strenuous struggles of the largest elephant I ever saw led to it; and
when directed by their keepers to clear away jungle, the removal of
even a small tree or a healthy young coco-nut palm is a matter both
of time and exertion. Hence the services of an elephant are of much
less value in clearing a forest than in dragging and piling felled
timber. But in the latter occupation he manifests an intelligence and
dexterity which is surprising to a stranger, because the sameness of
the operation enables the animal to go on for hours disposing of log
after log, almost without a hint or direction from his attendant.
For example, two elephants employed in piling ebony and satinwood in
the yards attached to the commissariat stores at Colombo, were so
accustomed to their work, that they were able to accomplish it with
equal precision and with greater rapidity than if it had been done by
dock-labourers. When the pile attained a certain height, and they were
no longer able by their conjoint efforts to raise one of the heavy logs
of ebony to the summit, they had been taught to lean two pieces against
the heap, up the incline of which they gently rolled the remaining
logs, and placed them trimly on the top.
It has been asserted that in their occupations “elephants are to a
surprising extent the creatures of habit,”[151] that their movements
are altogether mechanical, and that “they are annoyed by any deviation
from their accustomed practice, and resent any constrained departure
from the regularity of their course.” So far as my own observation
goes, this is incorrect; and I am assured by officers of experience,
that in regard to changing his treatment, his hours or his occupation,
an elephant requires no more consideration than a horse, but exhibits
the same pliancy and facility.
At one point, however, the utility of the elephant stops short. Such is
the intelligence and earnestness he displays in work, which he seems
to conduct almost without supervision, that it has been assumed[152]
that he would continue his labour, and accomplish his given task, as
well in the absence of his keeper as during his presence. But here his
innate love of ease displays itself, and if the eye of his attendant be
withdrawn, the moment he has finished the thing immediately in hand,
he will stroll away lazily, to browse or enjoy the luxury of fanning
himself and blowing dust over his back.
The means of punishing so powerful an animal is a question of
difficulty to his attendants. Force being almost inapplicable, they try
to work on his passions and feelings, by such expedients as altering
the nature of his food or withholding it altogether for a time. On such
occasions the demeanour of the creature will sometimes evince a sense
of humiliation as well as of discontent. In some parts of India it is
customary, in dealing with offenders, to stop their allowance of sugar
canes or of jaggery; or to restrain them from eating their own share
of fodder and leaves till their companions shall have finished; and in
such cases the consciousness of degradation, betrayed by the looks and
attitudes of the culprit, is quite sufficient to identify him, and to
excite a feeling of sympathy and commiseration.
The elephant’s obedience to his keeper is the result of affection,
as well as of fear; and although his attachment becomes so strong
that an elephant in Ceylon has been known to remain out all night,
without food, rather than abandon his mahout, lying intoxicated in
the jungle, yet he manifests little difficulty in yielding the same
submission to a new driver in the event of a change of attendants. This
is opposed to the popular belief that “the elephant cherishes such
an enduring remembrance of his old mahout, that he cannot easily be
brought to obey a stranger.”[153] In the extensive establishments of
the Ceylon Government, the keepers are changed without hesitation, and
the animals, when equally kindly treated, are usually found to be as
tractable and obedient to their new driver as to the old, so soon as
they have become familiarised with his voice.
This is not, however, invariably the case; and Mr. Cripps, who had
remarkable opportunities for observing the habits of the elephant
in Ceylon, mentioned to me an instance in which one of a singularly
stubborn disposition occasioned some inconvenience after the death
of its keeper, by refusing to obey any other, till its attendants
bethought them of a child about twelve years old, in a distant village,
where the animal had been formerly picketed, and to whom it had
displayed much attachment. The child was sent for; and on its arrival
the elephant, as anticipated, manifested extreme satisfaction, and was
managed with ease, till by degrees it became reconciled to the presence
of a new superintendent.
It has been said that the mahouts die young, owing to some supposed
injury to the spinal column from the peculiar motion of the elephant;
but this remark does not apply to those in Ceylon, who are healthy,
and as long-lived as other men. If the motion of the elephant be thus
injurious, that of the camel must be still more so; yet we never hear
of early death ascribed to this cause by the Arabs.
The voice of the keeper, with a very limited vocabulary of articulate
sounds, serves almost alone to guide the elephant in his domestic
occupations.[154] Sir EVERARD HOME, from an examination of the muscular
fibres in the drum of an elephant’s ear, came to the conclusion,
that notwithstanding the distinctness and power of his perception of
sounds at a greater distance than other animals, he was insensible to
their harmonious modulation and destitute of a musical ear.[155] But
Professor HARRISON, in a paper read before the Royal Irish Academy
in 1847, has stated that on a careful examination of the head of an
elephant which he had dissected, he could “see no evidence of the
muscular structure of the _membrana tympani_ so accurately described
by Sir E. HOME.” Sir EVERARD’S deduction, I may observe, is clearly
inconsistent with the fact that the power of two elephants may be
combined by singing to them a measured chant, somewhat resembling a
sailor’s capstan song; and in labour of a particular kind, such as
hauling a stone with ropes, they will thus move conjointly a weight to
which their divided strength would be unequal.[156]
Nothing can more strongly exhibit the impulse to obedience in the
elephant, than the patience with which, at the order of his keeper,
he swallows the nauseous medicines of the native elephant-doctors;
and it is impossible to witness the fortitude with which, without
shrinking, he submits to excruciating surgical operations for the
removal of tumours and ulcers, without conceiving a vivid impression of
his gentleness and intelligence. Dr. DAVY when in Ceylon was consulted
about an elephant in the Government stud, which was suffering from a
deep, burrowing sore in the back, just over the back-bone, and this had
long resisted the treatment ordinarily employed. He recommended the
use of the knife, that vent might be given to the accumulated matter,
but no one of the attendants was competent to undertake the operation.
“Being assured,” he continues, “that the creature would behave well, I
undertook it myself. The elephant was not bound, but was made to kneel
down at his keeper’s command—and with an amputating knife, using all my
force, I made the incision required through the tough integuments. The
elephant did not flinch, but rather inclined towards me when using the
knife; and merely uttered a low, and as it were suppressed, groan. In
short, he behaved as like a human being as possible, as if conscious
(as I believe he was), that the operation was for his good, and the
pain unavoidable.”[157]
Obedience to the orders of his keepers is not, however, to be assumed
as the result of a uniform perception of the object to be attained by
compliance; and we cannot but remember the touching incident which took
place during the slaughter of the elephant at Exeter Change in 1826,
when, after receiving ineffectually upwards of 120 balls in various
parts of his body, he turned his face to his assailants on hearing the
voice of his keeper, and knelt down at the accustomed word of command,
so as to bring his forehead within view of the rifles.[158]
The working elephant is always a delicate animal, and requires
watchfulness and care. As a beast of burden it is unsatisfactory;
for although in point of mere strength there is scarcely any weight
which could be conveniently placed on it that it could not carry,
it is difficult to pack the load without causing abrasions that
afterwards ulcerate. The skin is easily chafed by harness, especially
in wet weather. During either long droughts or too much moisture, an
elephant’s feet become liable to sores, that render it non-effective
for months. Many attempts have been made to provide some protection
for the sole of the foot, but from the extreme weight and the peculiar
mode of planting the foot, they have all been unsuccessful. The eyes
are also liable to frequent inflammations, and the skill of the native
elephant-doctors, which has been renowned since the time of Ælian, is
nowhere more strikingly displayed than in the successful treatment
of such attacks.[159] In Ceylon, the murrain among the cattle is of
frequent occurrence, and carries off great numbers of animals, wild
as well as tame. In such visitations the elephants suffer severely,
not only those at liberty in the forest, but those carefully tended
in the Government stables. Out of a stud of about 40 attached to the
department of the Commission of Roads, the deaths between 1841 and
1849 were on an average _four_ in each year, and this was nearly
doubled in those years when murrain prevailed.
Of 240 elephants, employed in the public departments of the Ceylon
Government, which died in twenty-five years, from 1831 to 1856, the
length of time that each lived in captivity has only been recorded in
the instances of 138. Of these there died:—
Duration of Captivity No. Male Female
Under 1 year 72 29 43
From 1 to 2 years 14 5 9
” 2 ” 3 ” 8 5 3
” 3 ” 4 ” 8 3 5
” 4 ” 5 ” 3 2 1
” 5 ” 6 ” 2 2 ·
” 6 ” 7 ” 3 1 2
” 7 ” 8 ” 5 2 3
” 8 ” 9 ” 5 5 ·
” 9 ” 10 ” 2 2 ·
” 10 ” 11 ” 2 2 ·
” 11 ” 12 ” 3 1 2
” 12 ” 13 ” 3 · 3
” 13 ” 14 ” · · ·
” 14 ” 15 ” 3 1 2
” 15 ” 16 ” 1 1 ·
” 16 ” 17 ” 1 · 1
” 17 ” 18 ” · · ·
” 18 ” 19 ” 2 1 1
” 19 ” 20 ” 1 · 1
Total 133 62 76
Of the 72 who died in one year’s servitude, 35 expired within the first
six months of their captivity. During training, many elephants die
in the unaccountable manner already referred to, of what the natives
designate a _broken heart_.
On being first subjected to work, the elephant is liable to severe and
often fatal swellings of the jaws and abdomen.[160]
From these causes there died, between 1841 and 1849 9
Of cattle murrain 10
Sore feet 1
Colds and inflammation 6
Diarrhœa 1
Worms 1
Of diseased liver 1
Injuries from a fall 1
General debility 1
Unknown causes 3
Of the entire, twenty-three were females and eleven males.
The ages of those that died could not be accurately stated, owing to
the circumstance of their having been captured in corral. Two only were
tuskers. Towards keeping the stud in health, nothing has been found
so conducive as regularly bathing the elephants, and giving them the
opportunity to stand with their feet in water, or in moistened earth.
Elephants are said to be afflicted with tooth-ache; their tushes have
likewise been found with symptoms of internal perforation by some
parasite, and the natives assert that, in their agony, the animals have
been known to break them off short.[161] I have never heard of the
teeth themselves being so affected, and it is just possible that the
operation of shedding and the subsequent decay of the milk-tushes, may
have in some instances been accompanied by incidents that gave rise to
this story. At the same time the probabilities are in favour of its
being true. CUVIER committed himself to the statement that the tusks of
the elephant have no attachments to connect them with the pulp lodged
in the cavity at their base, from which the peculiar modification of
dentine, known as “ivory” is secreted;[162] and hence, by inference,
that they would be devoid of sensation. But independently of the fact
that ivory is permeated by tubes so fine that at their origin from
the pulpy cavity they do not exceed the 1/15000 part of an inch in
diameter, OWEN had the tusk and pulp of the great elephant which died
at the Zoological Gardens in London in 1847 longitudinally divided,
and found that, “although the pulp could be easily detached from the
inner surface of the cavity, it was not without a certain resistance;
and when the edges of the co-adapted pulp and tusk were examined by a
strong lens, the filamentary processes from the outer surface of the
former could be seen stretching, as they were drawn from the dentinal
tubes, before they broke. These filaments are so minute, he adds, that
to the naked eye the detached surface of the pulp seems to be entire;
and hence CUVIER was deceived into supposing that there was no organic
connexion between the pulp and the ivory. But if, as there seems no
reason to doubt, these delicate nervous processes traverse the tusk by
means of the numerous tubes already described, if attacked by caries
the pain occasioned to the elephant would be excruciating.
