THE MR 1C AN ELEPHANT 155 



hand. k But a far finer sight it was to see the 

 warlike beasts themselves engage with the utmost fury, 

 and charging each other. For the manner of an 

 elephant-fight is as follows : They Jock their tusks, 

 and standing where they are, they push until one 

 gets the better of the other, and pushes the other's 

 trunk somewhat on one side. The moment its flank 

 is exposed, the other buries its tusks in it, and wounds 

 it as a bull uses its horns. But many of Ptolemy's 

 beasts declined the combat. For a mischance occurred 

 to which Lybian (African) elephants are liable, in 

 that they cannot endure the smell or the sight of 

 the Indian, but frightened, in my opinion, by their 

 size and strength, take to flight.' 



The African elephants stampeded and broke the 

 ranks behind. Polybius is wrong as to the relative 

 size of the elephants, for, as we have said, the African 

 is the larger. But it seems clear that, when tried by 

 actual experiment, the African race was inferior in 

 docility. Yet judged on their merits, the African 

 elephants must have answered the purpose of their 

 owners well enough. Hannibal was able to bring 

 thirty-two through Spain and across the Alps into 

 Italy, and those of Hasdrubal numbered ten at the 

 battle of the Metaurus. These were a failure in the 

 battle ; but as Indian elephants seem, according to 

 Mr Rudyard Kipling, usually to decline going into 



