Chap. II.] 



HABITS WIIEX WILD. 



317 



Creator on the three ammals which in sultry chmates 

 are, by tliis arrangement, enabled to traverse arid regions 

 in the service of man.^ 



The food of the elephant is so abundant, that in eat- 

 ing he never apjoears to be impatient or voracious, but 

 rather to play with the leaves and branches on which 

 he leisurely feeds. In riding by places where a herd 

 has recently halted, I have sometimes seen the bark 

 peeled curiously off the twigs, as though it had been 

 done for amusement. In the same way in eating grass, 

 the elephant selects a tussac which he draws from the 

 ground by a dexterous twist of his trunk, and nothing 

 can be more graceful than the ease with which, before 

 convepng it to his mouth, he beats the earth from its 

 roots by striking it gently upon his fore leg. A coco- 

 nut he first rolls under foot, to detach the strong outer 

 bark, then stripping off the thick layer of fibre within, 

 he places the shell in his mouth, and swallows with 

 evident rehsh the fresh hqiiid which flows as he crushes 

 it between his grinders. 



The natives of the peninsida of Jaffna always look 

 for the periodical appearance of the elephants, at the 

 precise moment when the fruit of the palmyra palm 

 begins to faU to the ground from then- ripeness. In 

 hke manner in the eastern provinces, where the custom 

 prevails of cultivating chena land, by clearing a patch 

 of forest for the purpose of raising a single crop, after 

 which the ground is abandoned, and reverts to jungle 

 again, although a single elephant may not be seen in 

 the neighbourhood during the early stages of the pro- 

 cess, the Moormen, who are the principal cultivators 

 of this class, will predict their appearance with almost 



^ The buffiilo and the Imnipecl 

 cattle of India, which are used for 

 draught and burden, have, I believe, 

 a development of the organisation of 

 the reticulum which enables the 

 ruminants generally to endm-e thirst, 

 and abstain from water, somewhat 



more marked than is found in the 

 rest of their congeners ; but nothing- 

 tliat approaches in singrnlarity of 

 character to the distinct cavities of 

 the stomach exhibited by the three 

 animals above alluded to.' 



