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In this volume, the chapters descriptive of the structure and habits of the wild elephant are reprinted for the sixth time from a larger work,1 published originally in 1859. Since the appearance of the First Edition, many corrections and much additional matter have been supplied to me, chiefly from India and Ceylon, and will be found embodied in the following pages.

To one of these in particular I feel bound to direct attention. In the course of a more enlarged essay on the zoology of Ceylon,2 amongst other proofs of a geological origin for that island, distinct from that of the adjacent continent of India, as evidenced by peculiarities in the flora and fauna of each respectively, I had occasion to advert to a discovery which had been recently announced by Temminck in his Survey of the Dutch possessions in the Indian Archipelago,3 that the elephant which abounds in Sumatra (although unknown in the adjacent island of Java), and which had theretofore been regarded as identical in species with the Indian one, has been found to possess peculiarities, in which it differs as much from the elephant of India as the latter does from its African congener. On this new species, to which the natives give the name of “gadjah,” Temminck has conferred the scientific designation of the Elephas Sumatranus. The points which entitle it to this distinction he enumerates minutely in the work4 before alluded to, and they have been summarized as follows by Prince Lucien Bonaparte.

“This species is perfectly intermediate between the Indian and African, especially in the shape of the skull, and will certainly put an end to the distinction between Elephas and Loxodon, with those who admit that anatomical genus; since although the crowns of the teeth of E. Sumatranus are more like the Asiatic animal, still the less numerous undulated ribbons of enamel are nearly quite as wide as those forming the lozenges of the African. The number of pairs of false ribs (which alone vary, the true ones being always six) is fourteen, one less than in the Africanus, one more than in the Indicus; and so it is with the dorsal vertebræ, which are twenty in the Sumatranus (twenty-one and nineteen in the others), whilst the new species agrees with Africanus in the number of sacral vertebræ (four), and with Indicus in that of the caudal ones, which are thirty-four.”5

Professor Schlegel of Leyden, in a paper lately submitted by him to the Royal Academy of Sciences of Holland, (the substance of which he obligingly communicated to me, through Baron Bentinck the Netherlands Minister at this Court), confirmed the identity of the Ceylon elephant with that found in the Lampongs of Sumatra. The osteological comparison of which Temminck has given the results was, he says, conducted by himself with access to four skeletons of the latter; and the more recent opportunity of comparing a living Sumatran elephant with one from Bengal, served to establish other though minor points of divergence. The Indian species is more robust and powerful; the proboscis longer and more slender; and the extremity, (a point in which the elephant of Sumatra resembles that of Africa,) is more flattened and provided with coarser and longer hair than that of India.

Professor Schlegel, adverting to the large export of elephants from Ceylon to the Indian continent, which has been carried on from time immemorial, suggests the caution with which naturalists, in investigating this question, should first satisfy themselves whether the elephants they examine are really natives of the mainland, or whether they have been brought to it from the islands. “The extraordinary fact,” he observes in his letter to me, “of the identity thus established between the elephants of Ceylon and Sumatra, and the points in which they are found to differ from that of Bengal, leads to the question whether all the elephants of the Asiatic continent belong to one single species; or whether these vast regions may not produce in some quarter as yet unexplored the one hitherto found only in the two islands referred to? It is highly desirable that naturalists who have the means and opportunity, should exert themselves to discover, whether any traces are to be found of the Ceylon elephant in the Dekkan; or of that of Sumatra in Cochin China or Siam.”

To me the establishment of a fact so conclusively confirmatory of the theory I had ventured to broach, was productive of great satisfaction. But in an essay by Dr. Falconer, since published in the Natural History Review for January 1863, “On the Living and Extinct Species of Elephants,” he adduces reasons for questioning the accuracy of these views as to Elephas Sumatranus. The idea of a specific distinction between the elephants of India and Ceylon, Dr. Falconer shows to have been propounded as far back as 1834, by Mr. B. H. Hodgson, the eminent ethnologist and explorer of the zoology of Nepal; Dr. Falconer’s own inspection however of the examples of both as preserved in the Museum of Leyden, not only did not lead him to accept the later conclusion of Schlegel and Temminck, but induced him to doubt the correctness of the statements published by the Prince of Canino, both as to the external and the osteological characters of the Indian elephant. As to the former, he declares that the differences between it and the elephant of Ceylon are so trifling, as not to exceed similar peculiarities observable between elephants taken in different regions of continental India, where an experienced mahout will tell at a glance, whether a newly captured animal was taken in the Sal forests of the North-Western Provinces, in Assam, in Silhet, Chittagong, Tipperah, or Cuttack. The osteological distinctions and the odontography, Dr. Falconer contends, are insufficient to sustain the alleged separateness of species. He equally discredits the alleged differences regarding the ribs and dorsal vertebræ, and he concludes that, “on a review of the whole case, the evidence in every aspect appears to him to fail in showing that the elephant of Ceylon and Sumatra is of a species distinct from that of continental India.”6 He thinks it right, however, to add, that the subject is one which “should be thoroughly investigated,” as the hasty assumption that the elephants of Ceylon and Sumatra belong to distinct species has been put forward to support the conjecture of a geological formation for the island of Ceylon distinct from that of the mainland of India; a proposition to which Dr. Falconer is not prepared to accede.

