Chap. I.] STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS. 285 



The colour of the animars skin in a state of nature is 

 generally of a hghter brown than that of those in capti\ity ; 

 a distinction which arises, in all probabihty, not so much 

 from the wild elephant's propensity to cover himself with 

 mud and dust, as from the superior care wliich is taken 

 in repeatedly bathing the tame ones, and in rubbing their 

 sldns with a soft stone, a lump of burnt clay, or the 

 coarse husk of a coco-nut. This kind of attention, 

 together with the occasional application of oil to tlie 

 skhi, gives rise to the deeper black wliich their hides 

 present. 



Amongst the native Singhalese, however, a singular 

 preference is e\dnced for elephants which exhibit those 

 flesh-coloured blotches which occasionally mottle the skin 

 of an elephant, chiefly about the head and extremities. 

 The front of the trunk, the tips of the ears, the forehead, 

 and occasionally the legs, are thus diversified with stains 

 of a yellowish tint, inchning to pink. These are not 

 natural ; nor are they hereditary, for they are seldom 

 exliibited by the younger individuals in a herd, but ap- 

 pear to be the result of some eruptive affection, the iiii- 

 tation of which has induced the animal in his uneasiness 

 to rub himself against the rough bark of trees, and thus 

 to destroy the outer cuticle.^ 



To a European these spots appear blemishes, and the 

 taste which leads the natives to admu^e them is probably 

 akin to tlie feehng which has at all times rendered a 

 ichite elephant an object of wonder to Asiatics. The 

 rarity of the latter is accounted for by regarding this 

 pecuhar appearance as the result of albinism ; and not- 

 withstanding the exaggeration of Oriental historians, who 

 compare the fairness of such creatures to the Avliiteness of 

 snow, even in its utmost perfection, I apprehend that the 

 tint of a white elephant is httle else than a flesh-colour, 

 rendered somewhat more conspicuous by the blanching of 



^ Tins is confinned by the fact that 

 the scar of the ankle wound, oc- 

 casioned by the rope on the logs of 



those which have been captured by 

 noosing, presents precisely the same 

 tint in the healed parts. 



