1 18 THE ELEPHANT OF INDIA. 



were thought to be distributed,* a number which 

 at the present time, far exceeds our ideas of even 

 eastern magnificence, and when combined with 

 the quantity of food, and number of attendants 

 requisite, seems more like an oriental tale than 

 a reality. They were then used for show, for 

 the transport of baggage, and in war. They 

 were fed and treated in the most careful and 

 luxurious manner, with sugar and rice, and 

 long and round pepper, occasionally mixed up 

 with milk; and during the sugar season, each 

 Elephant was furnished daily with three hundred 

 canes for two months. In the travelling expedi- 

 tions of these ancient kings, either for pleasure 

 or war, from eight hundred to fifteen hundred 

 Elephants were frequently employed in transport- 

 ing the emperor's baggage, besides nearly an 

 equal number of camels. Those for the battle 

 were separated, caparisoned and protected accord- 

 ing to the way they were to be employed, and 

 the enemy they were to encounter ; and from two 

 thousand to three thousand of these animals were 

 not unusual during the eastern wars of the eighth 

 and ninth centuries. At the same courts were held 

 almost daily the fights of wild beasts, in which 

 the Elephants took a prominent part, and numbers 

 of these noble animals fell, in giving a barbarous 

 gratification to their royal masters. 



* Hawkins, quoted from Ranking. 



