THE INDIAN ELEPHANT. 395 



the butt- end resting on the ground, pulled the trigger. My 

 two-ounced shot took effect ; the animal staggered back eight 

 or ten paces towards the dead one, while, by violent exertions, 

 I disentangled myself from my most uncomfortable position."* 

 This was, indeed, a fortunate escape from an emergency of awful 

 risk, as it is impossible to tell whether one or twenty balls will 

 quiet an elephant. 



Captain Marryatt states, that elephants will frequently use 

 a large branch as a flapper to protect themselves from the 

 mosquitoes, and no one who has not been bitten, can conceive 

 how hard the tiger-mosquito can bite. He relates, " that while 

 a large elephant was much annoyed by these persecutors, and 

 flapping a bough in all directions about his body, the keeper 

 brought a little naked Indian babe, laid it down before the 

 animal with two words in Hindostanee ' Watch it,' and then 

 walked away into the town. The elephant immediately broke 

 off a smaller and more convenient portion of the bough, directed 

 his whole attention to the child, gently fanning it, to drive away 

 the mosquitoes ; and this he continued to do for above two 

 hours, regardless of his own sufferings, until the keeper returned. 

 It was really a beautiful sight to contemplate. Here was a 

 most gigantic animal acknowledging, as it were that this little 

 image of the Creator was divine -, silently proving that He hath 

 ' given to man dominion over the beasts of the field;' and setting 

 an example of self-denial, which but few Christians, none indeed 

 but a mother, would have practised." 



Elephants have in many instances shown great and steady 

 attachment to their keepers, more especially where single 

 individuals have been exclusively attended to. In Ceylon, 

 however, according to Major Forbes, there are few old hunting 

 elephants that have not killed people employed about them at 

 one time or other ; and he says that, in 1829, one of the hunting 

 elephants at Matal6, having shown symptoms of a capricious, 

 irritable temper, was secured to a tree near the stables ; next 

 day, as the keeper was standing barely within reach, the creature 

 * Abridged from Forbes's Eleven Years in Ceylon (1840). 



