Chap. VI.] 



CONDUCT IN CAPTIVITY. 



S81 



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

 cular and individual instances, from more judicious or ela- 

 borate 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 pic- 

 turesque, if not the most effective, features in the 

 armies of the native princes.^ It is more than proljable 

 that the earhest attempts to take and train the ele- 

 phant, were with a view to military uses, and that the 



^ Armandi. has, with infinite in- 

 dustry, collected froni original sources 

 a mass of ciuious informations rela- 

 tive to the employment of elephants 

 in ancient warfare, which he has 

 published under the title of Ilistoire 

 Milvtaire des Elcplumts clepuis les 

 temps les pilus recuUs jusqiCu Vintro- 

 duction des amies a feu. Paris. 184.3. 



The only mention of the elephant 

 in Sacred Ilistoiy is in the account 

 given in Maccabees of the invasion 

 of Efiypt by Antiochus, who entered 

 it 170 B.C., " with chariots and ele- 

 phants, and horsemen, and a g:i-eat 

 navy." — 1 Maccab. 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 

 showed them the blood of gi-ape's 

 and of mulberries." The term 

 showed, " tt^H^ffj'," mig-ht be thought 

 to imply tiiat 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 furi- 

 ous. Maccab. v. 2, 10, 4."5. Piiile 

 mentions the same fact,2>e Elcphante, 

 1. 145. 



There is a veiy curious account of 

 the mode in which the Arab con- 

 querors of Scinde, in the Htli and 

 10th centuries, equipped llie elephant 



for war ; which being written with all 

 the particularity of an eye-witness, 

 bears the impress of truth and accu- 

 racy. MASSorDi, who was bom in 

 Bagdad at the close of the 9th cen- 

 tuT}-, travelled in India in the year 

 A.D. 913, and visited the Gulf of 

 Cambay, the coast of Malabar, and 

 the Island of Ceylon, and from a 

 larger accoimt of his journeys he 

 compiled a summary mider the title 

 of " 3IoroiidJ-(d-dzeheb,^^ or the 

 " Golden Meadows,'''' the MS. of 

 which is now in the Bibliotheque 

 Nationale. M. Reixatjd, in de- 

 scribing this manuscript says, on its 

 authority, *' The Prince of jNIansura, 

 whose dominions lay south of the 

 Indus, maintained eiglity elephants 

 trained for war, each of wliicli bore 

 in his trunk a bent cymeter (carthel ), 

 witli which lie was taught to cut and 

 thrust at all confronting him. The 

 trunk itself was effectually protected 

 by a coat of mail, and the rest of the 

 body enveloped in a covering com- 

 posed jointly of iron and horn. 

 Other elephants were employed in 

 drawing chariots, can-ying baggage, 

 and grinding forage, mid the per- 

 formance of all bespoke the utmost 

 intelligence and docility." — Rei- 

 'S\\:vi,Mem()ire sur Vlnde, anterieare- 

 ment au Diiliex dif XI" siecle, (Fapres 

 les ecrivuitis arahes, persa/is et ehinois. 

 Paris, M.D.ccc.XLix. p. 2\o. See 

 Sprenger's English Translation of 

 Massoudi, vol. i. p. 383. 



