232 TWO YEARS IIS" THE JUNGLE. 



vated fields to be trespassed upon, elephants cannot be turned 

 loose at night to browse at will, but must be furnished with a daily 

 supply of green fodder, grass, leaves, sugar-cane, or in lieu of that, 

 dry fodder, in a smaller quantity. The daily government allow- 

 ance in Bengal is 400 pounds of green fodder, or 240 pounds of 

 dry, while in Madras it is only 250 pounds and 125 pounds respec- 

 tively for elephants of the same size and internal capacity. Mr. 

 Sanderson has proven, by careful experiments in feeding elephants, 

 that the government allowance in both the Presidencies is wholly 

 insufficient for the actual wants of the animal. He found that dur- 

 ing eight consecutive days, eight female elephants consumed a daily 

 average of 650 pounds of green fodder each, and a large tusker 

 consumed 800 pounds of the same food in eighteen hours. In ad- 

 dition to this the animals had each 18 pounds of grain daily. 



The following figures show the cost of keeping an adult female 

 elephant in the Madras Commissariat Department, per month : 



1 mahout (driver) 9 Rupees. 



1 grass-cutter 6 " 



25 pounds rice per diem (30 pounds per rupee) 25 " 



Salt, oil, and medicines 3 " 



Fodder, average monthly purchase 6 



(( 



48 " 

 The rupee is equal to about forty-four cents in gold, which 

 would make the cost of keeping an elephant about $21.12 per 

 month in our currency. 



Male elephants which have passed the age of puberty, twenty 

 years or thereabouts, are subject to fits of " must," or temporary 

 insanity, when they are not sufficiently worked or exercised, and 

 sometimes even when they are. According to all accounts, ele- 

 phants of advanced age are most subject to these dangerous 

 paroxysms, and the fits vary in duration from four or five weeks 

 to four or five months. They also vary in intensity from dull leth- 

 argy in one animal, to the most murderous fury in another. The ap- 

 proach of " must " is indicated by the discharge of a pecuUar yellow 

 matter from a small orifice behind the eye, upon the appearance of 

 which the elephant is closely watched, if not chained up altogether. 

 An elephant in a violent fit of "must" sometimes becomes the 

 incarnation of murderous and destructive deviltry. Many of the 

 so-called " rogue " elephants are, no doubt, old males who from 

 over-eating and lazy habits have been attacked by fits of " must." 

 Sanderson mentions an elephant at Mandla, near Jubbulpore, which 



