Ill 
THE ELEPHANT 
lOI 
taneously destroyed in this wholesale slaughter. 
The flesh is then cut into long strips and dried, 
every portion of the animal being smoked upon 
frames of green wood, and the harvest of meat is 
divided among the villages which have contributed 
to the hunt. The tusks are also shared, a certain 
portion belonging by right to the various headmen 
and the chief. 
When man determines to commence war with the 
animal kingdom the result must be disastrous to the 
beasts, if the human destroyers are in sufficient num¬ 
bers to ensure success. Although fire-arms may not 
be employed, the human intelligence must always 
overpower the brute creation, but man must exist 
in numerical superiority if the wild beasts are to 
be fairly vanquished by a forced retreat from the 
locality. From my own observation I have con¬ 
cluded that wild animals of all kinds will withstand 
the dangers of traps, pitfalls, fire, and the usual 
methods for their destruction employed by savages, 
but they will be rapidly cleared out of an extensive 
district by the use of fire-arms. There is a peculiar 
effect in the report of guns which appears to excite 
the apprehension of danger in the minds of all 
animals. This is an extraordinary instance of the 
general intelligence of wild creatures, as they must 
be accustomed to the reports of thunder since the 
day of their birth. Nevertheless they draw a special 
distinction between the loud peal of thunder and 
the comparatively innocent explosion of a fire-arm. 
Many years ago in Ceylon I devoted particular 