As to maintaining a stud of elephants for the purposes to which they
are now assigned in Ceylon, there may be a question on the score of
prudence and economy. In the wild and unopened parts of the country,
where rivers are to be forded, and forests are only traversed by
jungle paths, their labour is of value, in certain contingencies,
in the conveyance of stores, and in the earlier operations for the
construction of fords and rough bridges of timber. But in more
highly civilised districts, and wherever macadamised roads admit of
the employment of horses and oxen for draught, I apprehend that the
services of the elephant might, with advantage, be gradually reduced,
if not altogether dispensed with.
The love of the elephant for coolness and shade renders it at all
times more or less impatient of work in the sun, and every moment of
leisure it can snatch is employed in covering its back with dust, or
fanning itself to diminish the annoyance of the insects and heat. From
the tenderness of the skin and its liability to sores, the labour in
which the elephant can most advantageously be employed is that of
draught; but the reluctance of horses to meet or pass them renders it
difficult to work them with safety on frequented roads. Besides, were
the full load which an elephant is capable of drawing, proportionally
to its muscular strength, to be placed upon waggons of corresponding
dimension, the injury to roads from the extra weight would be such
that the wear and tear of the highways and bridges would prove too
costly to be borne. On the other hand, by restricting it to a somewhat
more manageable quantity, and by limiting the weight, as at present, to
about _one ton and a half_, it is doubtful whether an elephant performs
so much more work than could be done by a horse or by bullocks, as to
compensate for the greater cost of his feeding and attendance.
Add to this, that from accidents and other causes, from ulcerations
of the skin, and illnesses of many kinds, the elephant is so often
invalided, that the actual cost of its labour, when at work, is very
considerably enhanced. Exclusive of the salaries of higher officers
attached to the Government establishments, and other permanent
charges, the expenses of an elephant, looking only to the wages of
its attendants and the cost of its food and medicines, varies from
_three shillings to four shillings and sixpence_ per diem, according
to its size and class.[163] Taking the average at three shillings
and nine-pence, and calculating that hardly any individual works
more than four days out of seven, the charge for each day so employed
would amount to _six shillings and sixpence_. The keep per day of a
powerful dray-horse, working five days in the week, would not exceed
half-a-crown, and two such would unquestionably do more work than any
elephant under the present system. I do not know whether it be from a
comparative calculation of this kind that the strength of the elephant
establishments in Ceylon has been gradually diminished of late years,
but in the department of the Commissioner of Roads, the stud, which
formerly numbered upwards of sixty elephants, was reduced, some years
ago, to thirty-six, and is at present less than half that number.
The fallacy of the supposed reluctance of the elephant to breed in
captivity has been demonstrated by many recent authorities; but with
the exception of the birth of young elephants at Rome, as mentioned by
ÆLIAN, the only instances that I am aware of their actually producing
young under such circumstances, took place in Ceylon. Both parents had
been for several years attached to the stud of the Commissioner of
Roads, and in 1844 the female, whilst engaged in dragging a waggon,
gave birth to a still-born calf. Some years before, an elephant
that had been captured by Mr. Cripps, dropped a female calf, which
he succeeded in rearing. As usual, the little one became the pet of
the keepers; but as it increased in growth, it exhibited the utmost
violence when thwarted; striking out with its hind-feet, throwing
itself headlong on the ground, and pressing its trunk against any
opposing object.
The duration of life in the elephant has been from the remotest times a
matter of uncertainty and speculation. Aristotle says it was reputed to
live from two to three hundred years,[164] and modern zoologists have
assigned to it an age very little less; CUVIER[165] allots two hundred
and DE BLAINVILLE[166] one hundred and twenty. The only attempt which I
know of to establish a period historically or physiologically is that
of FLEURENS, who has advanced an ingenious theory on the subject in
his treatise “_De la Longévité Humaine_.” He assumes the sum total of
life in all animals to be equivalent to five times the number of years
requisite to perfect their growth and development;—and he adopts as
evidence of the period at which growth ceases, the final consolidation
of the bones with their _epiphyses_; which in the young consist of
cartilages; but in the adult become uniformly osseous and solid. So
long as the epiphyses are distinct from the bones, the growth of the
animal is proceeding, but it ceases so soon as the consolidation is
complete. In man, according to FLEURENS, this consummation takes
place at 20 years of age, in the horse at 5, in the dog at 2; so that
conformably to this theory the respective normal age for each would be
100 years for man, 25 for the horse, and 10 for a dog. As a datum for
his conclusion, FLEURENS cites the instance of one young elephant in
which, at 26 years old, the epiphyses were still distinct, whereas in
another, which died at 31, they were firm and adherent. Hence he draws
the inference that the period of completed solidification is thirty
years, and consequently that the normal age of the elephant is _one
hundred and fifty_.[167]
Amongst the Singhalese the ancient fable of the elephant attaining
to the age of two or three hundred years still prevails; but the
Europeans, and those in immediate charge of tame ones, entertain the
opinion that the duration of life for about _seventy_ years is common
both to man and the elephant; and that before the arrival of the latter
period, symptoms of debility and decay ordinarily begin to manifest
themselves. Still instances are not wanting in Ceylon of trained
decoys that have lived for more than double the reputed period in
actual servitude. One employed by Mr. Cripps in the Seven Korles was
represented by the cooroowe people to have served the king of Kandy in
the same capacity sixty years before; and amongst the papers left by
Colonel Robertson (son to the historian of “Charles V.”), who held a
command in Ceylon in 1799, shortly after the capture of the island by
the British, I have found a memorandum showing that a decoy was then
attached to the elephant establishment at Matura, which the records
proved to have served under the Dutch during the entire period of their
occupation (extending to upwards of one hundred and forty years); and
it was said to have been found in the stables by the Dutch on the
expulsion of the Portuguese in 1656.
It is perhaps from this popular belief in their almost illimitable age,
that the natives generally assert that the body of a dead elephant
is seldom or never to be discovered in the woods. And certain it is
that frequenters of the forest with whom I have conversed, whether
European or Singhalese, are consistent in their assurances that they
have never found the remains of an elephant that had died a natural
death. One chief, the Wannyah of the Trincomalie district, told a
friend of mine, that once after a severe murrain, which had swept the
province, he found the carcasses of elephants that had died of the
disease. On the other hand, a European gentleman, who for thirty-six
years without intermission has been living in the jungle, ascending
to the summits of mountains in the prosecution of the trigonometrical
survey, and penetrating valleys in tracing roads and opening means of
communication,—one, too, who has made the habits of the wild elephant a
subject of constant observation and study,—has often expressed to me
his astonishment that after seeing many thousands of living elephants
in all possible situations, he had never yet found a single skeleton of
a dead one, except of those which had fallen by the rifle.[168]
It has been suggested that the bones of the elephant may be so porous
and spongy as to disappear in consequence of an early decomposition;
but this remark would not apply to the grinders or to the tusks;
besides which, the inference is at variance with the fact, that not
only the horns and teeth, but entire skeletons of deer, are frequently
found in the districts inhabited by the elephant.
The natives, to account for this popular belief, declare that the
survivors of the herd bury such of their companions as die a natural
death.[169] It is curious that this belief was current also amongst the
Greeks of the Lower Empire; and Phile, writing early in the fourteenth
century, not only describes the younger elephants as tending the
wounded, but as burying the dead:
Ὅταν δ’ ἐπιστῇ τῆς τελευτῆς ὁ χρόνος
Κοινοῦ τέλους ἄμυναν ὁ ξένος φέρει.[170]
The Singhalese have a further superstition in relation to the close
of life in the elephant: they believe that, on feeling the approach
of dissolution, he repairs to a solitary valley, and there resigns
himself to death. A native who accompanied Mr. Cripps, when hunting,
in the forests of Anarajapoora, intimated to him that he was then in
the immediate vicinity of the spot “_to which the elephants come to
die_,” but that it was so mysteriously concealed, that although every
one believed in its existence, no one had ever succeeded in penetrating
to it. At the corral which I have described at Kornegalle, in 1847,
Dehigame, one of the Kandyan chiefs, assured me it was the universal
belief of his countrymen, that the elephants, when about to die,
resorted to a valley in Saffragam, among the mountains to the east of
Adam’s Peak, which was reached by a narrow pass with walls of rock on
either side, and that there, by the side of a lake of clear water,
they took their last repose.[171] It was not without interest that I
afterwards recognised this tradition in the story of _Sinbad of the
Sea_, who in his Seventh Voyage, after conveying the presents of Haroun
al Raschid to the king of Serendib, is wrecked on his return from
Ceylon, and sold as a slave to a master who employs him in shooting
elephants for the sake of their ivory; till one day the tree on which
he was stationed having been uprooted by one of the herd, he fell
senseless to the ground, and the great elephant approaching wound his
trunk around him and carried him away, ceasing not to proceed until
he had taken him to a place where, his terror having subsided, _he
found himself amongst the bones of elephants, and knew that this was
their burial place_.[172] It is curious to find this legend of Ceylon
in what has, not inaptly, been described as the “Arabian Odyssey” of
Sinbad; the original of which evidently embodies the romantic recitals
of the sailors returning from the navigation of the Indian Seas, in
the middle ages,[173] which were current amongst the Mussulmans, and
are reproduced in various forms throughout the tales of the _Arabian
Nights_.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III.
As ÆLIAN’S work on _the Nature of Animals_ has never, I believe, been
republished in any English version, and the passage in relation to the
training and performance of elephants is so pertinent to the present
inquiry, I venture to subjoin a translation of the 11th chapter of his
2nd book.
“Of the cleverness of the elephant I have spoken elsewhere, and
likewise of the manner of hunting. I have mentioned these things, a few
out of the many which others have stated; but for the present I purpose
to speak of their musical feeling, their tractability, and facility in
learning what it is difficult for even a human being to acquire, much
less a beast, hitherto so wild:—such as to dance, as is done on the
stage; to walk with a measured gait; to listen to the melody of the
flute and to perceive the difference of sounds, that, being pitched low
lead to a slow movement, or high to a quick one; all this the elephant
learns and understands, and is accurate withal, and makes no mistake.
Thus has Nature formed him not only the greatest in size, but the
most gentle and the most easily taught. Now if I were going to write
about the tractability and aptitude to learn amongst those of India,
Æthiopia, and Libya, I should probably appear to be concocting a tale
and acting the braggart, or to be telling a falsehood respecting the
nature of the animal founded on a mere report, all which it behoves a
philosopher, and most of all one who is an ardent lover of truth, not
to do. But what I have seen myself, and what others have described as
having occurred at Rome, this I have chosen to relate, selecting a few
facts out of many, to show the particular nature of those creatures.
