AFRICAN KLEPinXP. 283 



the latter as very inferior, botli in height and 

 strength, to the Indian, which is the very reverse of 

 the fact. 



In those days, the African elephant appears, from 

 all accounts, to have been quiet and tractable, and 

 it is, therefore, not very likely that his character 

 should be different at present. " What he did 

 in a state of nature two thousand years ago, he 

 does now. His natural habits, as well as those 

 of every living thing, are derived from his organ- 

 ization ; his structure is the best adapted to the 

 necessities of his existence ; and, as the structure 

 is invariably the same in the same species, wo 

 may conclude that the natural habits are equally 

 in accordance." It would, perhaps, be more 

 reasonable to attribute the popular belief as to 

 the incapacity of the African elephant for a do- 

 mesticated and disciplined life, to the " revolu- 

 tions of civilization." After a certain time, when 

 means had been found to oppose the formidable 

 power of the elephant, these animals became no 

 longer useful for the purposes of war ; even the 

 demand for them for the lloman Amphitheatre 

 wore away; the consequence of which was that 

 the process whereby the Egyptians, the Numi- 

 dians, and the Carthaginians had been accustomed 

 to tamo and train them, generally became lost.* 

 The incursions of the Arabs into Northern Africa, 

 to whose rapid movements these animals would 



* According to Losinus, who travelled in the sixth century, the 

 Ethiopians had then already lost the art of training the elephant for 



