280 



THE ELEPHAXT. 



[Part VIII. 



wouuded by the downward pressure of the tusks, whicli, 

 iu any other position, it would be ahiiost impossible to 

 use offensively. 



Mi\ Mercer, wdio in 1846 was the prmcipal ci\il officer 

 of Govermnent at Badulla, sent me a jagged fragment 

 of an elephant's tusk, about five inches in diameter, and 

 weighing between twenty and thirty pounds, wliich had 

 been brought to him by some natives, who, being at- 

 tracted by a noise in the jungle, mtnessed a combat 

 between a tusker and one without tusks, and saw the 

 latter "svith liis trunk seize one of the tusks of his an- 

 tagonist and wrench from it the portion in question, 

 wdiich measured two feet in length. 



Here the trunk was shown to be the more powerful 

 offensive weapon of the two ; but I apprehend that the 

 cliief rehance of the elephant for defence is on his 

 ponderous weight, the pressure of his foot being suf- 

 ficient to crush any minor assailant after being pros- 

 trated by means of his trunk. Besides, in usmg his 

 feet for this pm^ose, he derives a wonderfid facihty 

 fi'om the peculiar formation of the knee-joint in his 

 huid leg, w^hich, enabhng him to swing Ms hind feet 

 forward close to the ground, assists him- to toss the 

 body alternately from foot to foot, till he deprives it of 

 hfe.i 



A sportsman who had undergone this operation, 

 having been seized by a wounded elephant but rescued 

 from his fury, described to me Ms sufferings as he 

 was thus flung back and forward between the hind and 

 fore feet of the ammal, wdiicli ineffectuaUy attempted 



' In the Thii-d Book of Maccabees, 



wliich is not printed iu oiu" Apociy- 

 plui, but appears iu the Series in the 

 Greek Septuagiut, the author, in de- 

 scribing the persecution of the Jews 

 by Ptolemy Pliilopater, u. c. 210, 

 states that the king swore vehemently 

 that he would send them into the 

 other world, " foully trampled to 



death by the knees and feet of ele- 

 phants" (^irsfji-.petv it(; iiSijV tv yovaat 

 Kai TToal ^tjpiwv yKicTfiivovQ, 3 Mac. 

 y. 42). ^-EiJAJf makes the remark, 

 that elephants on such occasions use 

 their k/iees as well as their feet to 

 crush their victims. - — Mi^t, Ajiim. 

 viii. 10. 



