a trick. He wrapped up a
stone in fig leaves, and said to the man who had the elephants in
charge, "This time I am going to give him a stone to eat; I want to see
how it will agree with him." The keeper replied, that the elephant would
not be such a fool as to swallow the stone--he might make up his mind to
that. The other, however, reached out the stone to the elephant, who
took it in his trunk, but instantly let it fall to the ground. "You
see," said the keeper, "that I was right, and that the beast is not so
great a fool as you took him to be;" and drove away his elephants. After
they were watered, he was conducting them again to their stable. The man
who had played the elephant the trick was still sitting at his door,
when, before he had time to think of his danger, the insulted animal ran
at him, threw his trunk around his body, dashed him to the ground, and
trampled him to death.

At the Cape of Good Hope, it is customary to hunt these animals for the
sake of the ivory they obtain from them. Three horsemen armed with
lances, attack the beast alternately, each relieving the other as they
see their companion pressed, and likely to get the worst of the contest.
On one occasion three Dutchmen, who were brothers, having made large
fortunes at the cape by elephant hunting, were about to return home to
enjoy the fruits of their toil. They determined, however, the day before
they started, to have one more hunt by way of amusement. They went out
into the field, and soon met with an elephant, whom they began to attack
in their usual manner. But unfortunately, the horse of the man who was
fighting with the elephant at the time fell, and the rider was thrown to
the ground. Then the elephant had his vengeance, and it was a terrible
one--almost too terrible to think upon. He instantly seized the unhappy
man with his trunk, threw him up into the air to a vast height, and
received him upon his tusks as he fell. Then, turning toward the other
two brothers with an aspect of revenge and insult, he held out to them
the mangled body of his victim, writhing in the agony of death.

At Macassar an elephant driver one day had a cocoanut given him, which,
in order to break it, he struck two or three times against the
elephant's head. The next day the animal saw some cocoanuts exposed in
the street for sale, and taking one of them up in his trunk, beat it
about the driver's head until he fractured his skull.

Mr. Colton, the author of th