Travels in India (Tavernier) 39.4.1

39.4.1

It is especially remarkable of the female elephant that at certain seasons she collects all kinds of leaves and grass, with which she makes for herself a bed with a kind of bolster, elevated 4 or 5 feet from the ground, where, contrary to the nature of all other beasts, she lies to await the male, whom she calls by her cries. It is, moreover, peculiar to the elephants of Ceylon that it is only the first male produced by the female which has tusks. It is to be remarked also that the ivory which comes from the islands of Ceylon and Acheen has the peculiarity when it is worked that it never becomes yellow like that which comes from the Peninsula and the West (sic) Indies; this causes it to be more esteemed and dearer than the other.