42 THE ELEPHANT. 



give an idea of the labour he performs, it is fuf- 

 iicient to remark, that all the tuns, facks, and 

 bales, tranfported from one place to another in 

 India, are carried by elephants; that they carry 

 burdens on their bodies, their necks, their tufks, 

 and even in their mouths, by giving them the 

 end of a rope, which they hold faft with their 

 teeth; that, uniting fagacity to ftrength, they 

 never break or injure any thing committed to 

 their charge; that, from the margins of the wa- 

 ters, they put thefe bundles into boats without 

 wetting them, laying them down gently, and ar- 

 ranging them where they ought to be placed ; 

 that, when difpofed in the places where their 

 matters direct, they try with their trunk whether 

 the goods are properly flowed ; and, if a tun or 

 cafk rolls, they go, of their own accord, in queft 

 of (tones to prop and render it firm. 



When the elephant is properly managed, 

 though in captivity, he lives a long time ; and, 

 it is probable, that, in a ftate of liberty, his life 

 is (till longer. Some authors affirm, that he 

 lives four or five hundred years ^, others two 

 or three hundred f , and others a hundred and 



twenty, 



* Onefimus, according to Strabo, lib. 15. fays, that ele- 

 phants live five hundred years. — Philoflratus, Vit. Apoll. lib. 16. 

 relates, that the elephant Ajax, which fought for Porus a- 

 gainft Alexander the Great, lived four hundred years after 



that battle. Juba, King of Mauritania, afferts, that an e- 



lephant was taken in Mount Atlas, which was known to have 

 been in a battle four hundred years before. 



f Elephantum alii annos ducentos vivere aiunt, alii tre- 



-ceatcs ;> 