The elephant when tamed is an animal most gentle and most easily led
to do whatever he is directed. And by way of showing honour to time,
I will first narrate events of the oldest date. Cæsar Germanicus, the
nephew of Tiberius, exhibited once a public show, wherein there were
many full-grown elephants, male and female, and some of their breed
born in this country. When their limbs were beginning to become firm,
a person familiar with such animals instructed them by a strange and
surpassing method of teaching; using only gentleness and kindness, and
adding to his mild lessons the bait of pleasant and varied food. By
this means he led them by degrees to throw off all wildness, and, as it
were, to desert to a state of civilisation, conducting themselves in a
manner almost human. He taught them neither to be excited on hearing
the pipe, nor to be disturbed by the beat of drum, but to be soothed
by the sounds of the reed, and to endure unmusical noises and the
clatter of feet from persons while marching; and they were trained to
feel no fear of a mass of men, nor to be enraged at the infliction of
blows, not even when compelled to twist their limbs and to bend them
like a stage dancer, and this too although endowed with strength and
might. And there is in this a very noble addition to nature, not to
conduct themselves in a disorderly manner and disobediently towards the
instructions of man; for after the dancing-master had made them expert,
and they had learnt their lessons accurately, they did not belie the
labour of his instruction whenever a necessity and opportunity called
upon them to exhibit what they had been taught. For the whole troop
came forward from this and that side of the theatre, and divided
themselves into parties; they advanced walking with a mincing gait
and exhibiting in their whole body and persons the manners of a beau,
clothed in the flowery dresses of dancers; and on the ballet-master
giving a signal with his voice, they fell into line and went round in a
circle, and if it were requisite to deploy they did so. They ornamented
the floor of the stage by throwing flowers upon it, and this they did
in moderation and sparingly, and straightway they beat a measure with
their feet and kept time together.
“Now that Damon and Spintharus and Aristoxenus and Xenophilus and
Philoxenus and others should know music excellently well, and for their
cleverness be ranked amongst the few, is indeed a thing of wonder,
but not incredible nor contrary at all to reason. For this reason,
that a _man_ is a rational animal, and the recipient of mind and
intelligence. But that a jointless animal (ἄναρθρον) should understand
rhythm and melody, and preserve a gesture, and not deviate from a
measured movement, and fulfil the requirements of those who laid down
instructions, these are gifts of nature, I think, and a peculiarity
in every way astounding. Added to these there were things enough to
drive the spectator out of his senses; when the strewn rushes and
other materials for beds on the ground were placed on the sand of the
theatre, and they received stuffed mattresses such as belonged to rich
houses, and variegated bed-coverings, and goblets were placed there
very expensive, and bowls of gold and silver, and in them a great
quantity of water; and tables were placed there of sweet-smelling wood
and ivory very superb: and upon them flesh meats and loaves enough to
fill the stomachs of animals the most voracious. When the preparations
were completed and abundant, the banqueters came forward, six male and
an equal number of female elephants; the former had on a male dress
and the latter a female; and on a signal being given they stretched
forward their trunks in a subdued manner, and took their food in great
moderation, and not one of them appeared to be gluttonous greedy, or to
snatch at a greater portion, as did the Persian mentioned by Xenophon.
And when it was requisite to drink, a bowl was placed by the side of
each; and inhaling with their trunks they took a draught very orderly;
and then they scattered the drink about in fun; but not as in insult.
Many other acts of a similar kind, both clever and astonishing, have
persons described, relating to the peculiarities of these animals, and
I saw them writing letters on Roman tablets with their trunks, neither
looking awry nor turning aside. The hand, however, of the teacher was
placed so as to be a guide in the formation of the letters; and while
it was writing the animal kept its eye fixed down in an accomplished
and scholarlike manner.”
FOOTNOTES:
[1] _Ceylon_: An Account of the Island, Physical, Historical, and
Topographical. 2 vols. 8vo. London, Longmans & Co. 1859
[2] _Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon._ London, 1861. See also
_Ceylon, etc._ by Sir J. EMERSON TENNENT. London, 1860, vol. 1. pp. 7,
13, 85, 160, 183, &c.
[3] _Coup d’Œil général sur les Possessions Néerlandaises dans l’Inde
Archipélagique._
[4] TEMMINCK, _Coup d’Œil, etc._ t. i. c. iv. p. 328; t. ii. c. iii. p.
91.
[5] _Proceed. Zool. Soc. London_, 1849, P. 144 _note_. The original
description of TEMMINCK is as follows:
“Elephas Sumatranus, _Nob._ ressemble, par la forme générale du
crâne, à l’éléphant du continent de l’Asie; mais la partie libre des
intermaxillaires est beaucoup plus courte et plus étroite; les cavités
nasales sont beaucoup moins larges; l’espace entre les orbites des yeux
est plus étroit; la partie postérieure du crâne au contraire est plus
large que dans l’espèce du continent.
“Les mâchelières se rapprochent, par la forme de leur couronne,
plutôt de l’espèce asiatique que de celle qui est propre à l’Afrique;
c’est-à-dire que leur couronne offre la forme de rubans ondoyés et non
pas en losange; mais ces rubans sont de la largeur de ceux qu’on voit à
la couronne des dents de l’éléphant d’Afrique; ils sont conséquemment
moins nombreux que dans celui du continent de l’Asie. Les dimensions de
ces rubans, dans la direction d’avant en arrière, comparées à celles
prises dans la direction transversale et latérale, sont en raison de
3 ou 4 à 1; tandis que dans l’éléphant du continent elles sont comme
4 ou 6 à 1. La longueur totale de six de ces rubans, dans l’espèce
nouvelle de Sumatra, ainsi que dans celle d’Afrique, est d’environ 12
centimètres, tandis que cette longueur n’est que de 8 à 10 centimètres
dans l’espèce du continent de l’Asie.
“Les autres formes ostéologiques sont à peu près les mêmes dans les
trois espèces; mais il y a différence dans le nombre des os dont
le squelette se compose, ainsi que le tableau comparatif ci-joint
l’éprouve.
“L’_elephas Africanus_ a 7 vertèbres du cou, 21 vert. dorsales, 3
lombaires, 4 sacrées et 26 caudales; 21 paires de côtes, dont 6 vraies
et 15 fausses. L’_elephas Indicus_ a 7 vertèbres du cou, 19 dorsales, 3
lombaires, 5 sacrées et 34 caudales, 19 paires de côtes, dont 6 vraies
et 3 fausses. L’_elephas Sumatranus_ a 7 vertèbres du cou, 20 dorsales,
3 lombaires, 4 sacrées et 34 caudales; 20 paires de côtes, dont 6
vraies et 14 fausses.
“Ces caractères ont été constatés sur trois squelettes de l’espèce
nouvelle, un mâle et une femelle adultes et un jeune mâle. Nous n’avons
pas encore été à même de nous procurer la dépouille de cette espèce.”
[6] _The Natural History Review_, January 1863, pp. 81, 96.
[7] M. AD. PICTET has availed himself of the love of the elephant for
water, to found on it a solution of the long-contested question as
to the etymology of the word “elephant,”—a term which, whilst it has
passed into almost every dialect of the West, is scarcely to be traced
in any language of Asia. The Greek ἐλέφας, to which we are immediately
indebted for it, did not originally mean the animal, but, as early
as the time of Homer, was applied only to its tusks, and signified
_ivory_. BOCHART has sought for a Semitic origin, and seizing on the
Arabic _fil_, and prefixing the article _al_, suggests _alfil_, akin to
ἐλεφ; but rejecting this, BOCHART himself resorts to the Hebrew eleph,
an “ox”—and this conjecture derives a certain degree of countenance
from the fact that the Romans, when they obtained their first sight of
the elephant in the army of Pyrrhus, in Lucania, called it the _Luca
bos_. But the αντος is still unaccounted for: and POTT has sought to
remove the difficulty by introducing the Arabic _hindi_, Indian, thus
making _eleph hindi_, “_bos Indicus_.” The conversion of _hindi_ into
αντος is an obstacle, but here the example of “tamarind” comes to
aid; _tamar hindi_, the “Indian date,” which in mediæval Greek forms
ταμἄρεντι. A theory of BENARY, that ἐλέφας might be compounded of the
Arabic _al_, and _ibha_, a Sanskrit name for the elephant, is exposed
to still greater etymological exception. PICTET’S solution is, that in
the Sanskrit epics “the King of Elephants,” who has the distinction
of carrying the god Indra, is called _airavata_ or _airavana_, a
modification of _airavanta_ “son of the ocean,” which again comes
from _iravat_, “abounding in water.” “Nous aurions donc ainsi, comme
corrélatif du grec ἐλέφαντα, une ancienne forme, _âirâvanta_ ou
_âilâvanta_, affaiblie plus tard en _âirâvata_ ou _âirâvana_.... On
connaît la prédilection de l’éléphant pour le voisinage des fleuves, et
son amour pour l’eau, dont l’abondance est nécessaire à son bien-être.”
This Sanskrit name, PICTET supposes, may have been carried to the West
by the Phœnicians, who were the purveyors of ivory from India; and,
from the Greek, the Latins derived _elephas_, which passed into the
modern languages of Italy, Germany, and France. But it is curious that
the Spaniards acquired from the Moors their Arabic term for ivory,
_marfil_, and the Portuguese _marfim_; and that the Scandinavians,
probably from their early expeditions to the Mediterranean, adopted
_fill_ as their name for the elephant itself, and _fil-bein_ for
ivory; in Danish, _fils-ben_. (See _Journ. Asiat._ 1843, t. xliii. p.
133.) The Spaniards of South America call the palm which produces the
vegetable ivory (_Phytelephas macrocarpa_) _Palma de marfil_, and the
nut itself, _marfil vegetal_.
Since the above was written Gooneratné Modliar, the Singhalese
Interpreter to the Supreme Court at Colombo, has supplied me with
another conjecture, that the word elephant may possibly be traced to
the Singhalese name of the animal, _alia_, which means literally, “the
huge one.” _Alia_, he adds, is not a derivation from Sanskrit or Pali,
but belongs to a dialect more ancient than either.
[8] ÆLIAN, _de Nat. Anim._ lib. xvi. c. 18; COSMAS INDICOPL. p. 128.
[9] LE BRUN, who visited Ceylon A. D. 1705, says that in the district
round Colombo, where elephants are now never seen, they were then so
abundant, that 160 had been taken in a single corral. (_Voyage_, _etc._
tom. ii. ch. lxiii. p. 331.)
[10] In some parts of Bengal, where elephants were formerly troublesome
(especially near the wilds of Ramgur), the natives got rid of them by
mixing a preparation of the poisonous Nepal root called _dakra_ in
balls of grain, and other materials, of which the animal is fond. In
Cuttack, above fifty years ago, mineral poison was laid for them in the
same way, and the carcases of eighty were found which had been killed
thus. (_Asiat. Res._ xv. 183.)
