66 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



" He always rises to Ms feet when making an attack, 

 though he approaches his antagonist in a stooping posture. 



" Though he never lies in wait, yet, when he hears, 

 sees, or scents a man, he immediately utters his character- 

 istic cry, prepares for an attack, and always acts on the 

 offensive. The cry he utters resembles a grunt more than 

 a growl, and is similar to the cry of the Chimpanzee, when 

 irritated, but vastly louder. It is said to be audible at a 

 great distance. His preparation consists in attending the 

 females and young ones, by whom he is usually accompa- 

 nied, to a little distance. He, however, soon returns, with 

 his crest erect and projecting forward, his nostrils dilated, 

 and his under-lip thrown down ; at the same time uttering 

 his characteristic yell, designed, it would seem, to terrify 

 his antagonist. Instantly, unless he is disabled by a well- 

 directed shot, he makes an onset, and, striking his antago- 

 nist with the palm of his hands, or seizing him with a 

 grasp from which there is no escape, he dashes him upon 

 the ground, and lacerates him with his tusks. 



" He is said to seize a musket, and instantly crush the 



barrel between his teeth This animal's 



savage nature is very well shewn by the implacable des- 

 peration of a young one that was brought here. It was 

 taken very young, and kept four months, and many means 

 were used to tame it ; but it was incorrigible, so that it 

 bit me an hour before it died.'" 



Mr. Ford discredits the house-building and elephant- 

 driving stories, and says that no well-informed natives 

 believe them. They are tales told to children. 



I might quote other testimony to a similar effect, but, 

 as it appears to me, less carefully weighed and sifted, from 

 the letters of MM. Franquet and Gautier Labonllay, ap- 

 pended to the memoir of M. I. G. St. Hilaire, which I 

 have already cited. 



