THE ELEPHANT.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume 2, Issue 29, 31 January 1850, Page 3

THE ELEPHANT.

This stately animal lives in herds or troops, in remote or secluded districts, —especially where large streams or rivers flowing through a wide and level tract, are bordered by a luxuriant vegetation. " A herd ol' elephants," says Mr. Pringle, " browsing in m.ijestic tranquillity, amidst the wild magnificence of an African landscape, is a very nolile siuht, and one of which I shall never forget the impression. The young elephant is very playful, delighting to gambol and frolic, and displaying the exuberance of its buoyant feelings by a thousand antic*. It does not arrive at maturity till between IS and 2V. The following instance of the sagacity of elephants occurred at Knon, a missionary station in South Africa. A troop of those animals came down one dark and rainy evening, close to the outsUirts of the village, and made a tremendous noise all night. Next morning, on examining ihespot where they hau heard the elephants, the inhabitants

discovered tlio cause of all this nocturnal uproar. There was n ditch or trench about four or five feet in width, and nearly fourteen in depth : into this unfinished trench, which at present contained no water, one of the elephants had fallen: How he got in, was easy to conjecture ; but how, being once in, he had ever contrived to get out out aguin, was the marvel. , , On examining the spot, the edges of tho trench were found deeply indented with numerous vestiges of foot-marks. The other elephants, it seems, had stationed themselves on ei'hcr side of the hole, some of them kneeling and others on their feet, and thus, by united efforts, and probably many failures, : had hoisted their unlucky brother out of the pit." Innumerable stories of ludicrous resentment may b» collected, which these noble animals have manifested towards those who have done hem injuries. "Mr. Williamson tells an anecdote of an elephant who used to be called the Pangiil, or fool —but who vindicated his claim to another character in n very singular manner. He had refused to bear a greater weight, upon a march, than was agreeable to him, by constantly pulling part of the load off his back ; and a Quarter-master of Brigade, irritated at his obstinacy, threw a tent-pin at his head. In a few days after, as the animal was going from the camp t J water, he overtook the Quarter-master, and, seizing him with his trunk, lifted him into a tamarind tree which overhung the road, —leaving him to cling fo the boughs and get down as well as lie could. Lieutenant Shipp, to try this memory of injuries, gave an elephant a large quantity of Cayenne pepper between some bread : the animal was much irritated by the offence, and about six weeks after, when the unsuspecting joker went to fondle him, he endured the caresses very placidly, but finished the affair by drenching his petsccutor with dirty water from head to foot." It is not always, however, in this harmless and jocular manner that the elephant displays his resentment, as the following well-authen-ticated instances will show :—An elephant that was cxli'klu-d in Franco some years ago seemed to know when it was mocked by any person, and remembered the affront till an opportunity for revenge occurred. A man deceived it by pretending to throw something into its mouth ; the animal gave him such a blow with his trunk as knocked him down and broke two of his ribs ; after which it trampled upon him, broke one of his legs ; and, , bending down on its knees, endeavoured to ■ push its tusks into his body, but they luckily : inn into the ground on each side of his thigh ' without doing hint any injury. In this case the provocation was certainly not deserving of the punishment—though in many instances j the animal is but too justly excited. M. Navarettc tells us that at Madagascar an elephant driver had a cocoa-nut given him, which, out , of wantonness, he struck twice against the elephant's head to break. The day fo'.lowing the animal saw rem; cocoa-nuts exposed in the street for sale, and taking one of them up with its trunk, beat it about the driver's head ! till the man was completely dead. "This j comes," says our authority, " of jesting with _ elephants." ' Recently at tho Liverpool Zoological Gardens, after delighting groups of young holiday folks by his skilful and docile performances, the elephant gave some offence to one of tho deputy-keepers, and was by him chastised wi;h a broomstick. No one was by to see what occurred in the next few minutes j but, ' at the expiration of that time, the unfortunate | deputy-keeper was found dead at the feet of the iniulted beast, having been killed, in all 1 probability, by a single blow of the animal's ! trunk, The body presented a most appalling spectacle, the arms and legs being fractured in j several places, the scull cloven, and the entire body crushed to pieces by the animal who, it would appear, in his rage, had repeatedly trampled upon him,— Chambers's Miscellany. DCSCIUPTION OP THE ELEPHANT. Height, eight to ten feet; body massive; eye small | hearing delicate ; tusks sometimes 9 feet long, weighing 100 lbs. j swims broad rivers with ease —found in Africa and India ; fond of sweetmeats ; keenly sensitive to kindness ; revengeful if offended or injured j possessed of amazing strength ; used formerly in war, used now in the East for burden.

Indian Hosmtality. The virtue of hospitality in India, as elsewhere, prevails most in the milder and more unfrequented districts. "I sometimes frequented places," says Forbes, "where the natives had never seen an liuropcnn, and were ignorant of every thing concerning U3 ; there I beheld mnnners and customs simple as were those in the patriachul age; there, in the style of Rebecca, and the damsels of ftlcopottimia, the Hindoo villagers treated us uitli the artless hospitality so delightful in t he poems ol Homer, and other aauient records,

On a sultry day, near a Jinore village, having ridden fasler than my attendants, while waiting their arrival under a tamarind tree, a young woman came to the well; I asked for a little water, but neither of us having a drinking vessel, alio hastily left me, as I imagined, to bring an earthen cup for the purpose, ns I should have polluted a vessel of mc-tal ; but as Jael, when Sisera asked for water, gave him milk, nod'brought forth butter in a lordly dish,' so did this village damsel, with more sincerity than Ileber's wife, brini; me a pot of milk, and n lump of butter, on the delicate loaf of the banana, the lordly dish of the Hindoos. The former I accepted ; on my declining the latter, she immediately made it into two balls, and gave one to each of the oxen that drew my hackney. Butter is a luxury to these animals, and enables litem to bear additional fatigue.''— Oriental Memoris. Gloves. The practice of covering the hand with gloves has prevailed among all the nations of the earth from time immemorial, and is common at once to the rude Tartar,' who seeks by their means to protect himself from cold, and to the refined European, with whom their use is an emblem of luxury. In the middle ages gloves constituted a costly article of dress, gloves being ofn-n highly decorated with embroidery, and richly adorned with precious stones. In the age of chivalry it was usual for soldiers who had gained the favour of a lady to wear her glove in their helmets; and as is well known, the throwing of a glove was the most usual mode of challenging to duel. This latter practice prevailed as early as the year 1245.