370 



THE ELEPHANT. 



[Part VIII. 



tlie ropes from tlie tree, and two tame elephants being 

 harnessed to the dead body, it was dragged to a distance 

 without the corraL 



When every wild elephant had been noosed and tied 

 up, the scene presented was one truly oriental. From 

 one to two thousand natives, many of them in gaudy 

 dresses and armed with spears, crowded about the enclo- 

 sures. Then- families had coUected to see the spectacle ; 

 women, whose cliildren clung hke httle bronzed Cupids 

 by their side ; and girls, many of them in the graceful 

 costume of that part of the coinitry, a scarf, which, 

 after having been brought round the waist, is thrown over 

 the left shoulder, leaving the right arm and side free and 

 uncovered. 



At the foot of each tree was its captive elephant ; 



power of sight or of scent. It is not, 

 however, more mysterious than the 

 imening certainty and rapidity ■wdth 

 whicli some of the minor animals, 

 and more especially insects, in warm 

 climates congregate around the ofl'al 

 on which they feed. Circumstanced 

 as they are, they must be guided 

 towards their object mainly if not 

 exclusively, by the sense of smell ; 

 but that which excites astonishment 

 is the small degree of odoiu" which 

 seems to suffice for the pui-pose ; the 

 subtlety and rapidity with which it 

 tivaverses and impregnates the air ; and 

 the keen and quick perception with 

 which it is taken up by the organs of 

 those creatm-es. The instance of the 

 scavenger beetles has been already 

 alluded to ; the promptitude with 

 which they discern the existence of 

 matter suited to their purposes, and 

 the speed with which they hurry to it 

 from all directions ; often from dis- 

 tances as extraordinary, })roportion- 

 ably, as those traAcrsed by the eye of 

 the vulture. In the instance of the 

 dying elephant referred to above, 

 life was barely extinct when the flies, 

 of which not one was visible but a 

 moment before, arrived in clouds 

 and Idackened the body by their 

 nuiltitude ; scarcely an instant was 



allowed to elapse for the commence- 

 ment of decomposition ; no odour of 

 putrefaction could be discerned by 

 us who stood close by ; yet some 

 peculiai- smell of mortality, simul- 

 taneously ^"ith parting breath, must 

 have summoned them to the feast. 

 Ants exhibit an instinct equally sm*- 

 prising. I have sometimes covered 

 up a particle of refined sugar with 

 paper on the centre of a polished 

 table ; and coimted the number of 

 minutes which woidd elapse before it 

 was fastened on by the small black 

 ants of Ceylon, and a line formed to 

 lower it safely to tlie floor. Here 

 was a substance whicli, to our appre- 

 hension at least, is altogether ino- 

 dorous, and yet the quick sense of 

 smell must have been the only 

 conductor of the ants. It has been 

 observed of those fishes which travel 

 overland on the evaporation of the 

 ponds in which they live, that they 

 invariably march in the direction of 

 the nearest water, and even when 

 captured, and placed on the floor of 

 a room, their efforts to escape are 

 always made towards the same point. 

 Is the sense of smell sufficient to 

 account for this display of instinct in 

 them ? or is it aideil by special organs 

 in the case of the others ? 