[11] The number of elephants has been similarly reduced throughout
the south of India, and as in the advancing course of enclosure and
cultivation, the area within which they will be driven must become more
and more contracted, the conjecture is by no means problematical, that
before many generations shall have passed away, the species may become
extinct in Asia.
[12] The annual importation of ivory into Great Britain alone, for the
last few years, has been about _one million_ pounds; which, taking the
average weight of a tusk at sixty pounds, would require the slaughter
of 8,333 male elephants.
But of this quantity the importation from Ceylon has generally averaged
only five or six hundred weight; which, making allowance for the
lightness of the tusks, would not involve the destruction of more than
seven or eight in each year. At the same time, this does not fairly
represent the annual number of tuskers shot in Ceylon, not only because
a portion of the ivory finds its way to China and to other places, but
because the chiefs and Buddhist priests have a passion for collecting
tusks, and the finest and largest are to be found ornamenting their
temples and private dwellings. The Chinese profess that for their
exquisite carvings the ivory of Ceylon excels all other, both in
density of texture and in delicacy of tint; but in the European market,
the ivory of Africa, from its more distinct graining, and other causes,
obtains a higher price.
[13] A writer in the _Indian Sporting Review_ for October 1857 says,
“In Malabar a tuskless male elephant is rare; I have seen but two.” (P.
157.)
[14] The old fallacy is still renewed that the elephant sheds his
tusks. ÆLIAN says he drops them once in ten years (lib. xiv. c. 5); and
PLINY repeats the story, adding that, when dropped, the elephants hide
them under ground (lib. viii.), whence SHAW says, in his _Zoology_,
“they are frequently found in the woods,” and exported from Africa
(vol. i. p. 213); and Sir W. JARDINE in the _Naturalist’s Library_
(vol. ix. p. 110), says, “the tusks are shed about the twelfth or
thirteenth year.” This is erroneous: after losing the first pair, or,
as they are called, the “milk tusks,” which drop in consequence of the
absorption of their roots, when the animal is extremely young, the
second pair acquire their full size, and become the “permanent tusks,”
which are never shed.
[15] I have no means of ascertaining the dimensions of the largest
tusks supposed to have been obtained in continental India. Of those
that I have myself seen the greatest was taken from an elephant killed
by Sir Victor Brooke Bart. at the Hassanoor Hills, in Coimbatore in
1863. It measured 8 feet in length, and when placed on end two men
each 6 feet high can with ease stand side by side under the curved
extremity. It is 1 ft. 6 in. in circumference at the base and weighs
110 lbs. This remarkable tusk is now in the museum at Colebrooke
Park in the county Fermanagh. Its companion, owing to disease, is a
distorted lump of ivory; an almost shapeless mass weighing 60 lbs. The
life-long agony endured by the poor animal who bore it must have been
frightful in the extreme. Notwithstanding the inferiority in weight of
the Ceylon tusks, as compared with those of the elephant of India, it
would, I think, be precipitate to draw the inference that the size of
the former was uniformly and naturally less than that of the latter.
The truth I believe to be, that if permitted to grow to maturity, the
tusks of the one would, in all probability, equal those of the other;
but, so eager is the search for ivory in Ceylon, that a tusker, when
once observed in a herd, is followed up with such vigilant impatience,
that he is almost invariably shot before attaining his full growth.
General DE LIMA, when returning from the governorship of the Portuguese
settlements at Mozambique, told me, in 1848, that he had been requested
to procure two tusks of the largest size, and straightest possible
shape, which were to be formed into a cross to surmount the high altar
of the cathedral at Goa: he succeeded in his commission, and sent two,
one of which was 180 pounds’ and the other 170 pounds’ weight, with
the slightest possible curve. In a periodical entitled _The Friend_,
published in Ceylon, it is stated in the volume for 1837 that the
officers belonging to the ships Quorrah and Alburhak, engaged in the
Niger Expedition, were shown by a native king two tusks, each two feet
and a half in circumference at the base, eight feet long, and weighing
upwards of 200 pounds. (Vol. i. p. 225.) BRODERIP, in his _Zoological
Recreations_, p. 255, says a tusk of 350 pounds’ weight was sold at
Amsterdam, but he does not quote his authority. PETHERICK in his
_Account of Egypt, Soudan_, &c. says that in Central Africa the size
of tusks differs in different latitudes, those towards the north being
shorter, thicker, less hollow, and heavier than those of the south.
Thus a tusk from the Nouaer, Dinka, or Shilook tribes will weigh 120
lbs., while one from Bari would weigh only 70 lbs. or 80 lbs. “Indeed,”
he adds, “I have known a tusk from Nouaer to weigh 185 lbs., its length
being _seven feet two inches_, and its greatest thickness at the base
_nine_ inches.” (PETHERICK, p. 418.) Sir S. Baker, in his explorations
of the White Nile, saw monster tusks of 160 lbs.; and one in the
possession of a trader weighed 172 lbs. (_The Albert Nyanza_, vol. i.
p. 273.)
[16] _Menageries_, _etc._ published by the Society for the Diffusion of
Useful Knowledge, vol. i. p. 68: “The Elephant,” ch. iii. It will be
seen that I have quoted repeatedly from this volume, because it is the
most compendious and careful compilation with which I am acquainted of
the information previously existing regarding the elephant. The author
incorporates no speculations of his own, but has most diligently and
agreeably arranged all the facts collected by his predecessors. The
story of antipathy between the elephant and rhinoceros is probably
borrowed from ÆLIAN _de Nat._ lib. xvii. c. 44.
[17] “The _Correspondencia_ of Madrid gives the following account of
a fight between a Ceylon elephant and two bulls, which took place at
Saragossa:—‘The elephant was walking quietly about the arena when
the first bull was released and rushed at it with all his might. The
elephant received his antagonist with great coolness, and threw him
down with the utmost ease. The bull rose again and made two more
attacks, which the elephant resented by killing him with his tusks. The
conqueror did not seem in the least excited, but quietly drank some
water offered by his keeper, and ate several ears of Indian corn. A
second bull was then released, and in a few minutes suffered the same
fate as the first.’” (_Globe_, Nov. 9, 1864.) The _Times_ says the
elephant killed it “_with a thrust_ of his tusks.”
[18] _Menageries_, _etc._: “The Elephant,” ch. iii. In the Anglo-Saxon
_Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem_, which has been printed by COCKAYNE
in his _Narratiunculæ Anglice conscriptæ_, the belief in the alleged
antipathy of the elephant to swine is embodied in the text and is thus
rendered in the Latin version: “Pervenimus demum ad silvas Indorum
ultimas; ubi cum castra collocavissemus, ceperamus velle epulari
sub nocte hora xi; cum subito pabulatores lignatoresque exanimes
nunciabant, ut celeriter arma caperemus, venire e silvis elephantorum
immensas greges ad expugnanda castra. Imperavi ergo Thessalicis
equitibus ut ascenderent equos, _secumque tollerent sues_, quorum
grunnitus timere bestias noveram, et occurrere quam primum elephantis
jussi ... nec mora trepidantes elephanti conversi sunt. Quieta nox
fuit usque ad lucem.” (P. 58.) Another allusion to the same legendary
incident will be found in the _Lyfe of Alisaunder_, one of the most
ancient English romances, reprinted by WEBER in his _Metrical Romances
of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Centuries_.
“Forth went the kyng thennes with hy;
Of the forme-ward he herd grete cry
For hy weren assailed of olifauntz.
The kyng highed, and his sergeauntz:
Ac, so I fynde on the booke,
By Porus conseil _hogges hy took_
_And beten them so they shrightte_:
The olifauntz away hem dightte;
For hy ne have so mychel drade
Of nothing as of hogges grade.”
WEBER, vol. i. p. 237.
[19] This peculiarity was noticed by the ancients, and is recorded by
Herodotus: κάμηλον ἵππος φοβέεται, καὶ οὐκ ἀνέχεται οὔτε τὴν ἰδέην
αὐτῆς ὁρέων οὔτε τὴν ὀδμὴν ὀσφραινόμενος. (Herod. i. 80.) Camels have
long been bred by the Grand Duke of Tuscany, at his establishment
near Pisa, and even there the same instinctive dislike to them is
manifested by the horse, which it is necessary to train and accustom
to their presence in order to avoid accidents. Mr. BRODERIP mentions,
that, “when the precaution of such training has not been adopted,
the sudden and dangerous terror with which a horse is seized in
coming unexpectedly upon one of them is excessive.”—_Note-book of a
Naturalist_, ch. iv. p. 113.
[20] Major ROGERS was many years the chief civil officer of the Ceylon
Government in the district of Ouvah, where he was killed by lightning,
1845.
[21] “Quidam etiam cum equis silvestribus pugnant. Sæpe unus elephas
cum sex equis committitur; atque ipse adeo interfui cum unus elephas
duos equos cum primo impetu protinus prosternerit;—injecta enim jugulis
ipsorum longa proboscide, ad se protractos, dentibus porro comminuit ac
protrivit.” (_Angli cujusdam in Cambayam navigatio._ DE BRY, _Coll._
_etc._ vol. iii. ch. xvi. p. 31.)
[22] To account for the impatience manifested by the elephant at the
presence of a dog, it has been suggested that he is alarmed lest the
latter should attack _his feet_, a portion of his body of which the
elephant is peculiarly careful. A tame elephant has been observed to
regard with indifference a spear directed towards his head, but to
shrink timidly from the same weapon when pointed at his feet.
[23] A writer in the _Indian Sporting Review_ for October 1857 says a
male elephant was killed by two others close to his camp: “the head
was completely smashed in; there was a large hole in the side, and the
abdomen was ripped open. The latter wound was given probably after it
had fallen.” (P. 175.)
[24] In the Third Book of Maccabees, which is not printed in our
Apocrypha, but appears in the series in the Greek Septuagint,
the author, in describing the persecution of the Jews by Ptolemy
Philopater, B.C. 210, states that the king swore vehemently that he
would send them into the other world, “foully trampled to death by the
knees and feet of elephants” (πέμψειν εἰς ᾅδην ἐν γόνασι καὶ ποσὶ θηρίων
ᾑκισμένους. 3 Mac. v. 42). ÆLIAN makes the remark, that elephants on
such occasions use their _knees_ as well as their feet to crush their
victim. (_Hist. Anim._ viii. 10.)
[25] The _Hastisilpe_, a Singhalese work which treats of the “Science
of Elephants,” enumerates amongst those which it is not desirable to
possess, “the elephant which will fight with a stone or a stick in his
trunk.”
[26] Among other eccentric forms, an elephant was seen in 1844, in the
district of Bintenne, near Friar’s-Hood Mountain, one of whose tusks
was so bent that it took what sailors term a “round turn,” and then
resumed its curved direction as before. In the Museum of the College of
Surgeons, London, there is a specimen, No 2757, of a _spiral_ tusk.
