the fragments in
the air in every direction, at the same time carefully unfolding all the
articles contained in the palanquin for the occupants use--shirts,
trowsers, boots, bottles, books, undergoing a most rigid examination,
and after that being rendered to fragments. If the cooley who had the
charge of the bag of letters made his appearance, he was immediately
pursued until he gave up the whole correspondence, official or private.
The bag was opened, every letter was opened one by one, and then torn in
fragments and tossed to the winds. In this way did he keep possession
of the road, stopping all communication for several weeks, until it was
his sovereign will and pleasure that people might receive their letters
and travel across the country as before. Now what an unaccountable
freak was this! It was like the madness of a reasonable being. If I
recollect right, it was when Captain Owen was on the east coast of
Africa, some of his party who landed were attacked by elephants, who
threw them down on the ground and, instead of killing them, as might
have been expected, and would have given them no trouble, they drew up a
large quantity of mud in their trunks and poured it into their mouths so
as to nearly to suffocate them, and then left them. On another
occasion, they put their fore feet on their limbs, so as to pinch and
bruise them severely in every part of their bodies, but avoided their
bones so as not to fracture one. Now this was evidently two species of
torture invented by the elephants, and these elephants in a wild state.
There certainly is something very incomprehensible about these animals.

The lion has been styled the king of beasts, but I think he is an
usurper allowed to remain on the throne by public opinion and suffrage,
from the majesty of his appearance. In every other point he has no
claim. He is the head of the feline or cat species, and has all the
treachery, cruelty, and wanton love for blood that all this class of
animals have to excess. The lion, like the tiger and the cat, will not
come boldly on to his prey, but springs from his concealment. It is
true that he will face his assailants bravely when wounded, but so will
the tiger.

In my opinion, the horse is the most noble of all animals, and, I am
sorry to say, the most ill-used, at least in England; for I do not
recollect a single instance of having seen a horse ill-treated on the
Continent. In fact, you hardly ever see a horse