ELEPHANT GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. 407 



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 pity. 



The elephant's obedience to his keeper is the result of affec- 

 tion, 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. 1 



Lastly, Sir E. Tennent writes : 



One evening, whilst riding in the vicinity of Candy, towards 

 the scene of the massacre of Major Dabies' party in 1803, my 

 horse evinced some excitement at a noise which approached us 

 in the thick jungle, and which consisted of a repetition of the 

 ejaculation urmph I urmph ! in a hoarse and dissatisfied tone. 

 A turn in the forest explained the mystery, by bringing us face 

 to face with a tame elephant, unaccompanied by any attendant. 

 He was labouring painfully to carry a heavy beam of timber, 

 which he balanced across his tusks, but, the pathway being 

 narrow, he was forced to bend his head to one side to permit it 

 to pa?s endways ; and the exertion and this inconvenience 

 combined led him to utter the dissatisfied sounds which dis- 

 turbed the composure of my horse. On seeing us halt, the 

 elephant raised his head, reconnoitred us for a moment, then 

 flung down the timber, and voluntarily forced himself back- 

 wards among the brushwood so as to leave a passage, of which 

 he expected us to avail ourselves. My horse hesitated : the 

 elephant observed it, and impatiently thrust himself deeper 

 into the jungle, repeating his cry of tirmph ! but in a voice 

 evidently meant to encourage us to advance. Still the horse 

 trembled ; and, anxious to observe the instinct of the two 

 sagacious animals, I forebore any interference : again the 

 elephant of his own accord wedged himself further in amongst 

 the trees, and manifested some impatience that we did not pass 

 him. At length the horse moved forward ; and when we were 

 fairly past, I saw the wise creature stoop and take up its heavy 

 burden, trim and balance it on its tusks, and resume its route 

 as before, hoarsely snorting its discontented remonstrance. 



Dr. Erasmus Darwin records an observation which 

 was communicated to him by a ' gentleman of undoubted 



1 Natural History of Ceylon, pp. 181-94. 