[27] Since the foregoing remarks were written relative to the undefined
use of tusks to the elephant, I have seen a speculation on the same
subject in Dr. HOLLAND’S “_Constitution of the Animal Creation, as
expressed in structural appendages_;” but the conjecture of the author
leaves the problem scarcely less obscure than before. Struck with the
mere _supplemental_ presence of the tusks, the absence of all apparent
use serving to distinguish them from the _essential_ organs of the
creature, Dr. HOLLAND concludes that their production is a process
incident, but not ancillary, to other important ends, especially
connected with the vital functions of the trunk and the marvellous
motive powers inherent to it; his conjecture is, that they are “a
species of safety valve of the animal œconomy,”—and that “they owe
their development to the predominance of the senses of touch and smell,
conjointly with the muscular motions of which the exercise of these is
accompanied.” “Had there been no proboscis,” he thinks, “there would
have been no supplementary appendages,—the former creates the latter.”
(Pp. 246, 271.)
[28] See _Notes on the Natural History of Ceylon_ by Sir J. EMERSON
TENNENT, p. 60. Sir S. BAKER adds as a distinctive feature of the
African elephant that its “back is concave while that of the Indian
variety is convex.” (_The Albert Nyanza_, vol. 1. p. 274.)
[29] A native of rank informed me, that “the tail of a high-caste
elephant will sometimes touch the ground, but such are very rare.”
[30] This is confirmed by the fact that the scar of the ancle wound,
occasioned by the rope on the legs of those which have been captured by
noosing, presents precisely the same tint when thoroughly healed.
[31] _Mahawanso_, ch. xxxviii. p. 254, A.D. 433.
[32] PALLEGOIX, _Siam_, _etc._ vol. i. p. 152.
[33] _Mahawanso_, ch. xviii. p. 111. The Hindu sovereigns of Orissa,
in the middle ages, bore the style of _Gajapati_, “powerful in
elephants.” (_Asiat. Res._ xv. 253.)
[34] Herod. l. i. c. 189.
[35] Ibid. l. ii. c. 38.
[36] ARMANDI, _Hist. Milit. des Eléphants_, lib. ii. c. x. p. 380.
HORACE mentions a white elephant as having been exhibited at Rome:
“Sive elephas albus vulgi converteret ora.” (HOR. _Ep._ ii. 196.)
[37] After writing the above, I was permitted by the late Dr. HARRISON,
of Dublin, to see some accurate drawings of the brain of an elephant,
which he had the opportunity of dissecting in 1847; and on looking
to that of the base, I have found a remarkable verification of the
information which I had previously collected in Ceylon.
The small figure A is the ganglion of the fifth nerve, showing the
small motor and large sensitive portion.
[Illustration]
The _olfactory lobes_, from which the olfactory nerves proceed,
are large, whilst the _optic and muscular nerves of the orbit are
singularly small_ for so vast an animal; and one is immediately struck
by the prodigious size of the fifth nerve, which supplies the proboscis
with its exquisite sensibility, as well as by the great size of the
motor portion of the seventh, which supplies the same organ with its
power of movement and action.
[38] _Menageries_, _etc._ “The Elephant,” p. 27.
[39] Major ROGERS. An account of this singular adventure will be found
in the _Ceylon Miscellany_ for 1842, vol. i. p. 221.
[40] _Menageries_, _etc._ “The Elephant,” ch. iii. p. 68.
[41] ARISTOTLE, _De Anim._ lib. iv. c. 9, ὁμοῖον σάλπιγγι. See also
PLINY, lib. x. ch. cxiii. A manuscript of the 15th century in the
British Museum, containing the romance of “_Alexander_,” which is
probably of the fifteenth century, is interspersed with drawings
illustrative of the strange animals of the East. Amongst them are two
elephants, whose trunks are literally in the form of _trumpets with
expanded mouths_. See WRIGHT’S _Archæological Album_, p. 176, and M.S.
Reg. 15, e. vi. Brit. Mus.
[Illustration]
[42] PALLEGOIX, in his _Description du Royaume Thai ou Siam_, adverts
to a sound produced by the elephant when weary: “quand il est fatigué,
_il frappe la terre avec sa trompe_, et en tire un son semblable à
celui du cor.” (Tom. i. p. 151.)
[43] For an explanation of the term “rogue” as applied to an elephant,
see p. 47.
[44] _Natural History of Animals._ By Sir JOHN HILL, M.D. London,
1748-52, p. 565. A probable source of these false estimates is
mentioned by a writer in the _Indian Sporting Review_ for Oct. 1857.
“Elephants were measured formerly, and even now, by natives, as to
their height, by throwing a rope over them, the ends brought to the
ground on each side, and half the length taken as the true height.
Hence the origin of elephants fifteen and sixteen feet high. A rod held
at right angles to the measuring rod, and parallel to the ground, will
rarely give more than ten feet, the majority being under nine.” (P. 159)
[45] SHAW’S _Zoology_. Lond. 1806. vol. i. p. 216; ARMANDI, _Hist.
Milit. des Eléphants_, liv. i. ch. i. p. 2.
[46] WOLF’S _Life and adventures_, _etc._ p. 164. Wolf was a native
of Mecklenburg, who arrived in Ceylon about 1750, as chaplain in one
of the Dutch East Indiamen, and having been taken into the Government
employment, he served for twenty years at Jaffna, first as Secretary
to the Governor, and afterwards in an office the duties of which
he describes to be the examination and signature of the “writings
which served to commence a suit in any of the courts of justice.”
His book embodies a truthful and generally accurate account of the
northern portion of the island, with which alone he was conversant,
and his narrative gives a curious insight into the policy of the Dutch
Government, and of the condition of the natives under their dominion.
[47] DENHAM’S _Travels_, _etc._ 4to, p. 220. Fossil remains of the
Indian elephant have been discovered at Jabalpur, showing a height of
fifteen feet. (_Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng._ vi.) Professor ANSTED in his
_Ancient World_, p. 197, says he was informed by Dr. Falconer “that out
of eleven hundred elephants from which the tallest were selected and
measured with care, on one occasion in India, there was not one whose
height equalled eleven feet.”
[48] _Vulgar Errors_, book iii. chap. 1. The earliest English writer
who promulgated this error was ALEXANDER NECKHAM, who in his treatise
_De Naturis Rerum_, composed in the 12th century, quotes Cassiodorus
and accepts his assertion that the elephant has no joints, chap.
cxliii. NECKHAM repeats the statement in his poem _De Laudibus Divinæ
Sapientiæ_, v. 47.
[49] Machlis (said to be derived from α, priv., and κλίνω, _cubo_, quod
non cubat). “Moreover in the island of Scandinavia there is a beast
called _Machlis_, that hath neither ioynt in the hough, nor pasternes
in his hind legs, and therefore he never lieth down, but sleepeth
leaning to a tree, wherefore the hunters that lie in wait for these
beasts cut downe the trees while they are asleepe, and so take them;
otherwise they should never be taken, they are so swift of foot that it
is wonderful.” (PLINY, _Natur. Hist._ Transl. Philemon Holland, book
viii. ch. xv. p. 200.)
[50] “Sunt item quæ appellantur _Alces_. Harum est consimilis capreis
figura, et varietas pellium; sed magnitudine paulo antecedunt,
mutilæque sunt cornibus, _et crura sine nodis articulisque habent_;
neque quietis causa procumbunt; neque, si quo afflictæ casu
considerunt, erigere sese aut sublevare possunt. His sunt arbores
pro cubilibus; ad eas sese applicant, atque ita, paulum modo
reclinatæ, quietem capiunt, quarum ex vestigiis cum est animadversum
a venatoribus, quo se recipere consueverint, omnes eo loco, aut a
radicibus subruunt aut accidunt arbores tantum, ut summa species earum
stantium relinquatur. Huc cum se consuetudine reclinaverint, infirmas
arbores pondere affligunt, atque una ipsæ concidunt.” (CÆSAR, _De Bello
Gall._ lib. vi. ch. xxvii.)
The same fiction was extended by the early Arabian travellers to the
rhinoceros, and in the MS. of the voyages of the “_Two Mahometans_,” it
is stated that the rhinoceros of Sumatra “n’a point d’articulation au
genou ni à la main.” (_Relations des Voyages_, _etc._ Paris, 1845, vol.
i. p. 29.)
[51] EVELYN, who was a contemporary and friend of Sir Thomas Browne,
observes in his diary, August 13, 1641, on arriving at Rotterdam, “here
I first saw an elephant: it was a beast of a monstrous size, yet as
flexible and nimble in the joints, contrary to the vulgar tradition, as
could be imagined from so prodigious a bulk and strange fabric.” (Vol.
i. p. 20.)
[52] In his _Natural History_, ARISTOTLE speaks of Ctesias as οὐκ ὣν
ἀξιόπιστος. (L. viii. c. 27.)
[53] “When an animal moves progressively an hypothenuse is produced,
which is equal in power to the magnitude that is quiescent, and to
that which is intermediate. But since the members are equal, it is
necessary that the member which is quiescent should be inflected either
in the knee or in the incurvation, _if the animal that walks is without
knees_. It is possible, however, for the leg to be moved, when not
inflected, in the same manner as infants creep; and there is an ancient
report of this kind about elephants, which is not true, for such
animals as these, _are moved in consequence of an inflection taking
place either in their shoulders or hips_.” (ARISTOTLE, _De Ingressu
Anim._ ch. ix. Taylor’s Transl.)
[54] ARISTOTLE, _De Animal_, lib. ii. ch. i. It is curious that Taylor,
in his translation of this passage, was so strongly imbued with the
“grey-headed errour,” that in order to elucidate the somewhat obscure
meaning of Aristotle, he has actually interpolated the text with the
exploded fallacy of Ctesias, and after the word reclining to sleep, has
inserted the words “_leaning against some wall or tree_,” which are not
to be found in the original.
[55] Ζῷον δὲ ἄναρθρον συνιέναι καὶ ῥυθμοῦ καὶ μέλους, καὶ φυλάττειν
σχῆμα φύσεως δῶρα ταῦτα ἅμα καὶ ἰδιότης καθ’ ἕκαστον ἐκπληκτική.
(ÆLIAN, _De Nat. Anim._ lib. ii. cap. xi.)
[56] EGINHARD, _Vita Karoli_, c. xvi. and _Annales Francorum_, A. D.
810.
[57] “Sed idem Julius, unum de elephantibus mentiens, falso loquitur;
dicens elephantem nunquam jacere; dum ille sicut bos certissime jacet,
ut populi communiter regni Francorum elephantem, in tempore Imperatoris
Karoli, viderunt. Sed, forsitan, ideo hoc de elephante ficte æstimando
scriptum est, eo quod genua et suffragines sui nisi quando jacet, non
palam apparent.” (DICUILUS, _De Mensura Orbis Terræ_, c. vii.)
[58] _Cotton MSS._ NERO. D. i. fol. 168, b.
[59] _Arundel MSS._ No. 292, fol. 4, &c. It has been printed in the
_Reliquiæ Antiquæ_, vol. i. p. 208, by Mr. WRIGHT, to whom I am
indebted for the following rendering of the passage referred to:—
in water ge sal stonden
in water to mid side
ðat wanne hire harde tide
ðat ge ne falle niðer nogt
ðat it most in hire ðogt
for he ne haven no lið
ðat he mugen risen wið, etc.
