84 The Wild Elephant. 



plants within reach, others fanning themselves with leafy 

 branches, and a few are asleep ; whilst the young run 

 playfully among the herd, the emblems of innocence, as 

 the older ones are of peacefulness and gravity. 



Almost every elephant may be observed to exhibit 

 some peculiar action of the limbs when standing at rest ; 

 some move the head monotonously in a circle, or from 

 right to left ; some swing their feet back and forward ; 

 others flap their ears or sway themselves from side to side, 

 or rise and sink by alternately bending and straightening 

 the fore knees. As the opportunities of observing this 

 custom have been almost confined to elephants in cap- 

 tivity, it has been conjectured to arise from some morbid 

 habit contracted during the length of a voyage by sea,i 

 cr from an instinctive impulse to substitute an artificial 

 motion in lieu of their wonted exercise \ but this sup- 

 position is erroneous ; the propensity being equally dis- 

 played by those at liberty and those in captivity. When 

 surprised by sportsmen in the depths of the jungle, 

 individuals of a herd are always to be seen occupied in 

 swinging their limbs in this manner ; and in the corrals 

 which I have seen, where whole herds have been captured, 

 the elephants, in the midst of the utmost excitement, and 

 even after the most vigorous charges, if they halted for 

 a moment in stupor and exhaustion, manifested their 

 wonted habit, and swung their limbs or swayed their 

 bodies to and fro incessantly. So far from its being a 

 substitute for exercise, those in the Government employ- 

 ment in Ceylon are observed to practise their acquired 



' Menageries etc. " The Elephant," ch. i. p. zi. 



