248 ELEPHANT SHOOTING 



armed men on its back. In the wars between Carthage 

 and Eome, Hannibal is said to have ranged his elephants 

 in the front of his lines, to break the shock, and to trample 

 down the advancing foe. But in the end, the Eomans 

 got accustomed to these tactics, and learned how to foil 

 them. 



A number of these tales — not always true or even 

 likely — were collected about two hundred and fifty years 

 ago by a man named Topsel, who published them in a 

 book called ' The History of Four-footed Beasts and 

 Serpents,' illustrated with some very funny pictures. 

 Topsel assures us that in their wild state old elephants 

 are cared for by the young ones, who gather food for them 

 and fight for them when they are not able to fight for 

 themselves ; and that when they are dead, green boughs 

 are laid over them by the rest of the herd. He further 

 declares that they have been known to pull darts and spears 

 out of each other's bodies, and that when Porus, king 

 of the country beyond the Indus, was defeated by 

 Alexander the Great, his favourite elephant drew the 

 javelins out of his wounds with his trunk, and then 

 knelt down very gently, so that if the king was still 

 alive, he might not be shaken. Topsel does not tell 

 us whether it was Porus, or another Indian king, who 

 had a bodyguard of elephants, which were trained to 

 watch him by turns while he was asleep, and never 

 failed to appear at their appointed hours, like sailors on 

 hoard ship. 



One story he quotes from Arrian the writer, of an 

 Indian who had brought up a white elephant from the 

 time it was a little creature, and loved it dearly. Now 

 white elephants are greatly valued in many countries ; 

 indeed, in Siam, they take rank immediately after the 

 king, and before the heir to the throne ; and the king 

 of that part of India, hearing of the white elephant, 

 sent to the man and demanded it should be given him 

 as a present. The Indian could not bear the thought 



