In India they are classed according to their outer forms, viz. the Kinnariah or princely, a strong-bodied animal ; the Mirghi or deer-bodied ; the Sankariah, or mixed breed between the Kumariah and Mirghi ; and the Mirghabali, ap proaching the Mirghi. The Dantela is the tusked elephant. The Mukna ha,s a head like that of the female, with comparatively small straight tusks. The elephant with nicely curved tusks is called the Palang (or bed) dant ; and a one-tusked elephant is the Ek-danti or Ganesh, after the Hindu god of wisdom, who is represented with the head of an elephant, and one tooth.
The Ktunariah is the most valuable, and is marked for the smallness of its head, the stout B. ess of its body, and swiftness of its pace, lifting its foot no higher than is sufficient to clear inter vening obstacles. The Mirghi has a large head, and long legs in comparison to the size of its body ; its paces are high, and rather clumsy. The cross between the Kumariah and the Mirghi is called Nasl, and partakes of the qualities of both. The Mukna is a tuskless male of either variety. They are large and strong animals, having been longer able to suck. Not more than one in three hundred has tusks ; the others are merely provided with short grubbers. Those with tusks are usually males.
Elephants are gregarious, averaging in a herd about eight, although they frequently form bodies of fifty and even eighty in one troop. Each herd consists of a very large proportion of females, and they are constantly met without a single bull in their number. Baker had seen some small herds formed exclusively of bulls, but this is very rare. The bull is much larger than the female, and is generally more savage. On each side of the elephant's temples is an aperture about the size of a pin's head, whence in the season of rut a secretion. exudes, which is called ;nada or dana. Whilst it flows the elephant is called matta, and at other times nirmada. The odour of this fluid, frequently alluded to in Hindu poetry (see Wilson's Meghaduta, p. 132), is compared to that of the sweetest flowers, and is supposed to deceive and attract the bees.
1Vhite elephants, either lepers or albinos, pos sibly in both of these conditions, are occasionally found ; and the kings of Burma and Siam take, as one of their titles, the appellation of Lord of the White Elephant. Indeed, the presence of a white elephant in Siam is considered as a palladium for the king's life, and for the prosperity of the state.
Crawfurd saw six in the king's stables. In Enarea, in eastern Central Africa, a white elephant is reverenced. When Jaya Chandra of Benares and ICanouj was defeated and slain by Shahab-u& Din, Mahomed Ghori, in A.D. 1194, on the banks of the Jumna, between Chandwar and Etawa, a white elephant was captured, which is related to have refused to make obeisance to the sultan, a,nd had almost killed its rider who endeavoured to force the animal to comply. In the thne of Mahomed's grandfather, when Abrahah, the Christian king of Himyar, advanced against Kenauah in Hijaz, to revenge the pollution of the Christian church at Sennaa, he was seated on an elephant named Mahmud, distinguished by its bulk and skin of pure white.
Elephants rarely breed in captivity. They are becoming scarce in S. India; and in 1868 the Madras Government began to preserve female elephants. They frequent hilly and mountainous districts. They are met with in Ceylon at heights of 7000 and 8000 feet, and in the south of India at about 4000 and 5000 feet. In the Ceylon forests they come forth to feed about 4 P.M., and they invariably retire to the thickest and most thorny jungle in the neighbour hood of their feeding place by 7 A.1t. In these impenetrable haunts, says Baker (Rifle, pp. 10, 11), they consider themselves secure from aggression. The period of gestation with an elephant is sup posed to be twenty months or two years, and the time occupied in attaining full growth is about sixteen years. The whole period of life is sup posed to be a hundred years, but Baker would increase that period by fifty.
These great mammals have been trained to take part in theatrical representations. At present the elephant is usually employed for the transport of large tents and other articles of equipment, beyond the power, or of size inconvenient to be carried by cansels or bullocks. Its load for steady work varies from about 15 to 20 cwt., exclusive of the pad or pack saddle. With this it travels at the rate of 3 miles an hour from 16 to 20 miles per dieni ; but it can perform and bear longer marches for some time without injury. On an emergency, a riding elephant ean travel at the rate of 5 miles an hour, and will go about 40 miles in a day ; but for a continuance its performance svill not much exceed flint of the baggage elephant. In India there are elephant batteries of heavy artillery needed for sieges, and tho nobles of the Dekhan Hyderabad use them largely for liding.