ELEPHANTS. 257 



It can easily be seen how necessary the trunk is to the 

 elephant's existence. Wild animals quickly die from starvation 

 if it is severed from the body or otherwise incapacitated for use, 

 so that its preservation is a matter of vital importance, and their 

 sagacity is perpetually being exerted to preserve it from injury. 

 They use it cautiously and rarely as a weapon of defence or 

 offence, but if attacked hold it aloft and try in every way to keep 

 it from being harmed. When they have to use it offensively, 

 which they rarely do, as they rely more on their tusks or weight, 

 they do not strike with it extended, or wield it as is generally 

 imagined, but, rolling it up tightly, they suddenly unroll the 

 vertical coils and send the trunk straight at the object of their 

 attack " as scientifically as a well- trained boxer hits out from the 

 shoulder." If they attack a man they seize the victim by the 

 trunk, and throwing him beneath their feet, soon trample him 

 into a mass of gory flesh that has little semblance of anything 

 human left in it. Animals, such as tigers, lions, buffaloes, and 

 others are treated in the same way when actually attacked ; but 

 elephants are, as a rule, very quiet and inoffensive beasts. Dogs, 

 probably from their quick movements, sharp bark, and habit of 

 snapping at the trunk, are objects of dread to an elephant, but if 

 the animal has never suffered from being clawed by a tiger, which 

 generally makes it fear these striped cats ever after, a rhinoceros 

 is the only quadruped of which it is really afraid, or in a contest does 

 not prove the victor. The trunk is also occasionally employed to 

 throw any missile that can readily be seized upon, atthe object of their 

 enmity ; and the beast has the power of aiming in this way with 

 great precision and hurling with considerable force. Even in the 

 case of a tame elephant, an injury inflicted to the trunk will make it 

 so furious with rage and pain that its mahout or keeper will be 

 powerless to control or quiet it. -In fact, it is so sensitive that the 

 animals never willingly use it for extremely rough work, and 

 an authority on the subject • says that the anecdotes told about 

 elephants dragging timber, or using the trunk for similar purposes, 

 convey erroneous conceptions and are misstatements of facts. 

 " Elephants engaged in such work," he writes, " as dragging timber 

 invariably take the rope between their teeth, they never attempt 



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