512 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO1790; 



daunt*. A 3d variety is the puttel-dauntee, whose tusks are straight, like those 

 of the mooknah, only much longer, and thicker. A 4th variety is the ankoos- 

 dauntee-J-, where 1 tusk grows nearly horizontal, like the pulling-daunt, and the 

 other like the puttel-daunt. Besides these, the elephant-keepers notice other 

 varieties, which are less distinct. All these tusks, in the male, are fixed very deep 

 in the upper jaw; and the root or upper part, which is hollow and filled with a 

 core, goes as high as the insertion of the trunk, round the margin of the nasal 

 opening to the throat; which opening is just below the protuberance of the 

 forehead. 



Through this opening the elephant breathes, and by its means he sucks up water 

 into his trunk; between it and the roots of the tusks there is only a thin bony 

 plate. The first or milk tusks of an elephant never grow to any size, but are 

 shed between the 1 st and 2d year, when not 2 inches in length. These, as well as 

 the first grinders, are named by the natives dood-kau-daunt, which literally sig- 

 nifies milk teeth. The tusks which are shed have a considerable part of the root 

 or fang absorbed before this happens. The time at which the tusks cut the gum, 

 varies considerably. I have known a young one get his tusks when about 5 months 

 old; whereas the tusks of another did not cut the gum till he was 7 months old. 

 Those tusks which are deciduous are perfect, and without any hollow in the root, 

 in a fcetus which is come to its full time; at this period, the socket of the perma- 

 nent tusk begins to be formed, on the inner side of the deciduous tusk. A young 

 elephant had shed 1 of his milk tusks on the 6th of Nov. 1790, when near 13 

 months old, and the other on the 27th of Dec, when above 14 months old: they 

 were merely 2 black-coloured stumps, when shed; but 2 months afterwards the 

 permanent ones cut the gum, and on the 19th of April, 1791, they were 1 inch 

 long, but black and ragged at the ends. When they became longer, and projected 

 beyond the lip, they soon were worn smooth, by the motion and friction of the 

 trunk. Another young elephant did not shed his milk tusks till he was 16 months 

 old; which proves that there is considerable variety in the time at which this 

 happens. The permanent tusks of the female are very small, in comparison with 

 those of the male, and do not take their rise so deep in the jaw; but they use 

 them as weapons of offence, in the same manner as the male named mooknah, 

 that is, by putting their head above another elephant, and pressing their tusks 

 down into the animal. These tusks are never shed, and sometimes grow to a very 

 large size in the male. The largest I have known in Bengal, did not exceed 72 lb. 

 avoirdupois: at Tiperah, they seldom exceed 50 lb.; but both these weights are 

 very inferior to that of the tusks brought from other places to the India House, 

 where I have seen some near 150 lb. each. From what part of Asia they came, I 



* Soor or choor-daunt signifies hogs' teeth j from the tusks having some distant resemblance to those 



in the lower jaw of the hog. t Ankoos signifies a crook, and is particularly applied to the weapon 



the drivers use to govern the elephant, to which these irregular tusks bear some resemblance. — Orig. 



