•20-2 



THE ELEPHANT. 



[Part VIII. 



halted within a few yards of him, when ftu-ther search 

 would disclose that he has stolen silently away, making 

 scarcely a sound in his escape ; and, stranger still, leaving 

 the fohage almost midistm-bed by his passage. 



The most venerable delusion respecting the elephant, 

 and that which held its gromid with unequalled tenacity, 

 is the ancient fallacy which is explamed by Sk" Tho:mas 

 Browne in his Pseudodoxia Epidemica, that " it hath no 

 joynts, and this absurdity is seconded by another, that 

 being unable to lye downe it sleepeth against a tree, 

 wliich the hunters observing doe saw almost asunder, 

 whereon the beast relying, by the fall of the tree faUs 

 also down it-selfe and is able to rise no more."^ Sir 

 Thomas is disposed to think that " the huit and ground 

 of this opinion might be the grosse • and somewhat 

 cylindrical! composure of the legs of the elephant, and 

 the equahty and lesse perceptible disposure of the 

 joynts, especially in the forelegs of this animal, they 

 appearing when he standeth, hke pillars of flesh ; " but 

 he overlooks the fact that Plixy has ascribed the same 

 peculiarity to the Scandina\'ian beast somewhat re- 

 sembling a horse, wliich he calls a " machhs," ^ and that 

 C^SAR in describing the wild animals in the Hercynian 

 forests, enumerates the alee, "in colour and configura- 

 tion approaching the goat, but surpassing it in size, its 

 head destitute of horns and its limbs of joints, whence 

 it can neither he down to rest, nor rise if by any acci- 

 dent it should fall, but using the trees for a resting- 

 place, the hunters by loosening their roots bring the 

 alee to the ground, so soon as it is tempted to lean on 



' Vul(/ar Errors, book iii. chap. 1. 



^ Machlis (said to be derived 

 from a, priv., and kXIiho, cido, quod 

 non cubat). "^foreover in the 

 island of Scandinavia there is a beast 

 called Maehlis, tliat hath neither 

 ioAnit in the houf^h, nor pastemes in 

 his hind legs, and therefore he never 

 lieth down, but sleepeth leaning to a 



tree, wherefore the hunters that lie 

 in wait for these beasts cut downe 

 the trees while they are asleepe, and 

 so take them ; othei-wise they should 

 never be taken, they are so swift of 

 foot that it is wonderful." — Puny, 

 Xatur. Hist. Transl. Philemon Hol- 

 land, book viii. eh. xv. p. 200. 



