THE ELEPHANT. 



to pour with a loud gurgling noise, which con- 

 tinues till the whole is blown down. From this 

 manner of drinking, some have been led into an 

 opinion that the young elephant sucks with its 

 trunk, and not with its mouth : this, however, is 

 a fact which no traveller has hitherto had an op- 

 portunity of seeing, and it must be referred to 

 some future accident to determine. 



The hide of the elephant is as remarkable as 

 any other part. It is not covered over with hair, 

 as in the generality of quadrupeds, but is nearly 

 bare. Here and there, indeed, a few bristles are 

 seen growing in the scars and wrinkles of the 

 body, and very thinly scattered over the rest of 

 the skin ; but in general the head is dry, rough, 

 and wrinkled, and resembling more the bark of 

 an old tree than the skin of an animal. This 

 grows thicker every year ; and, by a constant 

 addition of substance, it at length contracts that 

 disorder well known by the name of the elephan- 

 tiasis, or Arabian leprosy; a disease to which 

 man, as well as the elephant, is often subject. 

 In order to prevent this, the Indians rub the 

 elephant with oil, and frequently bathe it to pre- 

 serve its pliancy. To the inconveniencies of this 

 disorder is added another, arising from the great 

 sensibility of those parts that are not callous. 

 Upon these the flies settle in great abundance, 

 and torment this animal unceasingly ; to remedy 

 which the elephant tries all its arts, using not 

 only its tail and trunk in the natural manner to 

 keep them off, but even takes the branch of a 

 tree, or a bundle of hay, to strike them off with. 



