ELEPHANT — EMOTIONS. 395 



Another highly curious trait in the emotional psycho- 

 logy of the elephant is the readiness with which the huge 

 animal expires under the mere influence of what the 

 natives call a ' broken heart.' The facts on this head are 

 without a parallel in any other animal, and are the more 

 remarkable from the fact that, so far as natural length of 

 life is any token, the elephant may be said to have more 

 vitality, or innate power of living, than any other terres- 

 trial mammal. Again, to quote from Sir E. Tennent : — 



Among&t the last of the elephants noosed was the rogue. 

 Though far more savage than the others, he joined in none of 

 their charges and assaults on the fences, as they uniformly drove 

 him off, and would not permit him to enter their circle. When 

 dragged past another of his companions in misfortune, who was 

 lying exhausted on the ground, he flew upon him and attempted 

 to fasten his teeth in his head ; this was the only instance of 

 viciousness which occurred during the progress of the corral. 

 "When tied up and overpowered, he was at first noisy and violent, 

 hut soon lay down peacefully, a sign, according to the hunters, 

 that his death was at hand. Their prognostication was correct ; 

 he continued for about twelve hours to cover himself with dust 

 like the others, and to moisten it with water from his trunk ; 

 but at length he lay exhausted, and died so calmly, that having 

 been moving but a few moments before, his death was only per- 

 ceived by the myriads of black flies by which his body was 

 almost instantly covered, although not one was visible a moment 

 before.^ 



But this peculiarity is not confined to rogue elephants. 

 Thus Captain Yule, in his * Narrative of an Embassy to 

 Ava in 1855,' records an illustration of this tendency of 

 the elephant to sudden death. One newly captured, the 

 process of taming which was exhibited to the British 

 Envoy, ' made vigorous resistance to the placing of a collar 

 on its neck, and the people were proceeding to tighten it, 

 when the elephant, which had lain down as if quite ex- 

 hausted, reared suddenly on the hind quarters, and fell on 

 its side — dead ! ' 



Mr. Strachan noticed the same liability of the ele- 

 phants to sudden death from very slight causes. ' Of the 



* Natural History of Ceylon, p. 196. 



