ad. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



I555- 



ditions. Philostratus writeth, that as much as the 

 Elephant of Libya in bignes passeth the horse of Nysea, 

 so much doe the Elephants of India exceed them of 

 Libya : for the Elephants of India, some have bene seene 

 of the height of nine cubits : the other do so greatly 

 feare these, that they dare not abide the sight of them. 

 Of the Indian Elephants onely the males have tuskes, 

 but of them of Ethiopia and Libya both kindes are 

 tusked : they are of divers heights, as of twelve, thirteene, 

 and fourteene dodrants, every dodrant being a measure 

 of nine inches. Some write that an Elephant is bigger 

 then three wilde Oxen or Buffes. They of India are 

 black, or of ye colour of a mouse, but they of Ethiope or 

 Guinea are browne : the hide or skinne of them all is 

 very hard, and without haire or bristles : their eares are 

 two dodrants broad, and their eyes very litle. Our men 

 saw one drinking at a river in Guinea, as they sailed 

 into the land. 



Of other properties & conditions of the Elephant, as 

 of their marveilous docilitie, of their fight and use in the 

 warres, of their generation and chastitie, when they were 

 first seene in the Theaters and triumphes of the Romanes, 

 how they are taken & tamed, and when they cast their 

 tusks, with the use of the same in medicine, who so 

 desireth to know, let him reade Plinie, in the eight booke 

 of his naturall history. He also writeth in his twelft 

 Workes of booke, that in olde time they made many goodly workes 

 Ivorie. f i vorv or Elephants teeth : as tables, tressels, postes of 

 houses, railes, lattesses for windowes, images of their 

 gods, and divers other things of ivory, both coloured and 

 uncoloured, and intermixt with sundry kindes of precious 

 woods, as at this day are made certaine chaires, lutes, 

 and virginals. They had such plenty thereof in olde 

 time, that (as far as I remember) Josephus writeth, that 

 one of the gates of Hierusalem was called Porta Eburnea, 

 (that is) the Ivory gate. The whitenesse thereof was so 

 much esteemed, that it was thought to represent the 

 natural fairenesse of mans skinne : insomuch that such as 



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