THE SECOND VOYAGE TO GUINEA ad. 



1555- 



they are taught, and doe understand : insomuch that 



they learne to doe due honor to a king, and are of 



quicke sense and sharpenesse of wit. When the male 



hath once seasoned the female, he never after toucheth 



her. The male Elephant liveth two hundreth yeeres, or 



at the least one hundred and twentie : the female almost 



as long, but the floure of their age is but threescore 



yeres, as some write. They cannot suffer winter or cold : 



they love rivers, and will often go into them up to the 



snout, wherewith they blow and snuffe, and play in the 



water : but swimme they cannot, for the weight of their 



bodies. Plinie and Soline write, that they use none 



adulterie. If they happen to meete with a man in 



wildernesse being out of the way, gently they wil go 



before him, & bring him into the plaine way. Joyned in 



battel, they have no small respect unto them that be 



wounded : for they bring them that are hurt or weary 



into the middle of the army to be defended : they are 



made tame by drinking the juise of barley. They have Debate 



continual warre against Dragons, which desire their betzveejie the 



blood, because it is very cold : and therfore the Dragon ^/^ agm 



lying awaite as the Elephant passeth by, windeth his taile 



(being of exceeding length) about the hinder legs of the 



Elephant, & so staying him, thrusteth his head into his 



tronke and exhausteth his breath, or else biteth him 



in the eare, wherunto he cannot reach with his tronke, 



and when the Elephant waxeth faint, he falleth downe on [11. ii. 19.] 



the serpent, being now full of blood, and with the poise 



of his body breaketh him : so that his owne blood with 



the blood of the Elephant runneth out of him mingled 



together, which being colde, is congealed into that 



substance which the Apothecaries call Sanguis Draconis, Sanguis Dra- 



(that is) Dragons blood, otherwise called Cinnabaris, coms ' 



although there be an other kinde of Cinnabaris, com- Cinnabaris. 



monly called Cinoper or Vermilion, which the Painters 



use in certaine colours. 



They are also of three kinds, as of the Marshes, the Three kinds 

 plaines, and the mountaines, no lesse differing in con- °f '&&&**&- 



165 



