31G 



THE ELEPHAXT. 



[rAKT VII r. 



througli liis proboscis known as " trumpeting ;" but 

 there is little room to doubt that of the two the re- 

 jected hj^jothesis was the correct one. I have elsewhere 

 described the occurrence to which I was myself a 

 witness, of elephants mserting their proboscis in their 

 mouths, and by the aid of the " trachea-oesophageal " 

 muscle, described by Professor IL\rkisox, withdra^^dng 

 gallons of water, which could only have been contained 

 in the receptacle figured by Camper and Home, and of 

 wliicli the true uses were discerned by the clear inteUect 

 of Professor Owex. I was not, till very recently, aware 

 that a similar observation as to the remarkable habit of 

 the elephant, has been made by the author of the Ayeen 

 Akbery, in his account of the Feel Kaneh, or elephant 

 stables of the Emperor Akbar, in wliich he says, " an 

 elephant frequently with his trunk, takes water out of 

 liis stomach and sprinkles lumself with it, and it is 

 not iu the least offensive." ^ Forbes, in his Oriental 

 Memoks, quotes tliis passage of the Ayeen Akbery, but 

 without a remark ; nor does any European writer with 

 whose works I am acquainted appear to have been cog- 

 nisant of the pecuharity in question. 



It is to be hoped that Professor Owex's dissection of 

 the yoimg elephant, recently arrived, may serve to 

 decide this highly interesting pomt.^ Shoidd scien- 

 tific investigation hereafter more clearly estabhsh the 

 fact that, in this particular, the structure of the 

 elephant is assimilated to those of the llama and the 

 camel, it will be regarded as more than a common 

 coincidence, that an apparatus, so unique in its purpose 

 and action, should thus have been conferred by the 



^ Ayeen Ahherif, tr.onsl. of Glad- 

 AVix, vol. i. pt. i. p. 147. 



' One of the Indian names for the 

 elepliant is duipa, wliich signifies 

 "■ to drink t-s^-ice"' (Aii.vxDi, p. 513). 

 Can this have reference to the pecu- 



liarity of the stomach for retaining a 

 supply of water ? Or has it merely 

 reference to the habit of the animal 

 to fiU his trunk befoi-e transfemng 

 the water to his mouth ? 



