8 Wild Beasts 



walked over, dismembered, others protest, as if any mode 

 of putting a man to death, except that particular one 

 which they had determined to be the natural, usual, 

 and, so to speak, proper method, would be a singular 

 departure from the course an elephant might have been 

 expected to pursue. 



Sir Emmerson Tennant ("Ceylon"), who has made as 

 many mistakes about these animals as can anywhere be 

 found gathered together in one place, is certain the tusks 

 are never used offensively. He, in fact, shows that it is 

 physically impossible that they should be. According to 

 him these appendages are probably auxiliary to the animal's 

 food supply, but for the most part useless. Nobody, how- 

 ever, ever saw a pair of these developed front teeth that 

 were symmetrical ; one is invariably more worn away than 

 the other on account of its having been used by preference 

 in digging up roots, bulbs, etc. With respect to their 

 employment as weapons, Selous states that "when an 

 elephant overtakes his persecutor [a man, that is to say], 

 he emits scream after scream in quick succession, all the 

 time stamping upon and ventilating his adversary with his 

 tusks." That these are "most formidable weapons," re- 

 marks Sanderson, is recognized by the animals themselves. 

 " Tuskers always maintain the greatest discipline in a 

 herd. . . . Superiority seems to attach to one or the other 

 in proportion to the size of the tusks ; " and in the combats 

 between bull elephants which he witnessed " one was often 

 killed outright." Further, when a male has only one tusk, 

 as not unfrequently happens, this is obviously more effec- 

 tive than both would be, and in that event, Sanderson 