“They will stand in the water,
in water up to the middle of the side,
that when it comes to them hard,
they may not fall down:
that is most in their thought,
for they have no joint
to enable them to rise again.
How he resteth him this animal,
when he walketh abroad,
hearken how it is here told.
For he is all unwieldy,
forsooth he seeks out a tree,
that is strong and steadfast,
and leans confidently against it,
when he is weary of walking.
The hunter has observed this,
who seeks to ensnare him,
where his usual dwelling is,
to do his will;
saws this tree and props it
in the manner that he best may,
covers it well that he (the elephant) may not be on his guard.
Then he makes thereby a seat,
himself sits alone and watches
whether his trap takes effect.
Then cometh this unwieldy elephant,
and leans him on his side,
rests against the tree in the shadow,
and so both fall together,
if nobody be by when he falls,
he roars ruefully and calls for help,
roars ruefully in his manner,
hopes he shall through help rise.
Then cometh there one (elephant) in haste,
hopes he shall cause him to stand up;
labours and tries all his might,
but he cannot succeed a bit.
He knows then no other remedy,
but roars with his brother,
many and large (elephants) come there in search,
thinking to make him get up,
but for the help of them all
he may not get up.
Then they all roar one roar,
like the blast of a horn or the sound of bell;
for their great roaring
a young one cometh running,
stoops immediately to him,
puts his snout under him,
and asks the help of them all;
this elephant they raise on his legs:
and thus fails this hunter’s trick,
in the manner that I have told you.”
[60] One of the most venerable authorities by whom the fallacy was
transmitted to modern times was PHILIP DE THAUN, who wrote, about the
year 1121, A. D. his _Livre des Créatures_, dedicated to Adelaide of
Louvaine, Queen of Henry I. of England. In the copy of it printed by
the Historical Society of Science in 1841, and edited by Mr. WRIGHT,
the following passage occurs:—
“Et Ysidres nus dit ki le elefant descrit,
* * * * *
Es jambes par nature nen ad que une jointure,
Il ne pot pas gesir quant il se vol dormir,
Ke si cuchet estait par sei nen leverait;
Pur çeo li stot apuier, el lui del cucher,
U à arbre u à mur, idunc dort aseur.
E le gent de la terre, ki li volent con quere,
Li mur enfunderunt, u le arbre enciserunt;
Quant li elefant vendrat, ki s’i apuierat,
La arbre u le mur carrat, e il tribucherat;
Issi faiterement le parnent cele gent.”
P. 100.
[61] _Troilus and Cressida_, act ii. sc. 3. A. D. 1609.
[62] _Progress of the Soul_, A. D. 1633.
[63] Sir T. BROWNE, _Vulgar Errors_, A. D. 1646.
[64] RANDAL HOME’S _Academy of Armory_, A. D. 1671. HOME only
perpetuated the error of GUILLIM, who wrote his _Display of Heraldry_
in A. D. 1610; wherein he explains that the elephant is “so proud of
his strength that he never bows himself to any (_neither indeed can
he_), and when he is once down he cannot rise up again.” (Sec. iii. ch.
xii. p. 147.)
[65] THOMSON’S _Seasons_, A. D. 1728.
[66] So little is the elephant inclined to lie down in captivity, and
even after hard labour, that the keepers are generally disposed to
suspect illness when he betakes himself to this posture. PHILE, in
his poem _De Animalium Proprietate_, attributes the propensity of the
elephant to sleep on his legs, to the difficulty he experiences in
rising to his feet:
Ὀρθοστάδην δὲ καὶ καθεύδει παννύχως
Ὅτ’ οὺκ ἀναστῆσαι μὲν εὐχερῶς πέλει.
But this is a misapprehension.
[67] _Menageries_, _etc._ “The Elephant,” ch. i.
Sir CHARLES BELL, in his essay on _The Hand and its Mechanism_,
which forms one of the “Bridgewater Treatises,” has exhibited the
reasons deducible from organisation, which show the incapacity of the
elephant to _spring_ or _leap_ like the horse and other animals whose
structure is designed to facilitate agility and speed. In them the
various bones of the shoulder and fore limbs, especially the clavicle
and humerus, are set at such an angle, that the shock in descending
is modified, and the joints and sockets protected from the injury
occasioned by concussion. But in the elephant, where the weight of the
body is immense, the bones of the leg, in order to present solidity
and strength to sustain it, are built in one firm and perpendicular
column; instead of being placed somewhat obliquely at their points of
contact. Thus whilst the force of the weight in descending is broken
and distributed by this arrangement in the case of the horse; it would
be so concentrated in the elephant as to endanger every joint from the
toe to the shoulder.
[Illustration]
[68] _Menageries_, _etc._ “The Elephant,” ch. ii.
[69] Dr. HOOKER, in describing the ascent of the Himalayas, says, the
natives in making their paths despise all zigzags, and run in straight
lines up the steepest hill faces; whilst “the elephant’s path is an
excellent specimen of engineering—the opposite of the native track,—for
it winds judiciously.” (_Himalayan Journal_, vol. i. ch. iv.)
[70] _Ceylon Observer_, March 1865.
[71] Since the above passage was written, I have seen in the _Journal
of the Asiatic Society of Bengal_, vol. xiii. pt. ii. p. 916, a paper
upon this subject, illustrated by the subjoined diagram.
The writer says, “an elephant descending a bank of too acute an angle
to admit of his walking down it direct, (which, were he to attempt, his
huge body, soon disarranging the centre of gravity, would certainly
topple over,) proceeds thus. His first manœuvre is to kneel down close
to the edge of the declivity, placing his chest to the ground: one
fore leg is then cautiously passed a short way down the slope; and if
there is no natural protection to afford a firm footing, he speedily
forms one by stamping into the soil if moist, or kicking out a footing
if dry. This point gained, the other fore leg is brought down in the
same way; and performs the same work, a little in advance of the first;
which is thus at liberty to move lower still. Then, first one and then
the second of the hind legs is carefully drawn over the side, and the
hind feet in turn occupy the resting-places previously used and left
by the fore ones. The course, however, in such precipitous ground is
not straight from top to bottom, but slopes along the face of the bank,
descending till the animal gains the level below. This an elephant has
done, at an angle of 45 degrees, carrying a _howdah_, its occupant,
his attendant, and sporting apparatus; and in a much less time than it
takes to describe the operation.” I have observed that an elephant in
descending a declivity uses his knees, on the side next the bank; and
his feet on the lower side only.
[Illustration]
[72] A correspondent of Buffon, M. MARCELLUS BLES, Seigneur de
Moergestal, who resided eleven years in Ceylon in the time of the
Dutch, says in one of his communications, that in herds of forty or
fifty, enclosed in a single corral, there were frequently very young
calves; and that “on ne pouvoit pas reconnoître quelles étoient les
mères de chacun de ces petits éléphans, car tous ces jeunes animaux
paroissent faire manse commune; ils têtent indistinctement celles
des femelles de toute la troupe qui ont du lait, soit qu’elles aient
elles-mêmes un petit en propre, soit qu’elles n’en aient point.”
(BUFFON, _Suppl. à l’Hist. des Anim._ vol. vi. p. 25.)
[73] WHITE, in his _Natural History of Selbourne_, philosophising on
the fact which had fallen under his own notice of this indiscriminate
suckling of the young of one animal by the parent of another, is
disposed to ascribe it to a selfish feeling; the pleasure and relief
of having its distended teats drawn by this intervention. He notices
the circumstance of a leveret having been thus nursed by a cat, whose
kittens had been recently drowned; and observes that “this strange
affection was probably occasioned by that desiderium, those tender
maternal feelings, which the loss of her kittens had awakened in her
breast; and by the complacency and ease she derived to herself from
procuring her teats to be drawn, which were too much distended with
milk; till from habit she became as much delighted with this foundling
as if it had been her real offspring. This incident is no bad solution
of that strange circumstance which grave historians, as well as the
poets, assert of exposed children being sometimes nurtured by female
wild beasts that probably had lost their young. For it is not one whit
more marvellous that Romulus and Remus in their infant state should be
nursed by a she wolf than that a poor little suckling leveret should
be fostered and cherished by a bloody Grimalkin.” (WHITE’S _Selborne_,
lett. xx.) General SLEAMAN in his narrative of a journey through Oude
gives some remarkable narratives of children suckled by wolves and
found associating with their cubs.
[74] The term “rogue” is scarcely sufficiently accounted for by
supposing it to be the English equivalent for the Singhalese word
_Hora_. In that very curious book, the _Life and Adventures of_ JOHN
CHRISTOPHER WOLF, _late principal Secretary at Jaffnapatam in Ceylon_,
see _ante_, note, p. 31, the author says, when a male elephant in a
quarrel about the females “is beat out of the field and obliged to go
without a consort, he becomes furious and mad, killing every living
creature, be it man or beast; and in this state is called _ronkedor_,
an object of greater terror to a traveller than a hundred wild ones.”
(P. 142.) In another passage, p. 164, he is called _runkedor_, and
I have seen it spelt elsewhere _ronquedue_. WOLF does not give
“_ronkedor_” as a term peculiar to that section of the island; but both
there and elsewhere, it is obsolete at the present day, unless it be
open to conjecture that the modern term “rogue” is a modification of
_ronquedue_.
[75] BUCHANAN, in his _Survey of Bhagulpore_, p. 503, says that
solitary males of the wild buffalo, “when driven from the herd by
stronger competitors for female society, are reckoned very dangerous to
meet with; for they are apt to wreak their vengeance on whatever they
meet, and are said to kill annually three or four people.” LIVINGSTONE
relates the same of the solitary hippopotamus, which becomes soured in
temper, and wantonly attacks the passing canoes. (_Travels in South
Africa_, p. 231.)
[76] Letter from Major SKINNER.
[77] This peculiarity was known in the middle ages, and PHILE, writing
in the fourteenth century, says, that such is his _preference_ for
muddy water that the elephant _stirs it_ before he drinks.
Ὕδωρ δὲ πίνει συγχυθὲν πρὶν ἂν πίνοι,
Τὸ γὰρ διειδὲς ἀκριβῶς διαπτύει.
PHILE _de Eleph._ i. 144.
[78] A tame elephant, when taken by his keepers to be bathed, and
to have his skin washed and rubbed, lies down on his side, pressing
his head to the bottom under water, with only the top of his trunk
protruded, to breathe.
[79] BRODERIP’S _Zoological Recreations_, p. 259.
[80] For observing the osteology of the elephant, materials are
of course abundant in the indestructible remains of the animal:
but the study of the intestines, and the dissection of the softer
parts by comparative anatomists in Europe, have been up to the
present time beset by difficulties. These arise not alone from the
rarity of subjects, but even in cases where elephants have died in
these countries, decomposition interposes, and before the thorough
examination of so vast a body can be satisfactorily completed, the
great mass falls into putrefaction.
