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ix ARISTOTLE’S OBSERVATIONS 2 
be bolted with by an Elephant is far from pleasing, though a 
rather exciting event. It makes for the nearest jungle at once, 
being, much more than the African species, an inhabitant of forest. 
And in rushing through the dense undergrowth, the occupiers of 
the Elephant’s back are apt to be swept off or cut to pieces by 
innumerable thorns. 
Elephants, no doubt of the Indian species, were used by the 
Persians in battle, and from fifteen which were captured at the 
battle of Arbela some notes were drawn up by Aristotle. In 
stating that the animal reaches an age of 200 years, the 
naturalist and philosopher was probably not very far out. The 
mode of Elephant-catching as related by Aristotle is that pur- 
sued at the present day. Then, as now, tame Elephants were 
made use of as decoys. Pliny,’ who was apt to confound fact and 
fiction in a somewhat inseparable tangle, had something to say 
about Elephants, both Indian and African. Serpents, he thought, 
were their chief enemies, which slew them by coiling round them 
and thrusting their heads into the trunk, and so stopping respiration. 
In Europe Elephants were first seen in the year B.c. 280. Pyrrhus 
used them in his invasion, and copying his example the Romans 
themselves learnt to use Elephants. The first Elephant seen in 
England arrived in the year 1257, presented by the King of 
France to Henry III. It was kept in the Tower (for long after- 
wards a menagerie), and died at twelve years of age. Much use 
of the Elephant has been made in symbols. We have spoken of 
the African Elephant on Carthaginian coins as an emblem of 
eternity. The Oriental Elephant resting on the back of a tortoise 
and supporting the world is the same idea; and it is instructive 
to note that remains have been found in the Siwalik Hills of a 
tortoise which would have been actually big enough to support 
the creature, even “Jumbo,” who weighed 65 tons. Another 
symbol is that of an Elephant upon whose back is a child with 
arrows; this occurs on a medal of the Emperor Philip. It can 
perhaps hardly signify the eternity of a strong human feeling! 
The intelligence of the Elephant has been both exaggerated and 
minimised. Perhaps the most elaborate attempt to endow the 
beast with unusual mental perceptions is that of Aelian, who 
related that an Elephant carefully watching his keeper, wrote after 
him with his trunk letters upon a board. That the animal does 
1 See Natural History of the Ancients, by Rev. M. G. Watkins, London, 1896. 
VOL. X Q 
