THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
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in his head, and by keeping him in continual agony, at 
length torments the stupendous animal to death. So dread- 
fully afraid arc the elephants of this dangerous enemy, that 
they use a variety of precautions to prevent his attacks ; 
and never lay their trunks to the ground, except when to 
gather or separate their food. 
The struggles which the elephants make to prevent them- 
selves from being secured, and the violence employed to 
render them tame, produce a number of accidents of which 
some of them die while others are rendered completely use- 
less. Not above the half of those* driven into the enclosure, 
or otherwise taken, can be preserved from injury so as to be 
afterwards brought to sale. The hunt in 1797 was the 
greatest ever known. 
Of those animals applied to domestic purposes, Ceylon pro- 
duces but few. I have already mentioned that the horse and 
sheep are not natives of this island, and scarcely can be 
made to thrive there when imported. The horses which are 
bred on the small islands beyond Jafnapatam, are a mixture 
of the Arab and the common horse of the Carnatic. They 
are mostly used for drawing gigs and other light pleasure 
vehicles. The Manilla, the Pegu, and the Atcheen horses, are 
much employed for these purposes, and, though small, are 
very much esteemed on account of their fast trotting, their 
strength, and their being capable of enduring a great deal of 
fatigue. The horses used by the civil and military officers 
are chiefly Arabs brought by the way of Bombay. • - 
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