284 THE ELEPHANT. [Part VIII. 



The Indian elephant is stated by Cuvier to have four 

 nails on the hind foot, whilst the African variety has but 

 three ; but amongst the perfections of a high-bred elephant 

 of Ceylon, is always enumerated the possession of ticenty 

 nails, whilst those of a secondary class have but eighteen 

 in all. 



So conversant are the natives with the structure 

 and '• points " of the elephant, that they divide them 

 readily into castes, and describe with particularity 

 their distmctive excellences and defects. In the Has- 

 tisilpe, a Singhalese work which treats of their manage- 

 ment, the marks of inferior breeding are said to be 

 " eyes restless like those of a crow, the hair of the head 

 of mixed shades ; the face wi^inkled and small ; the 

 tongue cm-ved and black ; the nails short and green ; 

 the ears small ; the neck thm, the skin fi^eckled ; the 

 tail without a tuft, and the forequarter lean and low ; " 

 wliilst the perfection of form and beauty is supposed to 

 consist in the " softness of the skin, the red colour of 

 the mouth and tongue, the forehead expanded and hol- 

 low, the ears large and rectangidar, the trunk broad at 

 the root and blotched with pink m fi^ont ; the eyes 

 bright and Idndly, the cheeks large, the neck full, the 

 back level, the chest square, the fore legs short and 

 convex in front, the hhid quarter plump, and five naiLs 

 on each foot, all smooth, pohshed, and round. ^ An 

 elephant with these perfections," says the author of the 

 Ilastisilpe, " will impart glory and magnificence to the 

 kino- ; but he cannot be discovered amonsst thousands, 

 yea, there shall never be found an elephant clothed at 

 once with all the excellences herein described." Tlie 

 " points" of an elephant are to be studied witli the greatest 

 advantage in those attached to the temples, which are 

 always of the liighest caste, and exhibit the most perfect 

 breeding. 



* A native of rank infonued me, I will sometimes touch the gromid, hut 

 that " the tail of ahigh-caate elephant I such are very rare." 



