Chap. II.] 



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 a gainst 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 



