Buffon's Natural History. Volume 07 (of 10) / Containing a Theory of the Earth, a General History of Man, of the Brute Creation, and of Vegetables, Minerals, &c. &c

by comte de Georges Louis Leclerc Buffon

The ears of the elephant are very long; he makes use of them as a fan, and moves them as he pleases: his tail is not longer than his ears, being commonly near three feet in length; it is rather thin, sharp, and garnished at the extremity with a tuft of large black, shining, and solid bristles; these bristles are as big and as strong as wire, and a man cannot break them by pulling with his hands, though they are elastic and pliant. This tuft of hair is an ornament which the negro women are particularly partial to, from superstitious notions. An elephant’s tail is sometimes sold for two or three slaves, and the negroes often hazard their lives to cut and snatch it from the living animal. Besides this tuft at the extremity, the tail is covered throughout with hard bristles, bigger than those of a wild boar; some are also found on the convex part of the trunk, and on the eye-brows, where they sometimes are a foot in length. The hairs on the eye-lids are peculiar to men, monkeys, and elephants.

The climate, food, and condition, have great influence on the growth and size of the elephant. In general those who are taken young, and early lose their liberty, never come to their full growth. The biggest elephants of India, and the eastern coasts of Africa, are fourteen feet high; the smallest, which are found in Senegal, and in the other western parts of Africa, are not above ten or eleven feet; and those which are brought young into Europe acquire not that height. That which was in the menagerie of Versailles, which came from Congo, was but seven feet and a half high, in his seventeenth year. During thirteen years that he lived in France he did not grow above a foot, so that at the age of four, when he was sent he was only six feet and a half high, and as the growth gradually diminishes as animals advance in years, if he had lived thirty years, which is the ordinary term of their full growth, he would not have been more than eight feet high. Thus a domestic state reduces the growth of the animal at least one third, not only in height but in all other dimensions. The length of the body, measured from the eye to the tail, is very near equal to his height; an elephant of the Indies, therefore, of fourteen feet high, is seven times bigger and heavier than was the elephant of Versailles. In comparing the growth of this animal with that of man we shall find, that an infant, being commonly thirty-one inches, that is half his height when he is two years old, and coming to his full growth at twenty, the elephant, who increases in height and bulk to his thirtieth year, should come to half his height in three years. In the same manner, if we judge of the enormity of the bulk of the elephant, it will be found, that the volume of a man’s body being supposed to be two cubic feet and a half, the body of an elephant of fourteen feet in length, allowing him only three feet in thickness, and of a middling breadth, would be fifty times as big, and, consequently, an elephant ought to weigh as much as fifty men.

“I have seen (says father Vincent Marie) some elephants who were fourteen or fifteen feet high, long and thick in proportion. The male is always larger than the female. The price of these animals increases in proportion to their size, which is measured from the eye to the extremity of the back, and after exceeding certain dimensions, the price increases like that of precious stones.”

“The elephants of Guinea (says Bosman) are ten, twelve, or thirteen feet in height, and yet they are incomparably smaller than those of the East Indies, since those who have written the history of that country, give to those more cubits in height, than the others have feet.”

“I have seen elephants thirteen feet high, (says Edward Terry) and I have met with many, who affirmed they have seen elephants fifteen feet high[AG]."

[AG] These authors probably referred to different measures, the first meaning Roman, the second Rhenish, and the last English feet.

From these, and many other attestations, we may conclude, that the most common size of the elephant is from ten to eleven feet; that those of thirteen or fourteen feet are very scarce, and that the smallest are at least nine feet high when they come to their full growth in a state of liberty. These enormous lumps of matter, as we have observed, move with much celerity; they are supported by four members, which are more like pillars, or massive columns, than legs, and are from fifteen to eighteen inches in diameter, and five or six feet in height; their legs are therefore twice as long as those of a man; thus, though the elephant took but one step to a man’s two, he would overtake him in running. The common pace of the elephant is not swifter than that of the horse; but when he is pressed, he goes a sort of amble, equivalent for quickness to a gallop. He executes with speed, and even with ease, all direct motion; but he has no facility for oblique or retrograde motions. It is commonly in narrow and deep roads, where he can hardly turn, that the negroes attack him, and cut off his tail, which they value as much as the whole animal. He cannot go down a steep declivity without much difficulty, he is then obliged to bend the hind legs, in order to keep the fore part of his body on a level with the hind, and that his own weight may not throw him down. He swims well, though the form of his legs and feet seem to indicate the contrary; but as the capacity of his breast and belly is very large, as the volume of the lungs and intestines is enormous, and as those parts are full of air, or matter lighter than water, he sinks less deep than any other animal; he finds less resistance to overcome, and, consequently, can swim faster in making less efforts with his limbs. Thus, he is very useful for crossing rivers; besides two field-pieces, each of them four-pounders, with which he is loaded on these occasions, he carries heavy baggage, and several persons holding him by the ears and tail. When thus loaded, he swims deep in the water, and nothing is seen but his trunk, which he keeps erect to enable him to breathe.

