216 
MAMMALIA. 
[Chap. VII. 
ductive of no demonstration whatever, may lead, in mo- 
ments of temporary illness, to fretfulness and anger. 
The knowledge of this infirmity led to the popular 
belief recorded by Phile, that the elephant had two 
hearts, under the respective influences of which it 
evinced ferocity or gentleness ; subdued by the one to 
habitual tractability and obedience, but occasionally 
roused by the other to displays of rage and resist- 
ance. 1 
In the process of taming, the presence of the tame 
ones can generally be dispensed with after two months, 
and the captive may then be ridden by the driver alone ; 
and after three or four months he may be entrusted 
with labour, so far as regards docility; — but it is un- 
desirable, and even involves the risk of life, to work an 
elephant too soon ; it has frequently happened that a 
valuable animal has lain down and died the first time it 
was tried in harness, from what the natives believe to be 
"broken heart," — certainly without any cause inferable 
from injury or previous disease. 2 It is observable, that 
1 " AnrXrjs Se (pdaiv eviroprj<rcu Kap- hibited to the British Envoy, "made 
Stay vigorous resistance to the placing 
Ka\ rfi fj.ev thai frvfiLnbv t& Snipiov of a collar on its neck, and the 
Ets &Kp<nri nivqaiv rjpedicr/xevov, people were proceeding to tighten 
Tfj 5e irpocrr)i<es ko\ SpacrvrriTos \ivov. it, when the elephant, which had 
Kal 7r?7 fikv avruiv aKpauadai toiv lain down as if quite exhausted, 
\6ycou reared suddenly on the hind quar- 
Ovs &v Tis 'IvSbs e£> TiBaaevuv Aeyoi, ters, and fell on its side — dead.'" 
Ufj 5e irpbs avrobs tovs uo/xeis iin- — P. 104. 
rpix elv Mr. Stkachan noticed the same 
Ets Tas iraAaihs inrpairei/ Kattovp- liability of the elephants to sudden 
yias." death from very slight causes ; "of 
Phile, Expos, de Elepk, 1. 126, &c. the fall," he says, " at any time, 
' 2 Captain Yitle, in his Narra- though on plain ground, they 
tive of an Embassy to Ava in 1855, either die immediately, or languish, 
records an illustration of this ten- till they die ; their great weight 
dency of the elephant to sudden occasioning them so much hurt by 
death; one newly captured, the the fall." — Phil Trans, a.d. 1701,. 
process of taming which was ex- vol. xxiii. p. 1052. 
