134 
MAMMALIA. 
[Chap. III. 
higher degree of development consequent on his more 
intimate domestication and association with man. 
One remarkable fact was called to my attention by a 
gentleman who resided on a coffee plantation at Kassawe, 
one of the loftiest mountains of the Ambogammoa range. 
More than once during the terrific thunder-bursts that 
precede the rains at the change of each monsoon, he ob- 
served that the elephants in the adjoining forest hastened 
from under cover of the trees and took up their station 
in the open ground, where I saw them on one of these 
occasions collected into a group ; and here, he said, it 
was their custom to remain till the lightning had ceased, 
when they retired again into the jungle. 1 It must be 
observed, however, that showers, and especially light 
drizzling rain, are believed to bring the elephants from 
the jungle towards pathways or other openings in the 
forest; — and hence, in places infested by them, timid 
persons are afraid to travel in the afternoon during 
uncertain weather. 
When free in its native woods the elephant evinces 
rather simplicity than sagacity, and its intelligence 
seldom exhibits itself in cunning. The rich profusion in 
which nature has supplied its food, and anticipated its 
every want, has made it independent of those devices 
by which carnivorous animals provide for their sub- 
sistence; and, from the absence of all rivalry between 
it and the other denizens of the plains, it is never 
required to resort to artifice for self-protection. For 
these reasons, in its tranquil and harmless life, it may 
appear to casual observers to exhibit even less than 
_ 1 The elephant is believed by the of rain; and the Tamils have a 
Singhalese to express his uneasi- proverb. — "Listen to the elephant, 
ness by his voice, on the approach rain is coming." 
