276 THE ELEPHANT. [Part VIII. 



nature appears to liave left liim unprovided with any 

 weapon of offence : liis trunk is too delicate an organ to 

 be rudely employed in a conflict ^\'itli other animals, 

 and although on an emergency he may push or gore 

 Avith his tusks (to which the French have hastily given 

 tlie term " defenses'")^ their almost vertical position, 

 added to the difficidty of raising his head above the 

 level of his shoulder, is inconsistent with the idea of 

 their being designed for attack, since it is impossible 

 for the elephant to strike an effectual blow, or to wield 

 his tusks as the deer and the buffalo can direct their 

 horns. Nor is it easy to conceive under what ckcum- 

 stances an elephant could have a hostile encounter 

 with either a rhinoceros or a tiger, with whose pm"- 

 suits in a state of nature his o^vm can in no way 

 confhct. 



Towards man elephants evince shyness, arising from 

 their love of solitude and dishke of intrusion ; any 

 alarm they exhibit at his appearance, may be reason- 

 ably traced to the slaughter which has reduced their 

 numbers ; and as some e^ddence of this, it has always 

 been observed that an elephant exliibits greater unpa- 

 tience of the presence of a white man than of a native. 

 Were his instincts to carry him fiu'ther, or were he 

 influenced by any feehng of animosity or hostihty, it 

 must be apparent that, as against the prodigious 

 numbers which inhabit the forests of Ceylon, man would 

 wage an unequal contest, and that of the two one or 

 other must long since have been reduced to a helpless 

 minority. 



Official testimony is not wanting in confirmation of 

 this view ; — in the retmiis of 108 coroners' inquests held 

 in Ceylon, during five years, from 1849 to 1855 inclusive, 

 in cases of death occasioned by wild animals ; 16 are 

 recorded as having been caused by elephants, 15 by 

 buffaloes, 6 by crocochles, 2 by boars, 1 by a bear, and 

 68 by serpents ; (the great majority of the last class of 

 sufferers being women and cliildren, who had been 



