ELEPHANTS 299 



to demolish it. He first tore off the thatch and scattered 

 the fragments in the air and all around ; next he 

 wrenched out the timbers of the roof and broke them 

 to pieces. This done, he commenced to batter down 

 the mud walls. I imagine that he found this business 

 troublesome, for he presently abandoned it, returned to 

 the road, and continued his progress along it in the 

 same calm, stately manner as before. I learnt that he 

 was soon after captured and brought back to the camp, 

 but not before he had in a similar manner destroyed 

 some other cottages. 



An iron chain such as this elephant was dragging 

 after him forms part of the equipment of every elephant. 

 In the Ayeen Akbari the chain is termed the "dehrneh." 

 Its modern appellation I do not remember. Those in 

 use in the Emperor's stables are described as consisting 

 each chain of sixty links, and each link as weighing 

 three seers, or six pounds. The chains, the description 

 adds, were ordinarily made of iron, but occasionally of 

 silver and even of gold. Assuming the then value of 

 gold to have been twenty times that of silver, the value 

 of one of these golden chains would have amounted to 

 over half a million of our money. 



And yet, according to the accounts of the early 

 European travellers, such chains were not unfrequent at 

 the imperial court. Sir Thomes Roe describes the 

 arrival of an elephant at Ajmere, sent as a present 

 to the then Emperor Jehangire by some tributary 

 sovereign. Among its other equipments, it carried a 

 chain of gold, but perhaps this chain was of a lighter 

 construction. 



