THE ELEPHANT
Its Structure.
- Vast numbers in Ceylon [75]
- Derivation of the word "elephant" (note) [76]
- Antiquity of the trade in elephants [77]
- Numbers now diminishing [77]
- Mischief done by them to crops [77]
- Ivory scarce in Ceylon [78]
- Conjectures as to the absence of tusks [79]
- Elephant a harmless animal [81]
- Alleged antipathies to other animals [82]
- Fights with each other [86]
- The foot its chief weapon [87]
- Use of the tusks in a wild state doubtful [88]
- Anecdote of sagacity in an elephant at Kandy [89]
- Difference between African and Indian species [90]
- Native ideas of perfection in an elephant [91]
- Blotches on the skin [92]
- White elephants not unknown in Ceylon [93]
[CHAP. III.]
THE ELEPHANT
Its Habits.
- Water, but not heat, essential to elephants [94]
- Sight limited [95]
- Smell acute [96]
- Caution [96]
- Hearing, good [96]
- Cries of the elephant [97]
- Trumpeting [97]
- Booming noise [98]
- Height, exaggerated [99]
- Facility of stealthy motion [100]
- Ancient delusion as to the joints of the leg [100]
- Its exposure by Sir Thos. Browne [100]
- Its perpetuation by poets and others [102]
- Position of the elephant in sleep [105]
- An elephant killed on its feet [107]
- Mode of lying down [107]
- Its gait a shuffle [108]
- Power of climbing mountains [109]
- Facilitated by the joint of the knee [110]
- Mode of descending declivities [111]
- A "herd" is a family [112]
- Attachment to their young [113]
- Suckled indifferently by the females [113]
- A "rogue" elephant [114]
- Their cunning and vice [115]
- Injuries done by them [115]
- The leader of a herd a tusker [117]
- Bathing and nocturnal gambols, description of a scene by Major Skinner [118]
- Method of swimming [121]
- Internal anatomy imperfectly known [122]
- Faculty of storing water [124]
- Peculiarity of the stomach [125]
- The food of the elephant [129]
- Sagacity in search of it [130]
- Unexplained dread of fences [131]
- Its spirit of inquisitiveness [132]
- Anecdotes illustrative of its curiosity [132]
- Estimate of sagacity [133]
- Singular conduct of a herd during thunder [134]
- An elephant feigning death [135]
- Appendix.—Narratives of natives, as to encounters with rogue elephants [136]