The native Africans have never been known to tame or utilize the elephant: though, in what is known as the fly country, they are the only animals perfectly free from attack, and would be of the greatest value, and a great saving of life, as it is estimated that every tusk that comes out from the interior of Africa, causes the death of at least one slave or native. That the African elephant was hunted in very early times, is very evident. On an Egyptian tomb at Qournah, of the time of Thothmes III., there is a representation of the elephant, telling the story of the tribute brought by the people of the upper Euphrates to that prince in 1500 B.C. The celebrated black obelisk (now in the collection of the British Museum) of Shalmaneser II. (858-823 B.C.) bears a delineation of an elephant which formed part of a tribute brought by the Muzri, a people of Kurdistan at the head waters of the Tigris, to the Assyrian monarch. The human figures on the stone are shown bearing elephants’ tusks upon their shoulders. These inscriptions and figures, while they may be considered a part of the adornment of obelisks and tombs, are, in reality, the historical records of the time; and the representations of the elephant are often of value in showing its geographical distribution in former times. Thus, according to the stele of Amenemheb, an officer of the time of Thothmes III. and Amenophis II., translated by M. Chabas, the elephant was hunted near Nineveh, in the reign of Thothmes III.; and that there were found in great numbers, is shown by the statement, that the king “captured one hundred and twenty elephants for the sake of their tusks in the country of Nineveh.” Later than this, according to an Assyrian inscription on the prism of Tiglath-pileser I. (1120 B.C.), now in London, the elephant was hunted on the Tigris. The account translated reads, “I killed ten full-grown elephants in the country of Harran; and on the banks of the Khabour [an affluent of the Tigris], I captured four elephants alive. I brought their skins and their tusks, with the living elephants, to my city of Alassar” [Asshur]. CHAPTER XIV. BABY ELEPHANTS. The adult elephant attracts attention because of its great size and massive proportions; but the baby elephant is sure of the undisguised admiration of the young folk, for an exactly opposite reason; and perhaps no animal excites quite so much interest among all classes. At least two Asiatic elephants claim America as their birthplace. The first one was born in Philadelphia in 1880, where, with its mother, it attracted great attention, people going from far and near to visit it. The second baby elephant was born in Bridgeport in 1882, its mother being Mr. Barnum’s Asiatic elephant Hebe. This infant proboscidian was named after the city of its birth and has probably been watched, fed, and petted by hundreds of thousands of children in the United States.