these powerful animals in the night, they kept close within their houses till daylight. Next morning, on their examining the spot where they had heard the elephants, they discovered the cause of all this nocturnal uproar. There was at this spot a ditch or trench, about four or five feet in width, and nearly fourteen feet in depth, which the industrious missionaries had recently cut through the banks of the river, on purpose to lead out water to irrigate some part of their garden, and to drive a corn-mill. Into this trench, which was still unfinished, and without water, one of the elephants had evidently fallen, for the marks of his feet were distinctly visible at the bottom, as well as the impress of his huge body on the sides.

"How he had got into it, was not easy to conjecture; but how, being once in, he ever contrived to get out again, was the marvel. By his own unaided efforts it was obviously impossible for such an animal to have extricated himself. Could his comrades, then, have assisted him? There can be no question that they had, though by what means, unless by hauling him out with their trunks, it would not be easy to conjecture; and, in corroboration of this supposition, on examining the spot myself, I found the edges of this trench deeply indented with numerous vestiges, as if the other elephants had stationed themselves on either side, – some of them kneeling, and others on their feet, – and had thus, by united efforts, and probably after many failures, hoisted their unlucky brother out of the pit."

We are told that the Emperor Domitian had a troop of elephants disciplined to dance to the sound of music; and that one of them, which had been beaten for not having his lesson perfect, was observed, on the following night, to be practising by himself in a meadow.

The elephant recently exhibited in New York was fed by a young girl with cakes and apples. While in the act of pulling an apple from her bag, she drew out her ivory card-case, which fell, unobserved, in the sawdust of the ring. At the close of the performances, the crowd opened to let the elephant pass out; but, instead of proceeding as usual, he turned aside, and thrust his trunk in the midst of a group of ladies and gentlemen, who, as might be supposed, were very much alarmed. The keeper at this moment discovered that the animal had something in his trunk: upon examination, it was found to be the young lady's card-case, which the elephant had picked up, and was now seeking out the fair owner.

A female elephant, belonging to a gentleman at Calcutta, being ordered from the upper country to Chittagong, broke loose from her keeper, and was lost in the woods. The excuses which the man made were not admitted. It was supposed that he had sold the elephant. His wife and family were, therefore, sold as slaves, and he was himself condemned to work upon the roads. About twelve years after, this man was ordered into the country to assist in catching wild elephants. In a group that he saw before him, the keeper thought that he recognized his long-lost elephant. He was determined to go up to it; nor could the strongest representations of the danger dissuade him from his purpose.

When he approached the creature, she knew him and, giving him three salutes by waving her trunk in the air, knelt down and received him on her back. She afterwards assisted in securing the other elephants, and likewise brought with her three young ones, which she had produced during her absence. The keeper recovered his character; and, as a recompense for his sufferings and intrepidity, an annuity was settled on him for life. This elephant was afterwards in the possession of Warren Hastings.

Of the attachment of elephants to their keepers, or to those who have done them a kindness, many instances are on record. Ælian relates that a man of rank in India, having very carefully trained up a female elephant, used daily to ride upon her. She was exceedingly sagacious, and much attached to her master. The prince, having heard of the extraordinary gentleness and capacity of this animal, demanded her of her owner. But so attached was this person to his elephant, that he resolved to keep her at all hazards, and fled with her to the mountains. The prince, having heard of his retreat, ordered a party of soldiers to pursue, and bring back the fugitive with his elephant. They overtook him at the top of a steep hill, where he defended himself by throwing stones down upon his pursuers, in which he was assisted by his faithful elephant, who threw stones with great dexterity. At length, however, the soldiers gained the summit of the hill, and were about to seize the fugitive, when the elephant rushed amongst them with the utmost fury, trampled some to death, dashed others to the ground with her trunk, and put the rest to flight. She then placed her master, who was wounded in the contest upon her back, and conveyed him to a place of security.

When Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, attacked the territory of Argos, one of his soldiers, who was mounted upon an elephant, received a dangerous wound, and fell to the ground. When the elephant discovered that he had lost his master in the tumult, he furiously rushed among the crowd, dispersing them in every direction, till he had found him. He then raised him from the ground with his trunk, and, placing him across his tusks, carried him back to the town.

Some years ago, an elephant at Dekan, from a motive of revenge, killed its conductor. The wife of the unfortunate man was witness to the dreadful scene; and, in the frenzy of her mental agony, took her two children, and threw them at the feet of the elephant, saying, "As you have slain my husband, take my life, also, as well as that of my children!" The elephant became calm, seemed to relent, and, as if stung with remorse, took up the eldest boy with its trunk, placed him on its neck, adopted him for its cornac, and never afterwards allowed another to occupy that seat.

A soldier, in India, was in the habit of giving to an elephant, whenever he received his pay, a certain quantity of arrack. Once, being intoxicated, this soldier committed some excesses, and was ordered to be sent to the guard-house; but he fled from the soldiers who were sent to apprehend him, and took refuge under the body of his favorite elephant, where he laid himself down quietly, and fell asleep. In vain the guard attempted to seize upon him, and draw him from his place of refuge; for the grateful elephant defended him with his trunk, and they were obliged to abandon their attempt to secure him. When the soldier awoke next morning from his drunken slumber, he was very much alarmed at finding himself under the belly of such an enormous animal; but the elephant caressed him with his trunk, so as to quiet his apprehensions, and he got up and departed in safety.

