130 
MAMMALIA. 
[Chap. III. 
time when the fruit of the palmyra palm begins to 
fall to the ground from ripeness. In like manner in the 
eastern provinces where the custom prevails of culti- 
vating what is called chena land (by clearing a patch of 
forest for the purpose of raising a single crop, after 
which the ground is abandoned, and reverts to jungle 
again), although a single elephant may not have been 
seen in the neighbourhood during the early stages of the 
process, the Moormen, who are the principal cultivators of 
this class, will predict their appearance with almost un- 
erring confidence so soon as the grains shall have begun 
to ripen ; and although the crop comes to maturity at 
different periods in different districts, herds are certain 
to be seen at each in succession, as soon as it is ready to 
be cut. In these well-timed excursions, they resemble 
the bison pf North America, which, by a similarly mys- 
terious instinct, finds its way to portions of the distant 
prairies, where accidental fires have been followed by a 
growth of tender grass. Although the fences around 
these chenas are little more than lines of reeds loosely 
fastened together, they are sufficient, with the presence 
of a single watcher, to prevent the entrance of the ele- 
phants, who wait patiently till the rice and coracan have 
been removed, and the watcher withdrawn ; and, then 
finding gaps in the fence, they may be seen gleaning 
among the leavings and the stubble ; and they take their 
departure when these are exhausted, apparently in the 
direction of some other chena, which they have ascer- 
tained to be about to be cut. 
There is something still unexplained in the dread 
which an elephant always exhibits on approaching a 
fence, and the reluctance which he displays to face the 
slightest artificial obstruction to his passage. In the 
