BOOK VIII.] History of Nature. 15 



that they breed but once in their Life, and produce not above 

 one at a Time : also that they live 200 Years, and some of 

 them 300. Their Condition of Youth beginneth when they 

 are threescore Years old : they greatly delight in Rivers, and 

 they wander about Waters ; when otherwise, by reason of the 

 Magnitude of their Bodies, they cannot swim. 1 They are 

 impatient of Cold. The greatest Evil which befals them is, 

 Distension and Purging of the Bowels ; nor do they suffer 

 from any other kinds of Sickness. I find that if they drink Oil, 

 the Darts which stick in their Bodies will fall off, but if they 

 sweat the more easily will they hold fast. The eating of 

 Earth causes wasting in them, unless they chew well and 

 often : they devour Stones also. The Trunks of Trees is the 

 best Meat they have. They will overturn the higher Palm- 

 trees with their Forehead, and eat the Dates as they lie 

 along. They chew their Meat with their Mouth : but they 

 breathe, drink, and smell with what is not improperly called 

 their Hand. Of all living Creatures they most detest a 

 Mouse; 2 and if they perceive that their Provender lying in 

 the Manger hath been touched by it, they will not touch it. 

 They are mightily tormented with Pain, if in their drinking 

 they swallow down a Leech ; which Creature, I observe, they 

 begin now commonly to call a Bloodsucker, (Sanyuisuga) : 

 for when the Leech hath fixed itself in the Windpipe, it put- 

 teth him to intolerable Pain. The Hide of their Back is 

 most hard; 3 but in the Belly it is soft; their Skin has no 

 covering of Hair ; and even in their Tail there is no Defence 

 which might serve to drive away the Annoyance of Flies (for 

 as huge a Beast as he is, he feeleth it) ; but their Skin is full 



1 It scarcely needs be observed that the elephant swims as well as 

 any other quadruped. In this act he will frequently immerse his whole 

 body, so that the tip of his trunk only is above water, to the no slight 

 inconvenience of those who chance to be riding on his back. Wern. 

 Club. 



3 JElian says (B. i. c. 38), that it dreads the grunting of a hog, and a 

 horned ram ; and it was by employing these that the Romans put to flight 

 the elephants of King Pyrrhus, by which they obtained a decisive victory. 

 Wern. Club. 



3 (Various reading.) Anirnce canali, or amne canali. Wern. Club. 



