150 The Wild Elephant. 



CHAPTER III. 



CONDUCT IN CAPTIVITY. 



The idea prevailed in ancient times, and obtains even at 

 the present day, that the Indian elephant surpasses that 

 of Africa in sagacity and tractability, and consequently 

 in capacity for training, so as to render its services more 

 available to man. There does not appear to me to be 

 sufficient ground for this conclusion. It originated, in 

 all probability, in the first impressions created by the 

 accounts of the elephant brought back by the Greeks 

 after the Indian expedition of Alexander, and above all 

 by the descriptions of Aristotle, whose knowledge of 

 the animal was derived exclusively from the East. The 

 belief was perpetuated by later writers, especially 

 DiODORUS SicuLUS, who says the elephants of India 

 excelled those of Africa in mental capacity not less than 

 in magnitude and strength : — O'i raic, re a\h:a~tg /cat ralg 

 Tov aiofxaroe ptofxalg iroXv Trpoi^ovai tCjv kv rij Aifjvt] 

 yivofjtEnov. (DiOD. Sic. ii. c. 16.) A long interval elapsed 

 before the elephant of Africa, and its capabilities, 

 became known in Europe. The first elephants brought 

 to Greece by Antipater, were from India, as were also 

 those introduced by Pyrrhus into Italy. Taught by this 



