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 " AnrKrjs 5e (pdaiv €viropri<raL Kap- 

 has • 



Kcu rfi fxh eivai SvfAiiibv to Sr)piov 

 Els aKparri Kivqcriv T)psQi(TfAevov, 

 Tfj 8e 7^pocr^7^6s Kai SpaavrriTOS \ivov. 

 Kal 7T?5 (jleu avT&v dicpoacrdcu rav 

 \6y(av 



Ovs &p tls 'Iz>8os S Tt0ao*eiW \eyoi, 

 II77 5e irphs avrovs 7ovs vofxeis e J 7ri- 



Els tocs iraXaias iicrpcnreu KaKovp- 

 7tas." 



Phile, Expos, de Eleph., 1. 126, &c. 



2 Captain Yule, in his Narra- 

 tive of an Embassy to Ava in 1855, 

 records an illustration of this ten- 

 dency of the elephant to sudden 

 death; one newly captured, the 

 process of taming which was ex- 



hibited to the British Envoy, "made 

 vigorous resistance to the placing 

 of a collar on its neck, and the 

 people were proceeding to tighten 

 it, when the elephant, which had 

 lain down as if quite exhausted, 

 reared suddenly on the hind quar- 

 ters, and fell on its side — dead ! " 

 — P. 104. 



Mr. Strachan noticed the same 

 liability of the elephants to sudden 

 death from very slight causes ; "of 

 the fall," he says, " at any* time, 

 though on plain ground, they 

 either die immediately, or languish 

 till they die; their great weight 

 occasioning them so much hurt by 

 the fall."— Phil Trans, a.d. 1701, 

 vol. xxiii. p. 1052. 



