Chapter 4 of 76
CHAP. III.
Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon · James Emerson Sir Tennent
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