Having ventured to originate the latter theory, and having sustained it by Schlegel’s authority as regards the elephant of Sumatra, I think it is incumbent on me to give becoming prominence to the opposite view entertained by one so eminently entitled to consideration as Dr. Falconer.

In the course of my observations on the structure and functions of the elephant, I have ventured an opinion that an animal of such ponderous and peculiar construction, is formed chiefly for progression by easy and steady paces, and is too weighty and unwieldy to leap, at least to any considerable height or distance. But this opinion I felt bound to advance with reserve, as I had seen in an interesting article in the Colombo Observer for March 1866, descriptive of a recent corral, the statement that an infuriated elephant had “fairly leaped a barrier 15 feet high, only carrying away the upper crossbeam with a crash.” (See p. 40.) Doubtful of some inaccuracy in the measurements, I took the precaution of writing to Mr. Ferguson, the editor, to solicit further enquiry. Since the following pages have been printed, I have received from that gentleman the correction, which I now subjoin.

“My dear Sir Emerson—I have just had a letter from Mr. Samuel Jayetileke, the Cutchery Modliar of Kornegalle, in reply to my queries about the height of the fence over which the elephant sprang. The result is the usual one whenever exact measurements are substituted for guess-work: I stated 15 feet as the height of the fence, and this was the information given to me at the time. But the report of Kumbowattewene, the Ratemahat-meya who has since gone to measure the place, is, that where the elephant leaped over, the height was 12 feet. The exact height of the leap was however only 9 feet; for besides that in his rush he knocked away the top bar, it is found that in the corner at which he escaped, there is a mound formed by a white ant’s nest, two and a half feet high, on which he must have climbed to help him over. I trust this information may be in time to prevent my original statement from going forth without modification in your new book. The leap is still a pretty good one.—Yours faithfully, A. M. Ferguson, Observer Office, Colombo, December 14, 1866.”

J. Emerson Tennent.

Tempo Manor, Enniskillen:

October 1, 1866.

CHAPTER I.

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS.

