A ITATURALIST IN CEYLON" WOOD 533 



the cuticle produced by the healing of locaj sores or abrasions 

 caused by rubbing the irritated parts on the rough bark of trees. 



It has often been noticed that the derma of wild elephants is of 

 a lighter brown than that of captives, a condition probably due to 

 the care given tame animals. The latter not only receive frequent 

 baths but are as often shampooed with a brick, a coconut husk, 

 or a piece of burnt clay. This treatment, with an occasional appli- 

 cation of oij, probabl}' accounts for the darker coloration of the 

 skin in tamed specimens. 



I was not able to verify, in the case of Sinhalese elephants, any 

 of the travelers' tales about the dread or fury supposed to be incited 

 in the elephant by the presence of smaller animals, the dog, the 

 pig, the mouse, the horse, etc. I am convinced that so far as the 

 Ceylon race is concerned he does his best, consistent with his love 

 of solitude and family Jife, to live in peace and amity with all 

 other animals. If he attacks horses and dogs his animosity does not 

 arise from any dislike of them per se but because of their well-known 

 association with his arch enemy, man. 



That tame elephants do not fear or dislike horses is of common 

 knowledge in Ceylon; indeed the contrary is generally true. Horses 

 evince a decided dread of the elephant. While I was living in Kandy 

 the acting governor and some members of his familj'^ were one day 

 riding along a mountain path, when they met a working elephant, 

 ringing his warning bell as he moved about. All the horses of the 

 party bolted and the governor with his half -crazed mount fell over 

 the mountain side. The horse was killed, but his rider fortunately 

 escaped with some injuries. 



During the rutting season — called in Sinhalese mudda — elephants 

 are subject to fits of temporary paroxj^sms of fury when it may be 

 dangerous for even the animal's mahout to approach the gentlest or 

 tamest of them. 



The Sinhalese elephant does not depend upon his trunk or tushes 

 as weapons of defense, although he may occasionally use them for 

 that purpose. Butting with his ponderous head and utilizing the 

 enormous crushing force of all four legs he holds the smaller animal 

 with his trunk while he endeavors to tread the life out of him by 

 alternate tramplings with his enormous feet. 



The elephant has weak vision and a poorly developed ocular 

 apparatus. As in the dog, this defect is neutralized by his acute 

 hearing and highly developed sense of smell. Indeed his eyesight 

 would not be of much use to him when surrounded by the close 

 foliage of the jungle even if his thick and almost rigid neck did not 

 materially limit his range of vision. 



24034—29—35 



