iii.
It will be seen that I have quoted repeatedly from this volume, because
it is the most compendious and careful compilation with which I am
acquainted of the information previously existing regarding the
elephant. The author incorporates no speculations of his own, but has
most diligently and agreeably arranged all the facts collected by his
predecessors. The story of antipathy between the elephant and rhinoceros
is probably borrowed from AELIAN _de Nat._, lib. xvii. c. 44.]

So harmless and peaceful is the life of the elephant, that nature
appears to have left it unprovided with any weapon of offence: its trunk
is too delicate an organ to be rudely employed in a conflict with other
animals, and although on an emergency it may push or gore with its tusks
(to which the French have hastily given the term "_defenses_"), their
almost vertical position, added to the difficulty of raising its head
above the level of the shoulder, is inconsistent with the idea of their
being designed for attack, since it is impossible for the elephant to
strike an effectual blow, or to "wield" its tusks as the deer and the
buffalo can direct their horns. Nor is it easy to conceive under what
circumstances an elephant could have a hostile encounter with either a
rhinoceros or a tiger, with whose pursuits in a state of nature its own
can in no way conflict.

Towards man elephants evince shyness, arising from their love of
solitude and dislike of intrusion; any alarm they exhibit at his
appearance may be reasonably traced to the slaughter which has reduced
their numbers; and as some evidence of this, it has always been observed
that an elephant exhibits greater impatience of the presence of a white
man than of a native. Were its instincts to carry it further, or were it
influenced by any feeling of animosity or cruelty, it must be apparent
that, as against the prodigious numbers that inhabit the forests of
Ceylon, man would wage an unequal contest, and that of the two one or
other must long since have been reduced to a helpless minority.

Official testimony is not wanting in confirmation of this view;--in the
returns of 108 coroners' inquests in Ceylon, during five years, from
1849 to 1855 inclusive, held in cases of death occasioned by wild
animals; 16 are recorded as having been caused by elephants, 15 by
buffaloes, 6 by crocodiles, 2 by boars, 1 by a bear, and 68 by serpents
(the great majority of the last class of sufferers being women