168 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



trol exercised over their charges by the keepers that 

 when ordered to use the elephant for the execution of 

 a capital sentence upon a malefactor, they can influence 

 the animal to crush out the victim's life instantly or to 

 break his limbs successively, as men were broken on the 

 wheel. 



The elephant outlines shown in the accompanying illus- 



Specimen of Hindu "Tugra" Design, the elephant figure being formed of 

 a combination of Arabic characters, the whole constituting a laudatory inscription. 



trations are entirely formed from letters of the Persian alpha- 

 bet, essentially the same as the Arabic. Designs of this 

 peculiar, monogrammatic type are known as tugras, the name 

 signifying ornamental writing made up of a number of letters. 

 Of Arabic origin, the tugra (or tughra) was adapted to Per- 

 sian use by a famous Persian calligrapher of Delhi, Amir 

 Punja Kash. A master in Arabic monograms of this highlj^ 

 developed type was Munshi Zamir Ali, of Jaipur. The 

 letters are so curiously entangled and intertwined that. 



