The Goat and the Elephant,
It i 3 a fact known to all who have travelled much in Africa that nothing will frighten an elephant quicker than the bleating of a goat. However hotly he may be pursuing an object, the bleating of a goat, or a noise resembling it, will at once arrest him and send him bounding from the object of his vengeance. An African, being asked the reason of it, related the following fable: " In old times, a goat bet an elephant that he could out-eat him. They commenced, and soon a spacious plain bore testimony to the capacity of their maws by being completely denuded of its verdure. On the approach of night, the elephant, wearied of nipping and grinding, forgot his bet in a doze in the midst of the plain. About midnight he was aroused by a grinding near him, and finding it was his rival, inquired what he could be eating, as he was confident he had devoured every vestige of vegetation before he lay down. ' Eating ?' replied the goat ; ' why, lam eating all the rocks ; and when I have finished them, I intend to commence on you.' The elephant no sooner heard that than he took to his heels, and has over since been shy of a goat,"
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Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 73, 25 October 1884, Page 5
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216The Goat and the Elephant, Te Aroha News, Volume II, Issue 73, 25 October 1884, Page 5
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