64 CUTTING TUSKS. 



visible. This rule holds pretty closely for all elephants until they become 

 aged, when, if the tusks grow abnormally long, which is not always the 

 case, the exposed portion becomes longer than the embedded, as the latter 

 is limited to the length which the nasal bones attain — viz., about 1 f foot 

 in the largest skulls. 



The points are usually cut from the tusks of tame elej)hants, and the ex- 

 tremity is encircled with a brass or iron ring to prevent tlie tusk splitting, 

 and for show. In cases where too much has been cut from the tusk and 

 the hollow portion entered, dreadful mischief ensues. I have seen a tusker, 

 one of whose tusks had rotted away from this cause, with the socket far into 

 the head filled with maggots. Tusks if once lost are never renewed. 



Sir Emerson Tennent considers at some length the use for which tlie 

 tusks of male elephants can be designed. He says : — 



" But here there arises a further and very curious inquiry as to the 

 specific objects in the economy of the elephant to which its tusks are con- 

 ducive. Placed as it is in Ceylon, in the midst of the most luxuriant pro- 

 fusion of its favourite food, and witli no natural enemies against whom to 

 protect itself, it is difficult to conjecture any probable utility which it can 

 derive from such appendages. Their absence is unaccompanied by any 

 inconvenience to the individuals in whom they are wanting ; and as regards 

 the few who possess them, the only operations in which I am aware of their 

 tusks being employed is to assist in ripping open the stems of the joggery 

 palms and young palmirahs to extract the farinaceous core ; and in splitting 

 up the juicy shaft of the plantain. 



" If the tusks were designed to be employed offensively, some alertness 

 would naturally be exhibited in using them. So peaceable and harmless is 

 the life of the elephant, that nature appears to have left it unprovided with 

 any special weapon of offence ; and although in an emergency it may pusli 

 or gore with its tusks, their almost vertical position, added to the difficulty 

 of raising its head above the level of the slioulder, is inconsistent with tlie 

 idea of their being designed for attack, since it is impossible for the animal 

 to deliver an effectual blow, or to wield its tusks as the deer and the buflalo 

 can wield their horns. 



" Among elephants, jealousy and other causes of irritation frequently 

 occasion contentions between individuals of the same herd ; but on sucli 

 occasions their general habit is to strike with their trunks, and to bear down 

 their opponents with their heads. It is doubtless correct tluit an elej^hant, 

 when prostrated by the force or fury of an antagonist of its own species, is 

 often wounded by the downward pressure of the tusks, which in any other 

 position it would be almost impossible to use offensively." 



