The " Machlisr 



a horse, which he calls a " machlis," > and that C^sar 

 in describing the wild animals in the Hercynian forests, 

 enumerates the alee (elk 1), " in colour and configura- 

 tion approaching the goat, but surpassing it in size, its 

 head destitute of horns and its limbs of joints, whence 

 it can neither lie down to rest, nor rise if by any acci- 

 dent it should fall, but using the trees for a resting-place, 

 the hunters by loosening their roots bring the alee to the 

 ground, so soon as it is tempted to lean on them." ^ 

 This fallacy, as Sir Thomas Browne ^ says, is " not the 

 daughter of latter times, but an old and grey-headed 

 errour, even in the days of Aristotle," who deals with 

 the story as he received it from Ctesias, by whom it 



' ' Machlis (said to be derived from a, 

 priv., and kAiVm, c«/w, quod non cubat). 

 "Moreover in the island of Scandinavia 

 there is a beast called Machlis, that 

 hath neither ioynt in the hough, nor 

 pasternes in his hind legs, and there- 

 fore he never lieth dovt'n, but sleepeth 

 leaning to a tree, wherefore the hunters 

 that lie in wait for these beasts cut 

 downe the trees while they are asleepe, 

 and so take them ; otherwise they 

 should never be taken, they are so 

 swift of foot that it is wonderful." 

 (Pliny, Natur. Hist. Transl. Philemon 

 Holland, book viii. ch. xv. p. 200.) 



^ " Sunt item quae appellantur Alces. 

 Harum est consimilis capreis figura, et 

 varietas pellium ; sed magnitudine paulo 

 antecedunt, mutilaeque sunt cornibus, et 

 crura sine nodis artiaelisqiie habeitt ; 

 neque quietis causa procumbunt ; neque, 

 si quo afflictie casu considenint, eri- 

 gere sese aut sublevare possunt. His 

 sunt arbores pro cubilibus ; ad eas sese 

 applicant, atque ita, paulum modo 

 reclinatae, quietem capiunt, quarum 

 ex vestigiis cum est animadyersum a 

 venatoribus, quo se recipere consueve- 



rint, omnes eo loco, aut a radicibus 

 subruunt aut accidunt arbores tantum, 

 ut summa species earum stantium re- 

 linquatur. Hue cum se consuetudine 

 reclinaverint, infirmas arbores pondere 

 affligunt, atque una ipsae concidunt." 

 (CAESAR, De Bella Gall. lib. vi. ch. 

 xxvii.) 



The same fiction was extended b •• 

 the early Arabian travellers to the 

 rhinoceros, and in the MS. of the 

 voyages of the " Two MahojuetaiLs" 

 it is stated that the rhinoceros of Su- 

 matra " n'a point d'articulation au 

 genou ni a la main." [Relations des 

 Voyages, etc. Paris, 1845, vol. i. 

 p. 29.) 



^ Evelyn, who was a contemporary 

 and friend of Sir Thomas Browne, 

 observes in his diary, Aiigust 13, 1641, 

 on arriving at Rotterdam, "here I 

 first saw an elephant : it was a beast 

 of a monstrous size, yet as flexible and 

 nimble in the joints, contrary to the 

 vulgar tradition, as could be imagined 

 from so prodigious a bulk and strange 

 fabric." (Vol. i. p. 20.) 



D 



