Chap. 2.] ELEPHANTS. 245 



and when about to cross the sea, they cannot be prevailed 

 upon to go on board the ship, until their keeper has promised 

 upon oath that they shall return home again. They have been 

 seen, too, when worn out by disease, (for even these vast masses 

 are liable to disease,) lying on their back, and throwing the grass 

 up into the air, as if deputing the earth to intercede for them 

 with its prayers. 5 As a proof of their extreme docility, they 

 pay homage to the king, fall upon their knees, and offer him 

 the crown. Those of smaller growth, which the Indians call 

 bastards, 6 are employed by them in ploughing. 7 



CHAP. 2. (2.) WHEN ELEPHANTS WERE FIKST PUT INTO HARNESS. 



The first harnessed elephants that were seen at Borne, were 

 in the triumph of Pompeius Magnus over Africa, when they 

 drew his chariot ; a thing that is said to have been done long 

 before, at the triumph of Father Liber on the conquest of 

 India. Procilius 8 says, that those which were used at the 

 triumph of Pompeius, were unable to go in harness through 

 the gate of the city. ( In the exhibition of gladiators which 

 was given by Germanicus, 9 the elephants performed a sort of 

 dance with their uncouth and irregular movements, j It was a 

 common thing to see them throw arrows with such strength, 

 that the wind was unable to turn them from their course, to 

 imitate among themselves the combats of the gladiators, and 

 to frolic through the steps of the Pyrrhic dance. 10 After this, 



5 " Veluti tellure precibus alligata," one of the harsh metaphorical ex- 

 pressions occasionally occurring in Pliny, which it is very difficult to trans- 

 late, and even perhaps fully to comprehend. B. 



6 "Nothi." 



7 Cuvier remarks, that there are two kinds of elephants, one of which 

 attains sixteen feet, and is chiefly known in Cochin China and Tonquin, 

 while those that are domesticated in India are seldom more than half that 

 height. They are supposed, however, to be only varieties of the same spe- 

 cies. Pliny, in B. vi. c. 22, gives an account of the uses which the Indians 

 made of the elephant, and of their different sizes, but he does not state 

 there that it is the smaller ones only that are employed in agriculture. B. 



8 Plutarch informs us, that Pompey had resolved to have his chariot 

 drawn by four elephants, but finding the gate too narrow, he was obliged 

 to use horses. B. 



9 See an account of this, and of the feats performed by the elephants, in 

 Julian, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 11. B. 



10 The Pyrrhic dance has been referred to in the last Book, c. 57. p. 