Though the elephant commonly feeds on herbs and young branches, and requires prodigious quantities of these aliments, to extract from them the nutrition necessary to such a body, yet he has not many stomachs, like most animals who feed on the same substances. He has but one stomach, does not ruminate, and is formed more like the horse than the ox, or other ruminating animals. The want of a paunch is supplied by the bigness and length of his intestines, and especially of the colon, which is two or three feet in diameter, and fifteen or twenty in length. The stomach is much smaller than the colon, being but four feet, at the most, in length, and a foot and a half in diameter. To fill such a capaciousness, the animal must eat almost continually, especially when he has no food more substantial than herbage; therefore the wild elephants are almost always employed in grubbing up trees, gathering herbs, or breaking young boughs; and those that are tame, though fed with great quantities of rice, pluck up herbs whenever they find an opportunity. However great the appetite of the elephant, he eats with moderation, and his taste for cleanliness gets the better of his wants. His dexterity in parting, with his trunk, the good leaves from the bad, and the care he takes to shake off the sand or insects, are convincing marks of his delicacy. He is very fond of wine, spirituous liquors, brandy, and arrack. He is prevailed upon to exert his greatest efforts, and to undertake the most arduous task, by shewing him a vessel full of these liquors, and promising it to him as the reward of his labours. He seems also to like the smoke of tobacco, but it stupifies and intoxicates him: he has a natural aversion to bad smells, and such an antipathy for hogs, that the cry of that animal disorders and puts him to flight.

To give a complete idea of the nature and intelligence of this singular animal, I shall insert here some particulars communicated to me by the Marquis de Montmirail, President of the Royal Academy of Sciences, who has taken the trouble to translate from some Italian and German books, which were not known to me, whatever relates to the history of the animal creation. His taste for arts and sciences, his zeal for the advancement of them, his exquisite judgment, and a very extensive knowledge of all the parts of Natural History, entitle him to the greatest respect, and it is with pleasure and gratitude I refer to the information he has given me, and which I shall have frequent occasion to refer to in the subsequent part of this work:—"They make use of the elephant to carry artillery over mountains; and it is then that he gives the greatest proofs of his intelligence: when the oxen, yoked together, endeavour to draw a piece of artillery up a mountain, the elephant pushes the breech of the cannon with his forehead, and at every effort he supports the carriage with his knee, which he places against the wheel. He seems as if he understood what is said to him. When his leader employs him in some hard labour, he explains what is his work, and the reasons which ought to engage him to obey. If the elephant shews any repugnance to comply, the cornack, so his leader is called, promises to give him arrack, or some other thing that he likes; then the animal agrees to every thing proposed; but it is dangerous to break a promise with him, as many cornacks have fallen victims by such conduct. An instance of this happened at Dekan, which deserves to be recorded; and which, however incredible it may appear, is perfectly true. An elephant, in revenge, killed his cornack; the man’s wife being witness of this dreadful catastrophe, took her two children and threw them to the feet of the still enraged animal, saying, Since thou hast killed my husband, take also my life and that of my children. The elephant stopped short, grew calm, and, as if moved with regret and compassion, took with his trunk the biggest of the two children, placed him on his neck, adopted him for his cornack, and would never suffer any other to mount him afterwards.

“If the elephant be vindictive he is no less grateful. A soldier at Pondicherry, who commonly gave one of these animals a certain measure of arrack every time he received his pay, having one day drank more than common, and seeing himself pursued by the guard, who wanted to conduct him to prison, took refuge under the elephant, and there fell asleep. In vain did the guard attempt to draw him out from this asylum, the elephant firmly defending him with his trunk. The next day, when the soldier became sober, he was struck with terror to find himself under an animal of such enormous bulk. The elephant, who no doubt perceived his consternation, caressed him with his trunk, and made him understand that he might depart freely.