8 History of Nature. [BooK VIII. 



are very little frequented by Men. They may indeed well 

 wonder at the novelty of their Tracks, bat how know they 

 that they are to be feared ? Nay, what should be the reason 

 that they dread even to see a Man, being so much superior 

 in Strength, Size, and Swiftness ? Certainly herein is the 

 wonderful work of Nature, and her mighty Power ; that the 

 greatest and fiercest of wild Beasts, which have never seen 

 that which they ought to fear, yet immediately understand 

 why the same is to be dreaded. 



CHAPTER V. 

 The Understanding and Memory of Elephants. 



ELEPHANTS march always in Troops. The oldest of them 

 leadeth the Company, and the next to him in age cometh 

 behind with the conduct of the Rear. When they are to pass 

 over a River, they put the Smallest foremost, lest if the 

 Larger should enter first they would dig up the Channel, and 

 so make the Torrent to become deeper. Anti.pat.er writeth, 

 that King Antiochus had two Elephants which he used in 

 his Wars, and were famous for their Surnames, which they 

 knew well. And truly Cato, when he named in his Annals 

 the Commanders (Imperators), hath recorded that the (Ele- 

 phant) which fought most bravely in the Punic Contest was 

 named Surus, and that one of his Teeth was lost. When 

 Antiochus would have sounded the passage of a River (by 

 putting the Elephants before), Ajax refused, although at all 

 times he was the leader of the Troop. On this it was pro- 

 nounced that the Elephant which would pass should be the 

 Chief; and Patroclus having ventured, as a reward there 

 was presented to him a rich set of Silver Trappings (a thing 

 in which they take very great Delight) ; and besides this, 

 he was made the Sovereign of the others. But the other, 

 which was distinguished (by his Abstaining from Food) pre- 

 ferred Death to the Shame : for they are wonderfully 

 Bashful, so that if one of them be overcome he will fly from 

 the voice of the Conqueror, and put forward Earth arid Ver- 



