Chap. IL] 
THE ELEPHANT. 
81 
So harmless and peaceful is the life of the elephant, 
that nature appears to have left it unprovided with any 
weapon of offence : its trunk is too delicate an organ to 
be rudely employed in a conflict with other animals, 
and although on an emergency it may push or gore with 
its tusks (to which the French have hastily given the 
term " defenses "), their almost vertical position, 
added to the difficulty of raising its head above the level 
of the shoulder, is inconsistent with the idea of their 
being designed for attack, since it is impossible for the 
elephant to strike an effectual blow, or to " wield " its 
tusks as the deer and the buffalo can direct their horns. 
Nor is it easy to conceive under what circumstances an 
elephant could have a hostile encounter with either a 
rhinoceros or a tiger, with whose pursuits in a state of 
nature its own can in no way conflict. 
Towards man elephants evince shyness, arising from 
their love of solitude and dislike of intrusion ; any 
alarm they exhibit at his appearance may be reasonably 
traced to the slaughter which has reduced their num- 
bers ; and as some evidence of this, it has always been 
observed that an elephant exhibits greater impatience 
of the presence of a white man than of a native. Were 
its instincts to carry it further, or were it influenced by 
any feeling of animosity or cruelty, it must be apparent 
that, as against the prodigious numbers that inhabit 
the forests of Ceylon, man would wage an unequal con- 
test, and that of the two one or other must long since 
have been reduced to a helpless minority. 
Official testimony is not wanting in confirmation of 
this view; — in the returns of 108 coroners' inquests in 
Ceylon, during five years, from 1849 to 1855 inclusive, 
held in cases of death occasioned by wild animals ; 16 
a 
