"And can you tell me anything about the prices of wild animals, Mr.
Hagenbeck?" said I.
"Well," he replied, "prices differ from time to time, according to the
fashion; for I can assure you that there is as much fashion in wild
animals as there is in ladies' dresses. Prices are also rising and
falling, according as the market supply is high or low. I can remember
that once I sold in one day a cargo of African beasts for thirty
thousand dollars. A full grown hippopotamus is now worth L1,000. A
two-horned rhinoceros, which was worth L600 in 1883, cannot now be
obtained at any price. An Indian tapir costs L500, an American tapir
L150. Elephants vary according to size and training, from L250 to
L500. A good forest-bred lion, full grown, will fetch from L150 to
L200, according to species. Tigers run from L100 to L150, according to
their variety. Do you know," he continued, "that there are five
varieties of royal tigers? And, besides them, there are the tigers
which come from Java, Sumatra, Penang, and even from the wastes of
Siberia, Snakes are very much down in the market at present. Those
which formerly fetched L5 or L10, you can now get for L2. Very large
ones sometimes run up to L50. Leopards L30. Black panthers L40 to L60.
Striped and spotted panthers L25. Jaguars run from L30 to L100. A good
polar bear will fetch from L30 to L40. Brown bears from L6 to 10L.
Black American bears from L10 to L20. A sloth from Thibet L25 to L30.
Monkeys run from six shillings apiece. They are most expensive in the
spring, when they will sometimes fetch as much as L1 6_s_. Giraffes
are altogether out of the market," continued Mr. Hagenbeck with a
sigh, "for there are none now to be obtained. I have sold one as low
as L60, whilst the last one which I sold, four years ago, to the
Brazils, I was paid upwards of L1,100 for.
"And now you might just have a look round at some of the animals.
Here," said he, as we stood before a cage of very charming monkeys,
"are some very clever little animals. They can ride horses in a
circus, they jump through hoops; in fact, they are trained exactly
like human beings, and can do almost everything but talk. I have
just sent people to Abyssinia to fetch me some big silver-gray
lion-monkeys, sometimes called hamadryads. I said just now,"
continued Mr. Hagenbeck, with a laugh, "that monkeys can't talk; and
yet I must believe in Professor Garner, for you give me any monkey,
you like to name, and I'll guarantee I'll make it talk. But you can
only do it by imitating them closely. Take, for instance, that
chimpanzee over there," continued the clever trainer, pointing to a
little animal fast asleep on a crossbar. "Now listen," he went on,
making a peculiar noise with his lips. At once the animal woke up,
jabbered a reply in chimpanzee, flew to the bars of the cage, put his
tiny paw out ready for the nuts which he knew were forthcoming.
"There," said Mr. Hagenbeck, "don't tell me monkeys can't talk."
A little farther on we came across a tiny baby elephant, two feet nine
inches in height. It was as black as coal, and had just arrived from
Singapore. It was very playful, but when I began pushing it about, as
one might roll a big beer barrel, it indulged in a fretful growling,
which much amused us. Seven beautiful elephants stood in one big
stable together, and as I admired their huge proportions and wondered
at their entire gentleness, I said to Mr. Hagenbeck, "Is it true, as
the great English circus proprietor George Sanger told me last summer,
that the Asiatic elephant is far more intelligent than its African
brother?"
"Certainly not," replied Mr. Hagenbeck. "The African elephants are
just as clever, just as gentle, just as intelligent as the Asiatic
elephants. There's no difference between them; and I ought to know,
for I have had to do with them for thirty years, and in only one year
I have imported as many as seventy-six of them."