ELE 



ELI 



accomplish it. In narrow and crooked 

 passes the negroes avail themselves of 

 this great disadvantage, and attack him 

 with corresponding success. 



Of all the animals applied by man to 

 promote his ostentation or advantage, 

 none are possessed of more docility, sa- 

 gacity, and obedience, than the elephant. 

 In the East they have been employed, not 

 only for labour, but for pomp, from the 

 most remote periods of antiquity. They 

 swjm with great facility, and have been 

 frequently of the most important service 

 in transporting the baggage of armies 

 over vast rivers. In swimming the trunk 

 only appears above the surface of the 

 water, effecting all the purposes of res- 

 piration. One of these anjmals will exe- 

 cute the work of several horses, and the 

 promptitude, intelligence, and affection 

 they display to their keeper, are singu- 

 larly interesting. His voice is distinguish- 

 ed with unfailing accuracy ; his tones of 

 approval or anger, of command, attach- 

 ment, or menace, are most nicely discri- 

 minated, and followed by correspond- 

 ing acts and exertions. They will kneel 

 down to facilitate his mounting on their 

 backs, and assist him also in this opera- 

 tion with their trunk, with which they 

 will likewise frequently sooth and ca- 

 ress him. They are employed in draw- 

 ing large caravans, and even chariots, in 

 the East, and appear pleased with the 

 splendid and dazzling furniture in which 

 they are often arrayed. They manifest 

 extreme sensibility to honour and dis- 

 grace, and, to maintain the character of 

 respectability, fidelity, and strength, with 

 their keeper, have been known, merely 

 on his temporary ejaculation of disgust 

 at the apparent relaxation of their efforts, 

 to renew them with the most extraordi- 

 nary animation, and even with the most 

 fatal result. 



Though formerly applied for the pur- 

 poses of war, as was particularly the case 

 against Alexander near the Hydaspes, 

 and by Pyrrhus against the Romans, they 

 were frequently more formidable to their 

 owners than to the enemy, and, when 

 wounded, exhibited a scene of extreme 

 turbulence and confusion : and the inven- 

 tion of gunpowder appears to have pre- 

 cluded that advantage from their efforts 

 in actual combat, which might, in some in- 

 stances, in former ages be occasionally 

 derived from them. They are now chiefly 

 employed in India for the purpose of 

 stale, or of labour, always forming an in- 



dispensable part of the magnificence at- 

 tending a royal progress in the East. The 

 vast quantities of baggage which are ta- 

 ken in those circuits are carried by some; 

 while others, most splendidly arrayed, 

 convey, in gilded and latticed houses, up- 

 on their backs, the ladies of the palace. 

 It is stated, that they are also employed 

 sometimes in the execution of criminals, 

 whether by trampling to death, fractur- 

 ing 1 the limbs of the unhappy convicts 

 with their trunk, or impaling them on 

 their tusks; following, for these purposes, 

 the signals of their kc-epers, with com- 

 plete precision and alertness. 



The female produces but one, young at 

 a time, after a. period of gestation consist- 

 ing, according to some authorities, of two, 

 and to others, of three years. Elephants, 

 are thirty years before they attain their 

 maturity, and are reported to live, even 

 in a state of confinement, upwards of a 

 century. In this state of captivity, how- 

 ever, they have proved, in every instance, 

 barren ; and this circumstance obliges 

 eastern princes to supply the waste of ac- 

 cident, disease, and decay, by having an- 

 nually recourse to the immense forests in 

 which they abound. The hunting of them 

 on these occasions is, indeed, an imperial 

 sport, exciting very considerable interest, 

 aiid attended with the most elaborate pre- 

 paration. For the figure of the elephant, 

 see Mammalia, Plate X. fig. 1. 



ELEVATION, the same with altitude 

 or height. 



ELEVATION, angle of, in gunnery, that 

 comprehended between the horizon and 

 the line of direction of a cannon or mor- 

 tar; or it is that which the chase of a 

 piece, or the axis of its hollow cylinder, 

 makes with the plane of the horizon. 



ELEVATOR, in anatomy, the name of 

 several muscles, so called from their serv- 

 ing to raise the parts of the body to which 

 they beloiig. 



EI.KVATOK, in surgery, an instru- 

 ment used for rajsing depressed or frac- 

 tured parts of the scull. See SUH- 

 Givitr. 



ELISION, in grammar, the cutting off 

 or suppressing a vowel at the end of a 

 word, for the sake of sound or mea- 

 sure, the next word beginning with a 

 vowel. 



ELIXIR, in medicine, a compound tinc- 

 ture extracted from many efficacious in- 

 gredients ; hence the difference between 

 a tincture and an elixir seems to be this, 

 that a tincture is drawn from one in- 



