] 4 History of Nature. [ BOOK VIII. 



CHAPTER IX. 

 The Manner of Taming Elephants. 



As furious as they may be, they are tamed with Hunger 

 and Stripes, and by the Help of other Elephants that are 

 brought to them, to restrain the unruly Beast with Chains ; 

 and at other Times, when they go to rut, they are most out 

 of Order ; so that they demolish the Stables with their Teeth : 

 and therefore they restrain them from their Heat, and sepa- 

 rate the Inclosures of the Females apart from those of the 

 Males, which Enclosures they have much in the Mariner of 

 other Beasts. When tamed, they serve in War, and carry 

 little Castles with armed Soldiers among the Enemies j 1 and 

 for the most Part they decide the Wars of the East. They 

 bear down the Body of the Army, and stamp them (the 

 armed Men) under Foot. But these same are affrighted 

 with the Grunting of Swine ; and if wounded or put into 

 a Fright, they always go backward, with scarcely less Mis- 

 chief to their own Side. The African Elephants are afraid 

 of the Indian, and dare not look upon them ; for the Indian 

 Elephants are much bigger. 2 



CHAPTER X. 



How they Bring forth their Young; and of other Parts of 

 their Nature. 



IT is the common Opinion that they go with Young ten 

 Years ; but Aristotle saith, that they go but two Years, and 



1 Or on their backs (a various reading), Wern. Club. 



2 Philostratus and Polybius confirm this statement of Pliny, that the 

 Indian elephant is larger than that of Africa ; and ^Elian says, that it 

 attains the height of nine cubits. But modern authors generally consider 

 the African species the larger, at least larger than the common elephant 

 of Hindostan. Mr. Corse, formerly superintendent of the East India 

 Company's elephants at Tiperah, a province of Bengal, never heard of 

 but one Indian elephant whose height reached ten feet six inches. The 

 elephants of Hindostan are, however, the smallest of the Asiatic species. 

 Those of Pegu and Ava are much larger ; and the skeleton of the elephant 

 at the Museum of Petersburgh, which was sent to the Czar Peter by the 

 King of Persia, measures sixteen feet and a half in height. Wern. Club. 



