generally supposed. The Hindoos invariably talk to their elephants, and it
is amazing how much the latter comprehend. The Arabs govern their camels
with a few cries, and my associates in the African desert were always
amused whenever I addressed a remark to the big dromedary who was my
property for two months; yet at the end of that time the beast evidently
knew the meaning of a number of simple sentences. Some years ago, seeing
the hippopotamus in Barnum's museum looking very stolid and dejected, I
spoke to him in English, but he did not even open his eyes. Then I went to
the opposite corner of the cage, and said in Arabic, "I know you; come here
to me." He instantly turned his head toward me; I repeated the words, and
thereupon he came to the corner where I was standing, pressed his huge,
ungainly head against the bars of the cage, and looked in my face with a
touch of delight while I stroked his muzzle. I have two or three times
found a lion who recognized the same language, and the expression of his
eyes, for an instant, seemed positively human.

BAYARD TAYLOR.

* * * * *

PITY.

And I, contented with a humble theme,
Have poured my stream of panegyric down
The vale of Nature, where it creeps and winds
Among her lovely works, with a secure
And unambitious course, reflecting clear
If not the virtues, yet the worth, of brutes.
And I am recompensed, and deem the toils
Of poetry not lost, if verse of mine