ix ARISTOTLE'S OBSERVATIONS 225 



be bolted with by an Elephant is far from pleasing, though a 

 rather exciting event. It makes for the nearest jungle at once, 

 being, much more than the African species, an inhabitant of forest. 

 And in rushing through the dense undergrowth, the occupiers of 

 the Elephant's back are apt to be swept off or cut to pieces by 

 innumerable thorns. 



Elephants, no doubt of the Indian species, were used by the 

 Persians in battle, and from fifteen which were captured at the 

 battle of Arbela some notes were drawn up by Aristotle. In 

 stating that the animal reaches an age of 200 years, the 

 naturalist and philosopher was probably not very far out. The 

 mode of Elephant-catching as related by Aristotle is that pur- 

 sued at the present day. Then, as now, tame Elephants were 

 made use of as decoys. Pliny, 1 who was apt to confound fact and 

 fiction in a somewhat inseparable tangle, had something to say 

 about Elephants, both Indian and African. Serpents, he thought, 

 were their chief enemies, which slew them by coiling round them 

 and thrusting their heads into the trunk, and so stopping respiration. 

 In Europe Elephants were first seen in the year B.C. 280. Pyrrhus 

 used them in his invasion, and copying his example the Romans 

 themselves learnt to use Elephants. The first Elephant seen in 

 England arrived in the year 1257, presented by the King of 

 France to Henry III. It was kept in the Tower (for long after- 

 wards a menagerie), and died at twelve years of age. Much use 

 of the Elephant has been made in symbols. We have spoken of 

 the African Elephant on Carthaginian coins as an emblem of 

 eternity. The Oriental Elephant resting on the back of a tortoise 

 and supporting the world is the same idea ; and it is instructive 

 to note that remains have been found in the Siwalik Hills of a 

 tortoise which would have been actually big enough to support 

 the creature, even " Jumbo," who weighed 6^- tons. Another 

 symbol is that of an Elephant upon whose back is a child with 

 arrows ; this occurs on a medal of the Emperor Philip. It can 

 perhaps hardly signify the eternity of a strong human feeling ! 



The intelligence of the Elephant has been both exaggerated and 

 minimised. Perhaps the most elaborate attempt to endow the 

 beast with unusual mental perceptions is that of Aelian, who 

 related that an Elephant carefully watching his keeper, wrote after 

 him with his trunk letters upon a board. That the animal does 



1 See Natural History of the Ancients, by Rev. M. G. Watkins, London, 1896. 



VOL. X Q 



