ANIMALS IN PAGEANTS 97 



of a great procession. Pompey, who for all his 

 'frigidity,' which Cicero lamented, had correct views 

 on the subject of popular shows, wished to be drawn 

 in triumph, after his African war, by four elephants, 

 instead of the white horses usually harnessed to the 

 car of the victorious general. Not till the third 

 century of our era was this innovation permitted in 

 the conservative traditions of the triumph. But the 

 effect must have justified the change. The motion 

 of great beasts is so leisurely, deliberate and withal 

 so silent, that they are the * making ' of a procession. 

 Nothing gives the needed break, in form and 

 motion, between the mechanical progress of the cars, 

 and the 'staccato' trip of the most dignfied biped, 

 so well as the noiseless progress of the velvet-footed 

 camel, and the solemn gait of the elephants, as they 

 keep their places, with the dignity of a century's 

 experience of great occasions. Motion without sound, 

 and the appearance of vast, whole-coloured, and un- 

 familiar forms, are their contribution to the pageants 

 of the West. Indian taste decorates the State 

 elephant with arabesques and colour. We prefer 

 him 'plain.' But the effect of an elephant column 

 in an English pageant has not yet been tried. 



In the four triumphs represented in the Hampton 

 Court tapestries, perhaps the most splendid pageant 

 ever designed, the cars of victory are drawn by four 



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