418 



THE ELEPHANT. 





much more than they devour ; so that they 

 are frequently obliged to change their quar- 

 ters, and to migrate from one country to ano- 

 ther. The Indians and negroes, who are 

 often incommoded by such visitants, do all 

 they can to keep them away, making loud 

 noises, and large fires round their cultivated 

 grounds : but these precautions do not always 

 succeed ; the elephants often break through 

 their fences, destroy their whole harvest, and 

 overturn their little habitations. When they 

 have satisfied themselves, and trod down or 

 devoured whatever lay in their way, they then 

 retreat into the woods in the same orderly man- 

 ner in which they made their irruption. 



Such are the habits of this animal, consider- 

 ed in a social light ; and, if we regard it as an 

 individual, we shall find its powers still more 

 extraordinary. With a very awkward appear- 

 ance, it possesses all the senses in great per- 

 fection, and is capable of applying them to 

 more useful purposes than any other quadru- 

 ped. The elephant, as we observed, has very 

 small eyes, when compared to the enormous 

 bulk of its body. But though their minuteness 

 may at first sight appear deformed, yet, when 

 we come to examine them, they are seen to 

 exhibit a variety of expression, and to discover 

 the various sensations with which it is moved. 

 It turns them with attention and friendship to 

 its master ; it seems to reflect and deliberate ; 

 and as its passions slowly succeed each 

 other, their various workings are distinctly 

 seen. 



The elephant is not less remarkable for the 

 excellence of its hearing. Its ears are extremely 

 large, and greater in proportion than even those 

 of an ass. They are usually dependent ; but 

 it can readily raise and move them. They 

 serve also to wipe its eyes, and to protect them 

 against the dust and flies that might otherwise 

 incommode them. It appears delighted with 

 music, and very readily learns to beat time, to 

 move in measure, and even to join its voice 

 to the sound of the drum and the trumpet. 



This animal's sense of smelling is not only 

 exquisite, but it is in a great measure pleased 

 with the same odours that delight mankind. 

 The elephant gathers flowers with great plea- 

 sure and attention ; it picks them up one by 

 one, unites them into a nosegay, and seems 

 charmed with the perfume. The orange-flower 

 seams to be particularly grateful, both to its 



sense of taste and smelling ; it strips the tree 

 of all its verdure, and eats every part of it, even 

 to the branches themselves. It seeks in the 

 meadows the most odoriferous plants to feed 

 upon ; and in the woods it prefers the cocoa, 

 the banana, the palm, and the sago-tree, to all 

 others. As the shoots of these are tender, and 

 filled with pith, it eats not only the leaves and 

 the fruits, but even the branches, the trunk, 

 and the whole plant to the very roots. 



But it is in the sense of touching that this 

 animal excels all others of the brute creation, 

 and perhaps even man himself. The organ of 

 this sense lies wholly in the trunk, which is an 

 instrument peculiar to this animal, anil that 

 serves it for all the purposes of a hand. The 

 trunk is, properly speaking, only the snout 

 lengthened out to a great extent, hollow like a 

 pipe, and ending in two openings, or nostrils, 

 like those of a hog. An elephant of fourteen 

 feet high has the trunk about eight feet long, 

 and five feet and a half in circumference at the 

 mouth, where it is thickest. It is hollow all 

 along, but with a partition running from one 

 end of it to the other ; so that though outward- 

 ly it appears like a single pipe, it is inwardly 

 divided into two. This fleshy tube is com- 

 posed of nerves and muscles, covered with a 

 proper skin of a blackish colour, like that of 

 the rest of the body. It is capable of bring 

 moved in every direction, of being lengthened 

 and shortened, of being bent or straightened ; 

 so pliant as to embrace any body it is applied 

 to, and yet so strong that nothing can be torn 

 from the gripe. To aid the force of this grasp, 

 there are several little eminences, like a cater- 

 pillar'sfeet, on theunderside of this instrument, 

 which without doubt contribute to the sensi- 

 bility of the touch, as well as to the firmness 

 of the hold. Through this trunk the animal 

 breathes, drinks, and smells, as through a tube; 

 and at the very point of it, just above the nos- 

 trils, there is an extension of the skin, about 

 five inches long, in the form of a finger, and 

 which, in fact, answers all the purposes of one ; 

 for, with the rest of the extremity of the trunk, 

 it is capable of assuming different forms at 

 will, and consequently of being adapted to the 

 minutest objects. By means of this, the elephant 

 can take a pin from the ground, untie the knots 

 of a rope, unlock a door, and even write with 

 a pen. " I have myself seen," says .ZElian, 

 " an elephant writing Latin characters on a 