The principal English authorities are _An Anatomical Account of the
Elephant accidentally burnt in Dublin_, by A. MOLYNEUX, A.D. 1696;
which is probably a reprint of a letter on the same subject in the
library of Trinity College, Dublin, addressed by A. Moulin to Sir
William Petty, Lond. 1682. There are also some papers communicated
to Sir Hans Sloane, and afterwards published in the _Philosophical
Transactions_ of the year 1710, by Dr. P. BLAIR, who had an opportunity
of dissecting an elephant which died at Dundee in 1708. The latter
writer observes that, “notwithstanding the vast interest attaching
to the elephant in all ages, yet has its body been hitherto very
little subjected to anatomical inquiries;” and he laments that the
rapid decomposition of the carcase, and other causes, had interposed
obstacles to the scrutiny of the subject he was so fortunate as to find
access to.
In 1723 Dr. WM. STUCKLEY published _Some Anatomical Observations made
upon the Dissection of an Elephant_; but each of the above essays is
necessarily unsatisfactory, and little has since been done to supply
their defects. One of the latest and most valuable contributions to the
subject, is a paper read before the Royal Irish Academy, on the 18th of
Feb. 1847, by Professor HARRISON, who had the opportunity of dissecting
an Indian elephant which died of acute fever; but the examination, so
far as he has made it public, extends only to the cranium, the brain,
and the proboscis, the larynx, trachea, and œsophagus. An essential
service would be rendered to science if some sportsman in Ceylon, or
some of the officers connected with the elephant establishment there,
would take the trouble to forward the carcase of a young one to England
in a state fit for dissection.
_Postscriptum._—I am happy to say that a young elephant, carefully
preserved in spirits, has recently been obtained in Ceylon, and
forwarded to Prof. Owen, of the British Museum, by the joint exertions
of M. DIARD and Major SKINNER. An opportunity has thus been afforded of
which science will reap the advantage, of devoting a patient attention
to the internal structure of this most interesting animal.
[81] ARISTOTLE noticed a peculiarity in the intestinal configuration of
the elephant such as gave it the appearance of having four stomachs.
_De Anim. Hist._ l; ii. c. 17.
[82] The passage as quoted by BUFFON from the _Mémoires_ is as
follows:—“L’estomac avoit peu de diamètre; il en avoit moins que le
colon, car son diamètre n’étoit que de quatorze pouces dans la partie
la plus large; il avoit trois pieds et demi de longueur: l’orifice
supérieur étoit à peu près aussi éloigné du pylore que du fond du
grand cul-de-sac qui se terminoit en une pointe composée de tuniques
beaucoup plus épaisses que celles du reste de l’estomac; il y avoit au
fond du grand cul-de-sac plusieurs feuillets épais d’une ligne, larges
d’un pouce et demi, et disposés irrégulièrement; le reste des parois
intérieures étoit percé de plusieurs petits trous et par de plus grands
qui correspondoient à des grains glanduleux.” (BUFFON, _Hist. Nat._
vol. xi. p. 109.)
[83] “L’extrémité voisine du cardiaque se termine par une poche
très-considérable et doublée à l’intérieure de quatorze valvules
orbiculaires qui semblent en faire une espèce de division
particulière.” (CAMPER, _Description anatomique d’un Eléphant mâle_, p.
37, tabl. IX.)
[84] “The elephant has another peculiarity in the internal structure
of the stomach. It is longer and narrower than that of most animals.
The cuticular membrane of the œsophagus terminates at the orifice of
the stomach. At the cardiac end, which is very narrow and pointed at
the extremity, the lining is thick and glandular, and is thrown into
transverse folds, of which five are broad and nine narrow. That nearest
the orifice of the œsophagus is the broadest, and appears to act
occasionally as a valve, so that the part beyond may be considered as
an appendage similar to that of the peccary and the hog. The membrane
of the cardiac portion is uniformly smooth; that of the pyloric is
thicker and more vascular.” (_Lectures on Comparative Anatomy_, by
Sir EVERARD HOME, Bart. 4to. Lond. vol. i. p. 155. The figure of the
elephant’s stomach is given in his _Lectures_, vol. ii. plate xviii.)
[85] A similar arrangement, with some modifications, has more recently
been found in the llama of the Andes, which, like the camel, is used
as a beast of burden in the Cordilleras of Chili and Peru; but both
these and the camel are _ruminants_, whilst the elephant belongs to the
Pachydermata.
[86] _Proceed. Roy. Irish. Acad._ vol. iv. p. 133.
[87] _Ayeen Akbery_, transl. by GLADWIN, vol. i. pt. i. p. 147.
[88] One of the Indian names for the elephant is _duipa_, which
signifies “to drink twice.” (AMANDI, p. 513.) Can this have reference
to the peculiarity of the stomach for retaining a supply of water? Or
has it merely reference to the habit of the animal to fill his trunk
before transferring the water to his mouth?
[89] The buffalo and the humped cattle of India, which are used for
draught and burden, have, I believe, a development somewhat more
conspicuous than in the rest of their congeners, of the organisation of
the reticulum which enables the ruminants generally to endure thirst,
and abstain from water, but nothing in them approaches in singularity
of character to the distinct cavities in the stomach exhibited by the
three animals above alluded to.
[90] For an explanation of this term, see Sir J. EMERSON TENNENT’S
_Ceylon_, _etc._ vol. i. p. 498.
[91] “One of the strongest instincts which the elephant possesses, is
this which impels him to experiment upon the solidity of every surface
which he is required to cross.”—_Menageries_, _etc._ “The Elephant,”
vol. i. pp. 17, 19, 66.
[92] WOLF’S _Life and Adventures_, p. 151.
[93] _Private Letter_ from Dr. DAVY, author of _An Account of the
Interior of Ceylon_.
[94] The _Colombo Observer_ for March 1858, contains an offer of a
reward of twenty-five guineas for the destruction of an elephant which
infested the Rajawallé coffee plantation, in the vicinity of Kandy.
Its object seemed to be less the search for food, than the satisfying
of its curiosity and the gratification of its passion for mischief.
Mr. TYTLER, the proprietor, states that it frequented the jungle near
the estate, whence it was its custom to sally forth at night for the
pleasure of pulling down buildings and trees, “and it seemed to have
taken a spite at the pipes of the waterworks, the pillars of which
it several times broke down—its latest fancy being to wrench off the
taps.” This elephant has since been shot.
[95] CUVIER, _Règne Animal_. “Les Mammifères,” p. 280.
[96] _Table Talk_, p. 63.
[97] The elephant is believed by the Singhalese to express his
uneasiness by his voice, on the approach of _rain_; and the Tamils have
a proverb,—“_Listen to the elephant, rain is coming._”
[98] Yokes borne on the shoulder with a package at each end.
[99] The tutelary spirit of the sacred mountain, Adam’s Peak.
[100] The Singhalese hold the belief, that twigs taken from one bush
and placed on another growing close to a pathway, ensure protection
to travellers from the attacks of wild animals, and especially of
elephants. Can it be that the latter avoid the path, on discovering
this evidence of the proximity of recent passengers?
[101] A rogue elephant.
[102] Woman’s robe.
[103] The figured cloth worn by men.
[104] To persons like myself, who are not addicted to what is called
“sport,” the statement of these wholesale slaughters is calculated to
excite surprise and curiosity as to the nature of a passion that impels
men to self-exposure and privation, in a pursuit which presents nothing
but the monotonous recurrence of scenes of blood and suffering. Sir
S. BAKER, who has recently published, under the title of “_The Rifle
and the Hound in Ceylon_,” an account of his exploits in the forest,
gives us the assurance that “_all real sportsmen are tender-hearted
men, who shun cruelty to an animal, and are easily moved by a tale of
distress_,” and that although man is naturally bloodthirsty, and a
beast of prey by instinct, yet that the true sportsman is distinguished
from the rest of the human race by his “_love of nature and of noble
scenery_.” In support of this pretension to a gentler nature than the
rest of mankind, the author proceeds to attest his own abhorrence of
cruelty by narrating the sufferings of an old hound, which, although
“toothless,” he cheered on to assail a boar at bay, but the poor dog
recoiled “covered with blood, cut nearly in half, with a wound fourteen
inches in length, from the lower part of the belly, passing up the
flank, completely severing the muscles of the hind leg, and extending
up the spine; his hind leg having the appearance of being nearly off.”
In this state, forgetful of the character he had so lately given of
the true sportsman, as a lover of nature and a hater of cruelty, he
encouraged “the poor old dog,” as he calls him, to resume the fight
with the boar, which lasted for an hour, when he managed to call the
dogs off; and, perfectly exhausted, the mangled hound crawled out of
the jungle with several additional wounds, including a severe gash
in his throat. “He fell from exhaustion, and we made a litter with
two poles and a horsecloth to carry him home.” (P. 314.) If such were
the habitual enjoyments of this class of sportsmen, their motiveless
massacres would admit of no manly justification. In comparison with
them one is disposed to regard almost with favour the exploits of a
hunter like Major ROGERS, who is said to have applied the value of
the ivory obtained from his encounters towards the purchase of his
successive regimental commissions, and had, therefore, an object,
however disproportionate, in his slaughter of 1,400 elephants.
One gentleman in Ceylon, not less distinguished for his genuine
kindness of heart, than for his marvellous success in shooting
elephants, avowed to me that the eagerness with which he found himself
impelled to pursue them had often excited surprise in his own mind;
and although he had never read the theory of Lord Kames, or the
speculations of Vicesimus Knox, he had come to the conclusion that the
passion thus excited within him was a remnant of the hunter’s instinct,
with which man was originally endowed to enable him, by the chase, to
support existence in a state of nature, and which, though rendered
dormant by civilisation, had not been utterly eradicated.
This theory is at least more consistent and intelligible than the “love
of nature and scenery,” sentimentally propounded by the author quoted
above.
[105] The vulnerability of the elephant in this region of the head was
known to the ancients, and PLINY, describing a combat of elephants in
the amphitheatre at Rome, says, that one was slain by a single blow,
“pilum sub oculo adactum, in vitalia capitis venerat.” (Lib. viii. c.
7.) Notwithstanding the comparative facility of access to the brain
afforded at this spot, an ordinary leaden bullet is not certain to
penetrate, and frequently becomes flattened. The hunters, to counteract
this, are accustomed to harden the ball, by the introduction of a small
portion of type-metal along with the lead.
[106] “The head is so peculiarly formed that the ball either passes
over the brain, or lodges in the immensely solid bones and cartilages
that contain the roots of the tusks.... The brain of the African
species, he says, rests upon a plate of bone exactly above the roots of
the upper grinders and is thus wonderfully protected from a front shot,
as it lies so low that the ball passes over it when the elephant raises
his head, which he invariably does when in anger, until close to the
object of his attack.... I had always held the opinion that the African
elephant might be killed with the same facility as that of Ceylon _by a
forehead shot_; but I have found by much experience that I was entirely
wrong and that although by chance an African elephant may be killed by
the front shot, it is the exception to the rule.” (_The Albert Nyanza_,
vol. i. p. 277.)
