ELEPHANTS. 291 



to attend to elephants, make these animals expensive ones to keep, 

 and their labour too dear for general use. 



Male elephants (occasionally females also) are subject to 

 periodical paroxysms that vary in duration from a few weeks 

 to three or four months, and occur regularly in some animals 

 or only at intervals in others. They are then said to be must, 

 or mad. During this period they are either very violent and 

 intractable, or else drowsy and lethargic. Mahouts can easily tell 

 the approach of must by the flow of an oily matter from the small 

 gland in the temple on each side of the head to be seen in elephants 

 of either sex. At this period they have to be handled and 

 approached^ with great care, for they frequently exhibit a most 

 decided tendency to attack every one that comes within their 

 reach, and at such times kill their keepers as readily as they 

 kill any one else. 



Elephants being in consequence of this infirmity so uncertain 

 in their dispositions, for the ordinarily most docile animal may be- 

 come the most furious of beasts when 7nust, and as so many homi- 

 cides have been committed by elephants when in this condition, 

 they must be pronounced the most dangerous of all animals that 

 are now employed by men. A number of cases could be in- 

 stanced in support of this opinion ; one or two are worth quoting. 

 In 1872 the Times informs us : " An interesting beast has just 

 passed away at Chicago. The New Yorh Herald announces the 

 death in that town on the 8th June of the celebrated performing 

 elephant ' Romeo,' the largest and most valuable of his species 

 ever brought to America, and more famous than any who have 

 gone before him. The occurrence, says the Herald, will excite 

 interest in almost every city, town, or village in America ; but to 

 judge by the account given of the career of the deceased, the news 

 of his death must, we imagine, be received with some sense of 

 relief. ' Romeo,' it seems, has killed five keepers since his advent 

 in America, ' besides destroying any number of fences, barns, 

 garden-patches, cornfields, orchards, &c.' He was bought in 

 Calcutta about twenty-five years ago, having been taken from a 

 brickyard, where he was used in grinding clay. The price paid 

 for him was $10,000 in gold, and he was brought to America with 



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