i66 The Wild Elephant. 



known to remain out all night,, without food, rather than 

 abandon his mahout, lying intoxicated in the jungle, yet 

 he manifests little difficulty in yielding the same submis- 

 sion to a new driver in the event of a change of attend- 

 ants. This is opposed to the popular belief that " the 

 elephant cherishes such an enduring remembrance of his 

 old mahout, that he cannot easily be brought to obey a 

 stranger." i In the extensive establishments of the 

 Ceylon Government, the keepers are changed without 

 hesitation, and the animals, when equally kindly treated, 

 are usually found to be as tractable and obedient to their 

 new driver as to the old, so soon as they have become 

 familiarised with his voice. 



This is not, however, invariably the case ; and Mr. 

 Cripps, who had remarkable opportunities for obser\'ing 

 the habits of the elephant in Ceylon, mentioned to me 

 an instance in which one of a singularly stubborn dispo- 

 sition occasioned some inconvenience after the death of 

 its keeper, by refusing to obey any other, till its attend- 

 ants bethought them of a child about twelve years old, 

 in a distant village, where the animal had been formerly 

 picketed, and to whom it had displayed much attachment. 

 The child was sent for ; and on its arrival the elephant, 

 as anticipated, manifested extreme satisfaction, and was 

 managed with ease, till by degrees it became reconciled 

 to the presence of a new superintendent. 



It has been said that the mahouts die young, owing to 

 some supposed injury to the spinal column from the pecu- 

 liar motion of the elephant ; but this remark does not 



' il/(?«rt^^w^, (?/f. "The Elephant," vol. i. p. 19. 



