282 THE ELEPHANT. 



man. As he grew up, however, these gambols be- 

 came dangerous. Thus, my friend was one day 

 standing close to the side of a house, when the pet 

 suddenly rushed up from behind, and before he had 

 time to get out of the animal's way, he found him- 

 self immovably fixed against the wall; from which 

 disagreeable position he had some difficulty in ex- 

 tricating himself, and in the while, moreover, sus- 

 tained considerable injury. 



I have never heard any satisfactory reason as- 

 signed why the African elephant should not be 

 domesticated as well as the Indian. It has been 

 urged by some that he is of a more ferocious and 

 less docile disposition ; but, surely, many elephants 

 engaged in the terrible battles between the Car- 

 thaginians and the Romans, belonged to the African 

 continent. Indeed, there can be no doubt that this 

 animal was then obtained as near as Barbary. 

 Jugurtha, the Numidian King, also employed it in 

 his wars against the common enemy of the world. 

 It is, moreover, recorded that during the Ptolemean 

 dynasty in Egypt, great numbers were obtained 

 from Ethiopia, which were used both to do battle 

 and to draw chariots, &c. Even the Romans them- 

 selves, after they had broken Hannibal's power in 

 the sanguinary engagement of Zama, employed the 

 African elephant against the Macedonians. Several 

 instances are mentioned, by ancient authors, of 

 Asiatic and African elephants being engaged against 

 each other,* but, singularly enough, they describe 



* At the battle of Magnesia, between the Romans and the Syrians, 

 and in the contest between the third Ptolemy and Antiochus Theos, 

 King of Syria. 



