82 



MAMMALIA. 



[Chap. II. 



are recorded as having been caused by elephants, 15 by 

 buffaloes, 6 by crocodiles, 2 by boars, 1 by a bear, and 

 68 by serpents (the great majority of the last class of 

 sufferers being women and children, who had been 

 bitten during the night). Little more than three fatal 

 accidents occurring annually on the average of five years, 

 is certainly a very small proportion in a population 

 estimated at a million and a half, in an island abounding 

 with elephants, with which, independently of casual 

 encounters, voluntary conflicts are daily stimulated by 

 the love of sport or the hope of gain. Were the ele- 

 phants instinctively vicious or even highly irritable in 

 their temperament, the destruction of human life under 

 the circumstances must have been infinitely greater. It 

 must also be taken into account, that some of the 

 accidents recorded may have occurred in the rutting 

 season, when elephants are subject to fits of temporary 

 fury, known in India by the term must, in Ceylon 

 mudda, — a paroxysm which speedily passes away, but 

 during the fury of which it is dangerous even for the 

 mahout to approach those ordinarily the gentlest and 

 most familiar. 



But, then, the elephant is said to " entertain an 

 extraordinary dislike to all quadrupeds; that dogs 

 running near him produce annoyance ; that he is alarmed 

 if a hare start from her form;" and from Pliny to 

 Buffon every naturalist has recorded its supposed aversion 

 to swine. 1 These alleged antipathies are in a great 

 degree, if not entirely, imaginary. The habits of the 

 elephant are essentially harmless, its wants lead to no 

 rivalry with other animals, and the food to which it is 



1 Menageries, " The Elephant," ch. iii. 



