Uses of the TtLsks. 1 7 



A sportsman who had partially undergone this opera- 

 tion, having been seized by a wounded elephant but 

 escaped from its fury, described to me his sufferings as 

 he was thus flung back and foi*ward between the hind 

 and fore feet of the animal, which ineffectually attempted 

 to trample him at each concussion, and abandoned him 

 without inflicting serious injury. 



Knox, in describing the execution of criminals by the 

 state elephants of the former kings of Kandy, says, 

 " they will run their teeth {tusks) through the body, and 

 then tear it in pieces and throw it limb from limb ; " but 

 a Kandyan chief, who was witness to these scenes, as- 

 sured me that the elephant never once applied its tusks, 

 but, placing its foot on the prostrate victim, plucked off" 

 his limbs in succession by a sudden movement of the 

 trunk. If the tusks were designed to be employed of- 

 fensively, some alertness would naturally be exhibited in 

 using them ; but in numerous instances where sportsmen 

 have fallen into the power of a wounded elephant, they 

 have escaped through the failure of the enraged animal 

 to strike them with its tusks, even when stretched upon 

 the ground. 1 



But here there arises a further and a veiy curious 

 enquiry, as to the specific objects in the economy of the 

 elephant, to which its tusks are conducive. Placed as 

 it is in Ceylon, in the midst of the most luxuriant pro- 

 fusion of its favourite food, in close proximity at all 

 times to abundant supplies of water, and with no natural 

 enemies against whom to protect itself, it is difficult to 



' Thft Hastisilpe, a Singhalese w irk which it is not desirable to possess, 

 which treats of the "Science of Ele- "the elephant which will fight with a 

 phants," enumerates amongst those stone or a stick in his trunk.'" 



C 



