178 THE DISEASES OF ELEPHANTS. 
cracks f paid ’ with tow. Sore backs are surface-healed; and 
the animals are so bedizened with paint, and so fattened up 
with artificial feeding, that it is hard to tell what any one of 
them would look like if ‘ stripped to the bones/ Then the 
space is so confined, and the crowd so great, that very little 
* trotting out' is possible; so that altogether buying elephants 
at such fairs is anything but plain sailing. 
“ The usual food of elephants in Upper and Central India 
consists of cakes of wheaten flour, baked without leaven, to 
a weight of about 2 lbs. each, and given with a slight spread¬ 
ing of clarified butter. In the South and East, where wheat 
is scarce, plain uncooked rice is given instead. The daily 
ration of a full-sized animal of, say eight and a half feet high, 
is 24 lbs. of flour or 82 lbs. of rice. When one of these sorts 
of food are substituted for the other, it should be done gra¬ 
dually ; and when rice is first given a part of it should be 
boiled for some weeks. The above rations are for an animal 
in hard work. In the Government Commissariat Depart¬ 
ment, where great numbers of elephants are kept almost in 
idleness for a great part of the year, lower rations are given. 
But the treatment of these elephants is by no means a model 
for imitation. In a state of nature the animal takes an im¬ 
mense deal of exercise. Here they get no work to speak of 
between the close of one marching season (March) and the 
beginning of the next (November). They pass quite out of 
condition during this time, and many are lost from complaints 
generated by these sudden alternations of work and idleness. 
In the text I have urged the employment of these elephants 
during this season in the organized destruction of wild beasts. 
Of course, the amount of the ration will vary somewhat with 
the size of the animal, and elephants, like horses, have their 
idiosyncrasies in the matter of feeding. A sharp look-out 
requires to be kept over the mahouts at feeding-time, other¬ 
wise great part of the allowance will probably go to Moula 
Bux, wife, small family, and the several fathers, brothers, and 
cousins, who usually aim at getting f half a seer of flour’ 
apiece out of their great milch cow—master’s elephant. 
About half a pound of clarified butter, and the same amount 
of salt, should be allowed daily wfith the food, and spice- 
balls should be administered once a week. Besides these 
rations an elephant devours an enormous amount of fodder. 
The principal substances given him are the branches of 
various trees of the fig tribe, banyan, peepul, and goolar. 
The leaves of the peepul are eaten, but should be avoided in 
the hot season, for reasons before mentioned. Of the others 
the inner bark of the larger branches, and the wdiole sub- 
