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 of 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 been removed, and the watcher withdrawn ; and, then 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 



