290 



THE ELEPHANT. 



[Part VIQ. 



be attracted by any unusual appearance in the forest, 

 the intelhgence is rapidly communicated bj^ a low sup- 

 pressed sound made by the hps, somewhat resembhng 

 the twittering of a bird, and described by the hunters by 

 the word '■'prut." 



But a very remarkable noise has been described to 

 me by more than one inchvidual, who has come unex- 

 pectedly upon a herd of elephants during the night, 

 when their alarm Avas apparently too great to be satis- 

 fied with the stealthy note of warning just described. 

 On these occasions the sound produced resembled the 

 hollow booming of an empty tun when struck with a 

 wooden mallet or a muffled sledge. Major Macready, 

 Mihtary Secretary in Ceylon in 1836, who heard it 

 by night amongst the wild elephants in the great forest 

 of Bmtenne, describes it as " a sort of banging noise 

 like a cooper hammering a cask ; " and Major Skixner 

 is of opinion that it must be produced by the elephant 

 striking his sides rapidly and forcibly with his trunk. 

 Mr. Cripps informs me that he has more than once seen 

 an elephant, when sm^prised or alarmed, produce this 

 sound by striking the ground forcibly with the point of 

 the trunk, and this movement was mstantly succeeded 

 by raising the trunk, and pointing it in the dh'cction 

 whence the alarm proceeded, as if to ascertain by the 

 sense of smell, the nature of the threatened danger. As 

 this strange sound is generally mingled Avith the beUoAv- 

 ing and ordinary trumpeting of the herd, it is in all pro- 

 babihty a device resorted to, not alone for warning their 

 companions of some approaching peril, but also for the 

 additional purpose of terrifying unseen intruders.^ 



Extravagant estimates aie recorded of the height of 

 the elephant. In an age when popular fallacies in 

 relation to him Avere as yet uncorrected in Europe by 



^ Pallegoix, in his Description du 

 Roymime Thai mi Siam, advei-ts to a 

 .sound produced by the elephant 

 ■\\iien •Nvearv : " quand il est fatigiiej 



il frappelti terrc avec m tronipe et en 

 tire un son senHdable a celui du cor." 

 —Tom. i. p. 151. 



