1 82 The Wild Elephant. 



ivory ; till one day the tree on which he v,-as stationed 

 having been uprooted by one of the herd, he fell sense- 

 less to the ground, and the great elephant approaching 

 wound his trunk around him and carried him away, 

 ceasing not to proceed until he had taken him to a place 

 where, his terror having subsided, he fomid himself 

 afuongst the bones of elephants, and hieiv that this was 

 their burial place. ^ It is curious to find this legend of 

 Ceylon in what has, not inaptly, been described as the 

 "Arabian Odyssey" of Sinbad ; the original of which 

 evidently embodies the romantic recitals of the sailors 

 returning from the navigation of the Indian Seas, in the 

 middle ages,^ which were current amongst the Mussul- 

 mans, and are reproduced in various forms throughout 

 the tales of the Arabian NiMs. 



' Arabian Nights^ Eiiiertaininent, in the introduction prefixed to his trans- 



Lane's edition, vol. iii. p. 77. lation of the Arabian Geography of 



^ See a disquisition on the origin of Aboulfeda, vol. i. p. Ixxvi. 

 the story of Sinbad, by M. Reinaud, 



