ELEPHANTS 301 



arisen, and between the two worlds this elephant seemed 

 the connecting link. 



As elephants grow old, like as with other animals, 

 their strength declines. In the matter of food, this 

 alone would not much affect them, for they subsist 

 chiefly on leaves and the small branches of trees, and 

 of these in the forests there is always abundance ; but 

 as their strength declines, so also do their teeth decay. 

 Indeed, the decay of their teeth commences while their 

 strength is still almost unimpaired, and without teeth 

 or with fewer, though they may pluck the branches, 

 they are unable to properly masticate them. The twigs 

 and branches they devour pass through them but little 

 digested. This loss of teeth occurs equally in the wild 

 and in the domesticated elephant. By the droppings left 

 by a herd, the number of elephants that have passed the 

 period of their prime can always be identified. I do 

 not know if the teeth gradually decay or loosen and 

 fall out whole. 



In the early days of our rule elephants were a good 

 deal used by Europeans for riding. In the hot season 

 the evening airing was frequently taken on an elephant 

 instead of, as now, in a carriage ; and in the cold season, 

 when travelling in tents, it was similarly on an elephant 

 that marches were made. In my time this custom 

 had been long discontinued. Very few Europeans kept 

 elephants at all ; and those who did kept them only 

 for the purpose of tiger-shooting. 



For traversing the forests and grass jungles the 

 elephant is indispensable ; and for passing through the 

 streets of a native city it is, of all modes of conveyance, 



