396 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



fall,' he says, ' at any time, though on plain ground, they 

 either die immediately, or languish till they die ; their 

 great weight occasioning them so much hurt by the fall.' l 

 And Sir E. Tennent observes that. 



In tlie process of taming, the presence of the tame ones can 

 generally be dispensed with after two months, and the captive 

 may then be ridden by the driver alone; and after three or four 

 months he maybe entrusted with labour, so far as regards docility; 

 but it is undesirable, and even involves the risk of life, to work 

 an elephant too soon ; it has frequently happened that a valu- 

 able animal lias lain down and died the first time it was tried in 

 harness, from what the natives believed to be ' broken heart,' 

 certainly without any cause inferable from injury or previous 

 disease. 2 



Nor is this tendency to die under the influence of 

 mere emotion restricted to the effect of a ' broken heart ; ' 

 it seems also to occur under the power of strong emo- 

 tional disturbances of other kinds. For instance, an 

 elephant caught and trained by Mr. Cripps is thus alluded 

 to by Sir E. Tennent: 



This was the largest elephant that had been tamed in Ceylon ; 

 he measured upwards of nine feet at the shoulders, and belonged 

 to the caste so highly prized for the temples. He was gentle 

 after his first capture, but his removal from the corral to the 

 stables, though only a distance of six miles, was a matter of the 

 extremest difficulty ; his extraordinary strength rendering him 

 more than a match for the attendant decoys. He on one occasion 

 escaped, but was recaptured in the forest ; and he afterwards 

 became so docile as to perform a variety of tricks. He was 

 at length ordered to be removed to Colombo ; but such was his 

 terror on approaching the fort, that on coaxing him to enter the 

 gate he became paralysed in the extraordinary way elsewhere 

 alluded to, and died on the spot. 



General Intelligence. 



The higher mental faculties of the elephant are more 

 advanced in their development than in any other animal, 

 except the dog and monkey. I shall, therefore, devote 



1 PMl. Trans., A.D, 1701, vol. xxiii., p. 1052. 



2 Loo. tit., p. 216. 



