290 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



The morning dawned. Timour drew up his troops, 

 and then, as was his custom, prostrated himself on 

 the bare ground, and, with arms extended, prayed and 

 meditated, till, filled with religious ecstasy, he arose and 

 mounted his horse, assuring his troops of victory. His 

 troops accepted his assurances ; nevertheless, as the 

 army of the Emperor approached with the long line of 

 elephants in front, they felt again apprehensions. The 

 elephants drew near, the Moguls let fly their arrows, and 

 their apprehensions vanished. Some of the mahowts 

 were struck, and fell. Their elephants, left unguided, 

 turned and fled ; the rest became unmanageable, and 

 followed : wild with terror, they tore through their own 

 army behind, throwing it into utter confusion. Then as 

 Timour, with his Moguls, advanced, the whole Indian 

 army, with the Emperor at its head, fled precipitately, 

 and such as escaped massacre took refuge within the 

 walls of Delhi. 



Perhaps it was this disaster that shook the confidence 

 hitherto placed in the elephants, for in the later wars, 

 though the elephants still continued to carry into battle 

 the chiefs and generals, we do not hear of their being 

 used as actual combatants, always excepting, if the 

 historian is to be relied on, at the capture of Cheitore, 

 in Rajpootana, by the Emperor Akbar. 



When a breach had been made in the walls by mining, 

 the Emperor, so the historian relates, advanced to the 

 attack mounted on his elephant Asman-Shakoh (the 

 grandeur of the heavens), and accompanied by his 

 other four war elephants : Budaghur, Jungeah, Gaderah, 

 and Sabadleah. These five elephants not only carried 



