Stories about the instinct of animals, their characters, and habits . stories about theelephant, showing that he knows how to re- 68 STORIES ABOUT IXSTIXCT. venge an insult, which I must tell you beforeyou go. A merchant at Bencoolen kept a tame elephant^which was so exceedingly gentle in his habits, thathe was permitted to go at large. This huge animalused to walk about the streets in the most quietand orderly manner, and paid many visits throughthe city to people who were kind to him. Twocobblers took an ill will to this inoffensive creature,and several times pricked him on the probosciswith
Stories about the instinct of animals, their characters, and habits . stories about theelephant, showing that he knows how to re- 68 STORIES ABOUT IXSTIXCT. venge an insult, which I must tell you beforeyou go. A merchant at Bencoolen kept a tame elephant^which was so exceedingly gentle in his habits, thathe was permitted to go at large. This huge animalused to walk about the streets in the most quietand orderly manner, and paid many visits throughthe city to people who were kind to him. Twocobblers took an ill will to this inoffensive creature,and several times pricked him on the probosciswith their awls. Tlie noble animal did not chas-tise them in the manner he might have done, andseemed to think they were too contemptible to beangry with them. But he took other means topunish them for their cruelty. He filled his trunkwith water of a dirty quality, and advancingtowards them in his ordinary manner, spouted thewhole of the puddle over them. The punishmentwas highly applauded by those who witnessed it,and the poor cobblers were laughed at for THE ELEPHANT AND COBBLERS. Iaire (58. 69 Ha ! ha ! ha ! He must have been a very know-ing animal, Uncle Thomas. I dare say, thecobblers behaved better in future. I dare say they would, Boys. Here is anotherstory of the same description, but the trickster didnot escape so easily. ^ A person in the island of Ceylon, who livednear a place where elephants were daily led towater, and often sat at the door of his house, usedoccasionally to give one of these animals some figleaves, a food to which elephants are very he took it into his head to play one of theelephants a trick. He wrapped a stone round withfig leaves, and said to the carnac, This time I v/illgive him a stone to eat, and see how it will agreewith him. The carnac answered, Hhat th(i elephant would not be such a fool as to swallow astone. The man, however, reached the stone tothe elephant, who, taking it with his trunk, ii-mediately let it fall to
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