ELEPHANT.] NATURAL HISTORY. 103 



ELEPHANTS cannot bend their legs and thighs except in 

 youth. Its inside is like a pig's inside, and therefore like 

 a man's. It has no joints in its legs. 



Hortus SanitatiSj bk. ii. ch. Iv. 



[Sir Thomas Browne ("Vulgar Errors/' bk. Hi. ch. i.) adduces 

 sundry grave arguments to prove that an Elephant has joints :] 



WHILE men conceive they never lie down, and enjoy 

 not the position of rest ordained unto all pedestrious 

 animals, hereby they imagine (what reason cannot conceive) 

 that an animal of the vastest dimension and longest dura- 

 tion, should live in a continual motion, without that alternity 

 and vicissitude of rest whereby all others continue. 



"Vulgar Errors," bk. iii. ch. i. 



IN the woods or fields where they [Indians or Africans] 

 suspect [Elephants'] teeth to be buried, they bring forth 

 pots or bottles of water, and disperse them, here one, 

 there another, and so let them stand, and tarry to watch 

 them, so one sleepeth, another singeth, or bestoweth his 

 time as he pleaseth ; after a little time they go and look 

 in their pots, and if the teeth lie near their bottles, by an 

 unspeakable and secret attractive power in nature, they draw 

 all the water out of them that are near them, which the 

 watchman taketh for a sure sign, and so diggeth about his 

 bottle, till he find the tooth. [Topsell decides after argu- 

 ment that tusks are not horns.] The trunk hath two 

 passages, one into the head and body by which he 

 breatheth, and the other into his mouth. It is false that 

 they have no joints or articles in their legs. They drink 

 not wine, except in war, when they are to fight, but water 

 at all times, whereof they will not taste, except it be muddy 

 and not clear, for they avoid clear water, loathing to see 

 their own shadow therein. In the summer-time they choose 

 out and gather the sweetest flowers, and being led into 

 their stables, they will not eat meat until they take of their 

 flowers, and dress the brims of their mangers therewith, 

 pleasing themselves with their meat, because of the savour 

 of the flowers stuck about their cratch, like dainty -fed 

 persons which set their dishes with green herbs, and put 

 them into their cups of wine. They are never so fierce,, 

 violent, or wild, but the sight of a ram tameth and dis- 



