Chap. Vi.] 



COXDUCT IX CAPTIVITY. 



385 



they may provoke no cliastisement by tlieir viciousness 

 are always slower iu being tamed, and are rarely to be 

 trusted in after life.^ 



But whatever may be its natural gentleness and 

 docihty, the temper of an elephant is seldom to be 

 imphcitly rehed on in a state of captivity and coercion. 

 The most amenable are subject to occasional fits ot 

 stubbornness; and even after years of submission, irri- 

 tabihty and resentment will unaccountably manifest 

 themselves. It may be that the restraints and severer 

 discipline of training have not been entirely forgotten ; 

 or that incidents which in ordinary health would be 

 productive of no demonstration whatever, may lead, in 

 moments of temporary illness, to fretfulness and anger. 

 The knowledge of tliis infirmity led to the popidar 

 behef recorded by Phile, that the elephant had two 

 hearts^ under the respective influences of which he 

 evinced ferocity or gentleness ; subdued by the one to 

 habitual tractabihty and obedience, but occasionally 



* The natives profess tliat the high 

 caste elephants, such as are allotted 

 to the temples, are of all others the 

 most difficult to tame, and M. Bles, 

 the Dutch correspondent of Buffox, 

 mentions a caste of elephants which 

 he had heard of, as being pecidiar to 

 the Kandyan kingdom, that were not 

 higher than a ]ieifer(gt'nisse), covered 

 Avith hair, and insusceptible of being 

 tamed. (Buffon, ISupp., vol. vi. p. 

 2i).) Bishop IIeber, in the account 

 of his journey from Bareilly towards 

 tlie Himalayas, describes the Baja 

 Gom-man Sing, " mounted on a little 

 female elephant, hardly bigger than 

 a Durham ox, and almost as shaggy 

 as a poodle." — Joiirn. ch. xvii. It 

 will be remembered that the elephant 

 discovered in 1803 embedded in icy 

 soil in Siberia, was covered with a 

 coat of long hair, with a sort of wool 

 at the roots ; and there arose the 

 question whether that nortlicrn region 

 had been ftirmerly inhabited by a race 



VOL. II. C 



of elephants, so fortified by nature 

 against cold ; or whether the in- 

 dividual discovered had been bonie 

 thither by currents from some more 

 temperate latitudes. To the latter 

 theory the presence of hair seemed a 

 fixtal objection ; but so far as my o^wn 

 observation goes, I believe the ele- 

 phants are more or less proA^ided -vniXi 

 hair. In some it is more developed 

 than in others, and it is particidarly 

 observable in the young, whicli wlicn 

 captured are frequently covered with 

 a woolly ileece, especially about the 

 head and shoulders. In the older 

 individuals in Ceylon, this is less 

 apparent : and in captivity the hair 

 appears to be altogether removed by 

 the custom of the mahouts to rulj 

 their sldn daily witli oil and a rough 

 lump of burned clay. See a paper 

 on the subject, Asiat. Jottrn. N. S. 

 vol. xiv. p. 182, by Mi-. G. Fair- 



nOLlIE. 



