Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1884 — Elephantine Intelligence. [ARTICLE]

Elephantine Intelligence.

On one occasion I arranged with a mahout to bring np his elephant to where I was standing, that I might indicate the work to be done, the mahont to be absolutely silent Standing by a six-foot leg, I beckoned to the mahont, and np came the elephant Arrived at the spot, and being irithont chains, he

most have opined that dragging was not intended. There remained then, pushing or carrying, the latter opera--tion being the onewhifife tog creature saw was inteiiaed, for he proceeded at onto with awkward preparations for carrying it away. Throughout this test the mahout liras absolutely silent, and, as far as I could quite passive. The result of it was that the elephant divined what I, a stranger, wished to do, and did it. . On another occasion I applied the test to a difficult object, an eighteeninch cube of teak, which the dear old fellow at once arranged to carry off; but how to do it he could not at first determine. As his tusk's diverged more than eighteen indies, they were no support, and the many sharp corners of the tube severely tried> the delicate trunk. After some failures, he managed to seize the fragment by the center, and then raise it np below the tusks his lower lip. As he had virtually accomplished the task, I discontinued the experiment, expressing my satisfaction and delight to the manager, who somewhat damped my ardor by informing me that the mahout while abstaining from the use of voice or stick, might have conveyed his wishes to the elephant by pressure with his heels.

But a moments reflection increased my admiration for the elephant’s intelligence, for allowing that the mahout’s heels had pressed his side, how could such pressure inform him that he was neither to push nor drag, but carry ? Surely the mahout could not have possessed a code of pressure-signals with which he had indoctrinated the Alepliant, in prospect of curious visitors. If he had, then it must have included voice and stick signaling as well, to either of which I might have resorted. No; I believe that the elephant acted independently of signals and reasoned ou what he had to do by what was laid before him.*—Chambers’ Journal.