394 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
deliberate and brooding resolve to wage war on everything, 
so that the animal patiently lies in wait for travellers, 
rushing from his ambush only when he finds that the 
latter are within his power. As showing the cold-blooded 
determination of this murderous desire, I may quote 
the following case, as it was communicated to Sir E. 
Tennent : — 
We had, says the writer, calculated to come up with the 
brute where it had been seen half an hour before; but no sooner 
had one of our men, who was walking foremost, seen the animal 
at the distance of some fifteen or twenty fathoms, than he ex- 
claimed, 6 There ! there ! ’ and immediately took to his heels, 
and we all followed his example. The elephant did not see us 
until we had run some fifteen or twenty paces from the spot 
where we turned, when he gave us chase, screaming frightfully 
as he came on. The Englishman managed to climb a tree, and 
the rest of my companions did the same ; as for myself, I could 
not, although I made one or two superhuman efforts. But there 
was no time to be lost. The elephant was running at me with 
his trunk bent down in a curve towards the ground. At this 
critical moment Mr. Lindsay held out his foot to me, with the 
help of which and then of the branches of the tree, which were 
three or four feet above my head, I managed to scramble up to 
a branch. The elephant came directly to the tree and attempted 
to force it down, which he could not. He first coiled his trunk 
round the stem, and pulled it with all his might, but with no 
effect. He then applied his head to the tree, and pushed for 
several minutes, but with no better success. He then trampled 
with his feet all the projecting roots, moving, as he did so, several 
times round and round the tree. Lastly, failing in all this, and 
seeing a pile of timber, which I had lately cut, at a short dis- 
tance from us, he removed it all (thirty -six pieces) one at a time 
to the root of the tree, and piled them up in a regular business- 
like manner ; then placing his hind feet on this pile, he raised 
the fore part of his body, and reached out his trunk, but still he 
could not touch us, as we were too far above him. The English- 
man then fired, and the ball took effect somewhere on the 
elephant's head, but did not kill him. It made him only the 
more furious. The next shot, however, levelled him to the 
ground. X afterwards brought the skull of the animal to Colombo* 
and it is still to be seen at the house of Mr. Armitage. 1 
: Natural History of Ceylon , p. 140. 
