No. 49.— 1898.] THE CEYLON ELEPHANT. 185 



many ignorant people will scarcely believe this, I, who have 

 seen this with my own eyes, can testify to it. 16 



But I must not forget to mention here that elephants 

 during the breeding season become quite wild and violent, 

 and great care should be taken of them during this period, 

 by having them tethered with strong ropes or iron chains to 

 strong trees or posts till their fury and natural impulses 

 cool down, in order to prevent many sad accidents which 

 might, and often do, arise therefrom if they are not secured 

 in time, or before one begins to know that they are not to be 

 trusted. This change in them can be discovered by an oily 

 secretion in the hollows next to or above the eyes, which 

 lasts so long as the desire to mate lasts. 17 But after a certain 

 time this ceases, and they are again tame and tractable as 

 they were before they became " must." It is wonderful to 

 notice the honour and respect paid by the alias and cow- 

 elephants to the tuskers, so much so that they gladly allow 

 the little tuskers to take suck from them, although they 

 belong to other mothers, but why there should be this 

 preference is not permissible to be explained here. 



In Ceylon there are found few elephants with large and 

 long tusks, with which the cows are never furnished, and 

 most bulls have no other teeth than those in their mouth for 

 necessary use, and these are "baptized" by the Sinhalese 

 and Company's officers " alias" 18 to distinguish them from 

 those which are, as said before, furnished with tusks. 



The heaviest elephant tusks found in Ceylon within the 

 memory of man have been found to be each about 75 to 

 80 pounds in weight, which is not much compared with the 

 weight of those found in Africa, America, and other parts 

 of the world ; for these are often bigger, thicker, and 

 heavier than those in Ceylon. But as to the use to which 

 tusks are put I shall make no mention of it here, seeing 

 that it is well known and is outside the scope of this Paper. 

 But as a matter of special observation I shall state here the 

 requisite qualities of the full-grown elephant caught for the 

 service and pleasure of the Emperor of Ceylon and King of 



