302 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTKAL INDIA. 



well as on the management of elephants, which would 

 scarcely interest the general reader. Elephants differ 

 as widely in their "points" as do horses ; and it is very 

 difficult for an uneducated eye to distinguish these, 

 particularly in the fattcned-up condition the animals 

 generally carry at the fair. Furthermore, and fortu- 

 nately enough for us, a native's idea of good points in 

 an elephant (as in a horse) differs in toto from ours. 

 He looks not at all to shape, or good action, or likeli- 

 hood of standing hard work ; but first of all to the 

 p)resence or absence of certain occidental marks — such 

 as the number of toe-nails on the foot, which may be 

 five or six but not four ; the tail, which must be perfect 

 and with a full tuft ; and the colour of the palate, 

 "which must be red without spot of black. Some of the 

 best elephants I have known failed in each and all of 

 these points. Then a female or tuskless male is of 

 small value to a native, who w^ants big white tusks. 

 A rough high action, and a trunk and forehead of very 

 light colour, are greatly in request by the native buyer, 

 who looks entirely to show, and covers up every part 

 of the animal except the face wdtli an enormous parti- 

 coloured cloth. We, on the other hand, dislike the high 

 rough action, and never by any chance purchase a 

 tusker, wdio is nearly certain to be ill-tempered. We 

 look for a small well-bred-looking head and trunk, and 

 a clear confident eye devoid of piggish expression, fast 

 easy paces, straight back and croup, wide loins, and 

 generally well-developed bone and muscle — a great test 

 of which is the girth of the forearm, which should 

 measure about three feet eight inches in an elephant 

 nine feet high. A very tall elephant is seldom a good 

 working one, and generally has slow rough paces ; so 

 that in a male nine feet, or a female eight feet four 