[107] In Mr. GORDON CUMMING’S account of a _Hunter’s Life in South
Africa_, there is a narrative of his pursuit of a wounded elephant
which he had lamed by lodging a ball in its shoulder-blade. It limped
slowly towards a tree, against which it leaned itself in helpless
agony, whilst its pursuer seated himself in front of it, in safety, to
_boil his coffee_, and observe its sufferings. The story is continued
as follows:—“Having admired him for a considerable time, _I resolved
to make experiments on vulnerable points_; and approaching very near
I fired several bullets at different parts of his enormous skull. He
only acknowledged the shots by a salaam-like movement of his trunk,
with the point of which he gently touched the wounds with a striking
and peculiar action. Surprised and shocked at finding that I was only
prolonging the sufferings of the noble beast, which bore its trials
with such dignified composure, I resolved to finish the proceeding
with all possible despatch, and accordingly opened fire upon him from
the left side, aiming at the shoulder. I first fired _six_ shots with
the two-grooved rifle, which must have eventually proved mortal. After
which I fired _six_ shots at the same part with the Dutch six-pounder.
_Large tears now trickled from his eyes, which he slowly shut and
opened, his colossal frame shivered convulsively, and falling on his
side, he expired._” (Vol. ii. p. 10.)
In another place, after detailing the manner in which he assailed
a poor animal, he says: “I was loading and firing as fast as could
be, sometimes at the head, sometimes behind the shoulder, until my
elephant’s fore-quarter was a mass of gore; notwithstanding which he
continued to hold on, leaving the grass and branches of the forest
scarlet in his wake.... Having fired _thirty-five rounds_ with my
two-grooved rifle, I opened upon him with the Dutch six-pounder, and
when forty bullets had perforated his hide, he began for the first
time to evince signs of a dilapidated constitution.” The disgusting
description is closed thus: “Throughout the charge he repeatedly cooled
his person with large quantities of water, which he ejected from his
trunk over his sides and back, and just as the pangs of death came over
him, he stood trembling violently beside a thorn tree, and kept pouring
water into his bloody mouth until he died, when he pitched heavily
forward with the whole weight of his fore-quarters resting on the
points of his tusks. The strain was fair, and the tusks did not yield;
but the portion of his head in which the tusks were embedded, extending
a long way above the eye, yielded and burst with a muffled crash.”
(_Ib._ vol. ii. pp. 4, 5.)
[108] _The Rifle and the Hound in Ceylon_; by Sir S. BAKER, pp. 8, 9.
“Next to a rogue in ferocity, and even more persevering in the pursuit
of her victim, is a female elephant.” But he appends the significant
qualification, “_when her young one has been killed_.” (_Ibid._ p. 13.)
[109] _The Rifle and the Hound_, p. 13.
[110] _Menageries_ _etc._ “The Elephant,” ch. i. p. 21.
[111] _System of Phrenology_, by GEO. COMBE, vol. i. p. 256.
[112] Private letter from Capt. PHILIP PAYNE GALLWEY.
[113] Some years ago an elephant which had been wounded by a native,
near Hambangtotte, pursued the man into the town, followed him along
the street, trampled him to death in the bazaar before a crowd of
terrified spectators, and succeeded in making good its retreat to the
jungle.
[114] SHAW, in his _Zoology_, asserts that an elephant can run as
swiftly as a horse can gallop. London, 1800-6, vol. i. p. 216.
[115] The device of taking them by means of pitfalls still prevails
in India; but in addition to the difficulty of providing against that
caution with which the elephant is supposed to reconnoitre suspicious
ground, it has the further disadvantage of exposing him to injury
from bruises and dislocations in his fall. Still it was the mode of
capture employed by the Singhalese, and so late as 1750 WOLF relates
that the native chiefs of the Wanny, when capturing elephants for
the Dutch, made “pits some fathoms deep in those places whither the
elephant is wont to go in search of food, across which were laid poles
covered with branches and baited with the food of which he is fondest,
making towards which he finds himself taken unawares. Thereafter being
subdued by fright and exhaustion, he was assisted to raise himself to
the surface by means of hurdles and earth, which he placed underfoot
as they were thrown down to him, till he was enabled to step out on
solid ground, when the noosers and decoys were in readiness to tie him
up to the nearest tree.” (See WOLF’S _Life and Adventures_, p. 152.)
Shakspeare appears to have been acquainted with the plan of taking
elephants in pitfalls: Decius, encouraging the conspirators, reminds
them of Cæsar’s taste for anecdotes of animals, by which he would
undertake to lure him to his fate:
“For he loves to hear
That unicorns may be betrayed with trees,
And bears with glasses: _elephants with holes_.”
JULIUS CÆSAR, Act ii. Scene I.
[116] KNOX’S _Historical Relation of Ceylon_, A. D. 1681, part i. ch.
vi. p. 21.
[117] Previous to the death of the female elephant in the Zoological
Gardens, in the Regent’s Park, in 1851, Mr. MITCHELL, the Secretary,
caused measurements to be accurately made, and found the statement
of the Singhalese hunters to be strictly correct, the height at the
shoulders being precisely twice the circumference of the fore foot. In
an African elephant killed by Sir S. Baker, this proportion did not
hold good, as the circumference of the fore foot was 4 feet 11-1/4
inches, and the height at the shoulder 10 feet 6-1/2 inches. (BAKER,
_The Albert Nyanza_, vol. ii. p. 10.)
[118] Major SKINNER, the Chief Officer at the head of the Commission of
Roads, in Ceylon, in writing to me, mentions an anecdote illustrative
of the daring of the Panickeas. “I once saw,” he says, “a very
beautiful example of the confidence with which these fellows, from
their knowledge of the elephants, meet their worst defiance. It was
in Neuera-Kalawa; I was bivouacking on the bank of a river, and had
been kept out so late that I did not get to my tent until between 9
and 10 at night. On our return towards it we passed several single
elephants making their way to the nearest water, but at length we came
upon a large herd that had taken possession of the only road by which
we could pass, and which no intimidation would induce to move off. I
had some Panickeas with me; they knew the herd, and counselled extreme
caution. After trying every device we could think of for a length
of time, a little old Moorman of the party came to me and requested
we should all retire to a distance. He then took a couple of chules
(flambeaux of dried wood, or coco-nut leaves), one in each hand, and
waving them above his head till they flamed out fiercely, he advanced
at a deliberate pace to within a few yards of the elephant who was
acting as leader of the party, and who was growling and trumpeting in
his rage, and flourished the flaming torches in his face. The effect
was instantaneous; the whole herd dashed away in a panic, bellowing,
screaming, and crushing through the underwood, whilst we availed
ourselves of the open path to make our way to our tents.”
[119] In the _Philosophical Transactions_ for 1701, there is “An
Account of the taking of Elephants in Ceylon, by Mr. STRACHAN, a
Physician who lived seventeen years there,” in which the author
describes the manner in which they were shipped by the Dutch, at
Matura, Galle, and Negombo. A piece of strong sail-cloth having been
wrapped round the elephant’s chest and stomach he was forced into the
sea between two tame ones, and there made fast to a boat. The tame ones
then returned to land, and he swam after the boat to the ship, where
tackle was reeved to the sail-cloth, and he was hoisted on board.
“But a better way has been invented lately,” says Mr. Strachan; “a
large flat-bottomed vessel is prepared, covered with planks like a
floor; so that this floor is almost of a height with the key. Then
the sides of the key and the vessel are adorned with green branches,
so that the elephant sees no water till he is in the ship.” (_Phil.
Trans._ vol. xxiii. No. 227, p. 1051.)
[120] VALENTYN, _Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien_, ch. xv. p. 272.
[121] It is thus spelled by WOLF, in his _Life and Adventures_, p. 144.
_Corral_ is at the present day a household word in South America, and
especially in La Plata, to designate an _enclosure for cattle_.
[122] See Sir J. EMERSON TENNENT’S _Ceylon_ vol. I. pt. III. ch. xii.
p. 415.
[123] Another enormous mass of gneiss is called the Kuruminiagalla,
or the Beetle-rock, from its resemblance in shape to the back of that
insect, and hence is said to have been derived the name of the town,
_Kuruna-galle_ or Korne-galle.
[124] FORBES quotes a Tamil conveyance of land, the purchaser of
which is to “possess and enjoy it as long as the sun and the moon,
the earth and its vegetables, the mountains and the River Cauvery
exist.” (_Oriental Memoirs_, vol. ii. chap. ii.) It will not fail to
be observed, that the same figure was employed in Hebrew literature as
a type of duration—“They shall fear thee, _so long as the sun and moon
endure_; throughout all generations.” (Psalm lxxii. 5, 17.)
[125] _Pentaptera paniculata._
[126] _Entada pursætha._
[127] Fire, the sound of a horn, and the grunting of a boar are the
three things which the Greeks, in the middle ages, believed the
elephant specially to dislike:
Πῦρ δὲ πτοεῖται καὶ κριὸν κερασφόρον,
Καὶ τῶν μονιῶν τὴν βοὴν τὴν ἀθρόαν.
PHILE, _Expositio de Elephante_, 1. 177.
[128] The other elephant, a fine tusker, which belonged to Dehigam
Raté-mahat-meya, continued in extreme excitement throughout all the
subsequent operations of the capture, and at last, after attempting
to break its way into the corral, shaking the bars with its forehead
and tusks, it went off in a state of frenzy into the jungle. A few
days after the Aratchy went in search of it with a female decoy, and
watching its approach, sprang fairly on the infuriated beast, with a
pair of sharp hooks in his hands, which he pressed into tender parts in
front of the shoulder, and thus held the elephant firmly till chains
were passed over its legs, and it permitted itself to be led quietly
away.
[129] In some of the elephant hunts conducted in the southern provinces
of Ceylon by the earlier British Governors, as many as 170 and 200
elephants were secured in a single corral, of which a portion only
were taken out for the public service, and the rest shot, the motive
being to rid the neighbourhood of them, and thus protect the crops
from destruction. On the occasion here described, the object being to
secure only as many as were required for the Government stud, it was
not sought to entrap more than could conveniently be attended to and
trained after capture.
[130] This elephant is since dead; she grew infirm and diseased, and
died at Colombo in 1848. Her skeleton is now in the Museum of the
Natural History Society at Belfast.
[131] The fact of the elephant exhibiting timidity, on having a long
rod pointed towards him, was known to the Romans; and PLINY, quoting
from the annals of PISO, relates, that in order to inculcate contempt
for want of courage in the elephant, they were introduced into the
circus during the triumph of METELLUS, after the conquest of the
Carthaginians in Sicily, and _driven round the area by workmen holding
blunted spears_,—“Ab operariis hastas præpilatas habentibus, per circum
totum actos.” (_Nat. Hist._ lib. viii. c. 6.)
[132] “In a corral, to be on a tame elephant, seems to insure perfect
immunity from the attacks of the wild ones. I once saw the old chief
Mollegodde ride in amongst a herd of wild elephants, on a small
elephant; so small that the Adigar’s head was on a level with the back
of the wild animals: I felt very nervous, but he rode right in among
them, and received not the slightest molestation.”—_Letter from Major_
SKINNER.