THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
U82 
watching all liis motions, and prevent him from making any 
sudden attack on their keepers. 
In 17 97 9 110 less than one hundred and seventy-six ele- 
phants, taken in this manner, were sent oyer by Adam’s 
bridge from Ceylon to the continent. Oil their way I had 
an opportunity of seeing these immense animals at the Grand 
Pass beyond Col umbo. One of them was exceedingly large 
and tall, and surpassed in size even the royal elephant in tiie 
possession of the Nabob of Arcot, which I saw near his 
palace of Chepauk. These animals, though so lately taken 
in a wild state, appeared quite tractable, shewed no symptom 
of being mischievous, and readily obeyed their keepers. 
The superiority of the elephants of Ceylon does not con- 
sist in their size, (for they are in general not so tall as those 
on the continent ;) but in their greater hardiness and powers 
for exertion, in their docility and freedom from vice and 
passion. The natives are so possessed with the idea of the 
excellence of their own elephants, as to affirm that the ele- 
phants of all other parts of the world make obeisance before 
those of Ceylon, and thus instinctively acknowledge their 
superiority. 
These lords of the forest, though from their size and 
strength formidable to all its other inhabitants, themselves 
live in continual apprehension of a small reptile, against 
which neither their sagacity nor their prowess can at all 
defend them. This diminutive creature gets into the trunk 
of the elephant, and pursues its course till it finally fixes 