PAGE
Vast numbers in Ceylon	4
Derivation of the word “elephant,” note	ib.
Antiquity of the trade in elephants	5
Numbers now diminishing.	ib.
Mischief done by them to crops	ib.
Ivory scarce in Ceylon	6
Conjectures as to the absence of tusks	7
Elephant a harmless animal	9
Alleged antipathies to other animals	11
Fights with each other	15
The foot its chief weapon	16
Use of the tusks in a wild state doubtful	17
Anecdote of sagacity in an elephant at Kandy	19
Difference between African and Indian species	20
Native ideas of perfection in an elephant	21
Blotches on the skin	22
White elephants not unknown in Ceylon	23
CHAPTER II.
HABITS WHEN WILD.
Water, but not heat, essential to elephants	25
Sight limited	26
Caution	26
Smell acute	27
Hearing good	ib.
Cries of the elephant	27
Trumpeting	28
Booming noise	29
Height, exaggerated	30
Facility of stealthy motion	31
Ancient delusion as to the joints of the leg	32
Its exposure by Sir Thos. Browne	ib.
Its perpetuation by poets and others	35
Position of the elephant in sleep	38
An elephant killed on its feet	39
Mode of lying down	40
Its gait a shuffle	ib.
Power of climbing mountains	41
Facilitated by the joint of the knee	43
Mode of descending declivities, note	ib.
A “herd” is a family	45
Attachment to their young	46
Suckled indifferently by the females	ib.
A “rogue” elephant	47
Their cunning and vice	48
Injuries done by them	49
The leader of a herd a tusker	50
Bathing and nocturnal gambols, description of a scene by Major Skinner	51
Method of swimming	55
Internal anatomy imperfectly known	56
Faculty of storing water	58
Peculiarity of the stomach	59
The food of the elephant	63
Sagacity in search of it	64
Unexplained dread of fences	65
Its spirit of inquisitiveness	67
Anecdotes illustrative of its curiosity	ib.
Estimate of sagacity	68
Singular conduct of a herd during thunder	ib.
An elephant feigning death	70
Appendix.—Narratives of natives, as to encounters with rogue elephants	71
CHAPTER III.
ELEPHANT SHOOTING.
Vast numbers shot in Ceylon	77
Revolting details of elephant killing in Africa, note	78
Fatal spots at which to aim	79
Structure of the bones of the head	ib.
Wounds which are certain to kill	80
Attitudes when surprised	83
Peculiar movements when reposing	84
Habits when attacked	85
Sagacity of native trackers	86
Courage and agility of the elephants in escape	87
Worthlessness of the carcass	89
Note.—Singular recovery from a wound	90
PART II.
MODE OF CAPTURE AND TRAINING.
CHAPTER I.
AN ELEPHANT CORRAL.
Early method of catching elephants	96
Capture in pit-falls, note	ib.
By means of decoys	97
Panickeas—their courage and address	ib.
Their sagacity in following the elephant	ib.
Mode of capture by the noose	99
Mode of taming	100
Method of leading the elephants to the coast	101
Process of embarking them at Manaar	102
Method of capturing a whole herd	103
The “keddah” in Bengal described	104
Process of enclosing a herd	ib.
Process of capture in Ceylon	105
An elephant corral and its construction	105
An elephant hunt in Ceylon, 1847	106
The town and district of Kornegalle	ib.
The rock of Aetagalla	107
Forced labour of the corral in former times	110
Now given voluntarily	111
Form of the enclosure	112
Method of securing a wild herd	114
Scene when driving them into the corral	116
A failure	ib.
An elephant drove by night	118
Singular scene in the corral	119
Excitement of the tame elephants, note	ib.
CHAPTER II.
THE CAPTIVE.
A night scene	121
Morning in the corral	ib.
Preparations for securing the captives	122
The “cooroowe,” or noosers	ib.
The tame decoys	123
First captive tied up	124
Singular conduct of the wild elephants	126
Furious attempts of the herd to escape	127
Courageous conduct of the natives	128
Variety of disposition exhibited by the herd	131
Extraordinary contortions of the captives	ib.
Water withdrawn from the stomach	133
Instinct of the decoys	ib.
Conduct of the noosers	136
The young ones and their actions	137
Noosing a “rogue,” and his death	138
Instinct of flies in search of carrion, note	139
Strange scene	140
A second herd captured	142
Their treatment of a solitary elephant	143
A magnificent female elephant	144
Her extraordinary attitudes	ib.
Wonderful contortions	145
Taking the captives out of the corral	147
Their subsequent treatment and training	148
Grandeur of the scene	ib.
Story of young pet elephant	149
CHAPTER III.
TRAINING AND CONDUCT IN CAPTIVITY.
Alleged superiority of the Indian to the African elephant—not true	150
Ditto of Ceylon elephant to Indian	152
Process of training in Ceylon	155
Allowed to bathe	156
Difference of disposition	158
Sudden death of “broken heart”	160
First employment treading clay	161
Drawing a waggon	ib.
Dragging timber	ib.
Sagacity in labour	ib.
Mode of raising stones	162
Strength in throwing down trees exaggerated	ib.
Piling timber	163
Not uniform in habits of work	164
Lazy if not watched	165
Obedience to keeper from affection, not fear	ib.
Change of keeper—story of child	166
Ear for sounds and music	167
Ur-re! note	ib.
Endurance of pain	168
Docility	169
Working elephants, delicate	170
Deaths in Government stud	171
Diseases	172
Subject to tooth-ache	ib.
Question of the value of labour of an elephant	174
Food in captivity, and cost	175
Breed in captivity	176
Age	177
Theory of M. Fleurens	ib.
No dead elephants found	179
Sindbad’s story	181
Appendix.—Passage from Ælian	183
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
View of an Elephant Corral	Frontispiece
Brain of the Elephant	26
The Trunk as figured in the fifteenth century	28
Bones of the Fore-leg	41
Elephant descending a Hill	44
Elephant’s Well	55
Elephant’s Stomach, showing the Water-cells	59
Elephant’s Trachea	60
Water-cells in the Stomach of the Camel	62
Section of the Elephant’s Skull	80
Ground Plan and Fence of a Corral	112
Noosing Wild Elephants	to face 124
Mode of tying an Elephant	126
His Struggles for Freedom	127
Impotent Fury	130
Singular Contortions of an Elephant	132
Attitudes of Captives	to face 134
Obstinate Resistance	135
Attitude for Defence	147
Figures of the African and Indian Elephants on Greek and Roman Coins	151
Medal of Numidia	156
Modern Hendoo	ib.