ELEPHANTS 291 



and accompanied the Emperor, but fought themselves 

 most valiantly on his behalf, "each of them," the 

 historian asserts, " doing such things as surpassed all 

 imagination." For courage and endurance Jungeah 

 appears to have surpassed them all, for after his trunk 

 had been cut off by the sword of a Rajpoot chieftain 

 he still continued to fight, and having already slain 

 thirty of the enemy, he now, though trunkless, killed 

 sixteen more. 



Although, as I have said, in the later wars elephants 

 ceased to be used as actual combatants, yet the kings, 

 chiefs, and generals continued to enter battle and to fight 

 on them till very shortly before the commencement of 

 our rule. Mounted on their elephants, they not un- 

 frequently sought out, like our knights of old, an 

 antagonist of similar rank in the opposing army. In 

 the combat which ensued the elephants, guided by 

 their mahowts, were sometimes able to afford the chief 

 or general who rode them valuable assistance. 



It was not, however, in war so much as in court 

 ceremonial that the elephants made their most magnifi- 

 cent appearance. The procession of the state elephants 

 on the Emperor's birthday and other especial occasions 

 must indeed have been a spectacle most imposing. It 

 impressed extremely the early European travellers. Sir 

 Thomas Roe, the ambassador sent by our James I. to 

 the Emperor Jehangire, thus describes it : — 



" After the Emperor had been weighed against gold, 

 silver, jewels, and other articles of value, the state 

 elephants were paraded. They passed in procession 

 before the Emperor, seated on his throne ; they were 