The author of the "Twelve Years' Military Adventures" says, – "I have seen the wife of a mohout give a baby in charge to an elephant, while she was on some business, and have been highly amused in observing the sagacity and care of the unwieldy nurse. The child, which, like most children, did not like to lie still in one position, would, as soon as left to itself, begin crawling about, in which exercise it would probably get among the legs of the animal, or entangle itself in the branches of the trees on which he was feeding, when the elephant would, in the most tender manner, disengage his charge, either by lifting it out of the way with his trunk, or by removing the impediments to his free progress. If the child had crawled to such a distance as to verge upon the limits of his range, – for the animal was chained by the leg to a peg driven into the ground, – he would stretch out his trunk, and lift it back, as gently as possible, to the spot whence it had started."

The elephant is not less disposed to resent an injury than to reward a benefit. It has been frequently observed, by those who have had the charge of these animals, that they seem sensible of being ridiculed, and seldom miss an opportunity of revenging themselves for the insults they receive in this way. An artist in Paris wished to draw the elephant in the menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes in an extraordinary attitude, which was with his trunk elevated in the air, and his mouth open. An attendant on the artist, to make the elephant preserve the attitude, threw fruits into his mouth, and often pretended to throw them, without doing so. The animal became irritated, and, seeming to think that the painter was the cause of his annoyance, turned to him, and dashed a quantity of water from his trunk over the paper on which the painter was sketching the portrait.

An amusing anecdote is related, by Captain Williamson, of an elephant, which went by the name of the paugal, or fool, who, by his sagacity, showed he could act with wisdom. This animal, when on a march, refused to carry on his back a larger load than was agreeable to him, and pulled down as much of the burden as reduced it to the weight which he conceived proper for him to bear. One day, the quarter-master of brigade became enraged at this obstinacy in the animal, and threw a tent-pin at his head. A few days afterwards, as the creature was on his way from camp to water, he overtook the quarter-master, and, seizing him in his trunk, lifted him into a large tamarind-tree, which overhung the road, and left him to cling to the branches, and to get down the best way he could.

We shall conclude our anecdotes of the elephant with one which shows it in a most amiable light. The Rajah Dowlah chose once to take the diversion of hunting in the neighborhood of Lucknow, where there was a great abundance of game. The grand vizier rode his favorite elephant, and was accompanied by a train of Indian nobility. They had to pass through a ravine leading to a meadow, in which several sick persons were lying on the ground, in order to receive what benefit they could from exposure to the air and the rays of the sun. As the vizier approached with his numerous hunting party, the attendants of these sick persons betook themselves to flight, leaving the helpless patients to their fate. The nabob seriously intended to pass with his elephants over the bodies of these poor wretches. He therefore ordered the driver to goad on his beast. The elephant, as long as he had a free path, went on at full trot; but, as soon as he came to the first of the sick people, he stopped. The driver goaded him, and the vizier cursed; but in vain. "Stick the beast in the ear!" cried the nabob. It was done; but the animal remained steadfast before the helpless human creatures. At length, when the elephant saw that no one came to remove the patients, he took up one of them with his trunk, and laid him cautiously and gently to a side. He proceeded in the same way with a second and a third; and, in short, with as many as it was necessary to remove, in order to form a free passage, through which the nabob's retinue could pass without injuring any of them. How little did this noble animal deserve to be rode by such an unfeeling brute in human form!

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS

This is among the largest of quadrupeds, being sometimes twelve feet long, and six feet high. Its body is very massive, its legs short, and its head large. The skin is extremely thick. It lives on the muddy banks of rivers in Africa, diving on the approach of danger. It eats grass, and generally feeds at night. It swims well, and walks on the bottom with ease. The negroes of Africa hunt this animal for his flesh, and when one of them is captured, it is the signal for a general feast.

Effect of Music.– The enterprising and lamented traveller Clapperton informs us that, when he was departing on a warlike expedition from Lake Muggaby, he had convincing proofs that the hippopotami are sensibly affected by musical sounds. "As the expedition passed along the banks of the lake at sunrise," says he, "these uncouth and stupendous animals followed the drums the whole length of the water, sometimes approaching so close to the shore, that the spray they spouted from their mouths reached the persons who were passing along the banks. I counted fifteen, at one time, sporting on the surface of the water."

Hunting the Hippopotamus.– Dr. Edward Russell gives us the following account of a hunt of the hippopotamus in Dongola: "One of the animals that we killed was of an enormous size. We fought with him for four good hours by night, and were very near losing our large boat, and probably our lives too, owing to the fury of the animal. As soon as he spied the huntsmen in the small canoe, he dashed at them with all his might, dragged the canoe with him under water, and smashed it to pieces. The two huntsmen escaped with difficulty. Of twenty-five musket-balls aimed at the head, only one pierced the skin, and the bones of the nose; at each snorting, the animal spouted out large streams of blood on the boat. The rest of the balls stuck in the thick hide.