154 



The Wild Elephant. 



phants of the continent, and seen of those of Ceylon, 

 I have reason to conclude that the difference, if not 

 imaginary, is exceptional, and must have arisen in par- 

 ticular and individual instances, from more judicious or 

 elaborate instruction. 



The earliest knowledge of the elephant in Europe and 

 the West, was derived from the conspicuous position 

 assigned to it in the wars of the East : in India, from the 

 remotest antiquity, it formed one of the most picturesque, 

 if not the most effective, features in the armies of the 

 native princes. i It is more than probable that the 



' The only mention of the elephant 

 in Sacred History is in the account 

 given in Maccabees of the invasion of 

 Egypt by Antiochus, who entered it 

 170 B.C., " with chariots and elephants, 

 and horsemen, and a great navy." 

 ( I Mace. i. 17.) Frequent allusions to 

 the use of elephants in war occur in 

 both books : and in chap. vi. 34, it is 

 stated that "to provoke the elephants 

 to fight they show them the blood of 

 grapes and of mulberries." The term 

 showed, eSd^av, might be thought to 

 imply that the animals were enraged 

 by the sight of the wine and its colour, 

 but in the Third Book of Maccabees, 

 in the Greek Septuagint, various other 

 passages show that wine, on such occa- 

 sions, was administered to the elephants 

 to render them furious. (Mace. v. 2, 10, 

 45.) Ph I LE mentions the same fact, Z^f 

 Elepha7ite, i. 145. 



There is a very curious account of 

 the mode in which the Arab conquerors 

 of Scinde, in the 9th and loth centuries, 

 equipped the elephant for war ; which 

 being written with all the particularity 

 of an eye-witness, bears the impress of 

 truth and accuracy. Massoudi, who 

 was born in Bagdad at the close of the 

 9th century, travelled in India in the 



year A. D. 913, and visited the Gulf of 

 Cambay, the coast of Malabar, and the 

 island of Ceylon : — from a larger ac- 

 count of his journeys he compiled a 

 summary under the title of " Moroudj 

 al-dzeheh," or tht " Golden A/eadows," 

 the MS. of which is now in the Biblio- 

 theque Nationale. M. Reinaud, in 

 describing this manuscript, says, on its 

 authority, " The Prince of Mensura, 

 whose dominions lay south of the Indus, 

 maintained eighty elephants trained for 

 war, each of which bore in his trunk a 

 bent cy meter (carthel), with which he 

 was taught to cut and thrust at all con- 

 fronting him. The trunk itself was 

 effectually protected by a coat of mail, 

 and the rest of the body enveloped in a 

 covering composed jointly of iron and 

 horn. Other elephants were employed 

 in drawing chariots, carrying baggage, 

 and grinding forage, and the perform- 

 ance of all bespoke the utmost intelli- 

 gence and docility." — Reinaud, Ale- 

 7iioire snr VInde, anterieiirotzefit au 

 jnilieti du xi^ siecle, d'apres les ecri- 

 vains arabes , per sans et chinois. Paris, 

 M.D.ccc. XLix. p. 215. See Sprenger's 

 English translation of IMassoudi, vol. i. 

 P- 383- 



