62 GENTLENESS OF ELEPHANTS. 



happen to be separated from her young for only two days, though giving 

 suck, she never after recognises or acknowledges it. I apprehend that this 

 idea arose from the fact that amongst newly-captured elephants, through the 

 anxiety and exhaustion attending the mother's efforts to escape, her milk 

 is invariably dried up for the time being. I have then seen elephants repel 

 their calves, whose importunities annoyed them. But with the return of 

 milk after a few days' rest and cooling food they have suckled them as 

 before. In captivity the female is by no means jealous of her young being 

 handled, and strangers may approach and fondle her caK immediately after 

 its birth without incurring her resentment. 



It is exceedingly entertaining to note the gravity of young calves, and the 

 way in which tliey keep close to their bulky mothers. The extreme gentle- 

 ness of elephants, the care they take never to push against, or step upon, 

 their attendants, doubtless arises from an instinctive feeling designed for tlie 

 protection of their young, which a rough, though unintentional, push or blow 

 with the legs of such huge animals would at once kill. Amongst all created 

 creatures the elephant stands unrivalled in gentleness. The most intelligent 

 horse cannot be depended upon not to tread on his master's toes, and if ter- 

 rified makes no hesitation in dashing away, even should he upset any one in 

 so doing. But elephants, even huge tuskers whose heads are high in the 

 air, and whose keepers are mere pigmies beside them, are so cautious that 

 accidents very seldom occur through carelessness on their part. In tlicj 

 kheddahs, though elephants are excited by struggling, they never overlook 

 the men on foot engaged in securing the captives ; and though there would 

 seem to be great danger in being amidst the forest of huge legs and bulky 

 bodies of the tame elephants, they evince such wonderful instinct in avoiding 

 injuring the men that I have never seen an accident occur through them. 



When an alarm occurs in a herd the young ones immediately vanish 

 under their mothers, and are then seldom seen again. A herd containing a 

 large number of calves would be supposed under these circumstances by the 

 uninitiated to consist entirely of full-grown elephants. I have only known 

 two young elephants disabled in many rushes and crushes of large herds 

 that I have witnessed. The mothers help their offspring up steep places 

 with a push behind, and manage to get them through or over every difficulty 

 with great ingenuity. 



The tusks of the Asiatic elephant are much smaller than those of the 

 African. The largest tusks of any elephant that I have myself shot measured 

 respectively 4 feet 11 inches and 5 feet in length, outside curve ; IGi inches 

 in circumference at the gum ; and weighed 74^^ lb. the pair. An elephant 

 with one enormous tusk, and one diseased and broken, was shot in the 



