Chap. VI.] 



CONDUCT IX CAPTIVITY. 



401 



shooting elephants for the sake of their ivory; till one 

 day the tree on which he was stationed having been up- 

 rooted by one of the herd, he fell senseless to the ground, 

 and the great elephant approaching wound his trunk 

 around him and carried him away, ceasing not to pro- 

 ceed, until he had taken liim to a place where, his 

 terror having subsided, he found himself amongst the 

 bones of elephants, and knew that this was their burial 

 place "^ It is cmious to find this legend of Ceylon in 

 what has, not inaptly, been described as the "Ai^abian 

 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^, wliicli were current amongst the Mussulmans, and 

 are reproduced in various forms throughout the tales of 

 the Arabian Nights. 



^ Arabian Kiyhts' Entertainment, 

 Lane's edition, vol. iii. p. 77. 



^ See a disquisition on tlie oripin 

 of the stoiy of Sinbad, by M. 



REiNArD, in the inti-oduction pre- 

 fixed to his translation of the Ara- 

 bian Geogra2>h)j of Ahoidfeda, vol. i. 

 p. Ixxvi. 



VOL. II. 



D D 



