CHAPTER V 

 ELEPHANT HUNTING, ETC. 



The record of a great elephant hunt of the Egyptian 

 King Thothmes III (c. 1501-1447 B. C.) is inscribed upon 

 the walls of the tomb of his scribe Amen-em-heb, in the 

 Theban Necropolis. The various translations differ in 

 some minor points but agree essentially. The following 

 is the rendering of a recent German version :* 



"Again I saw another glorious deed accomplished by the 

 Lord of the Two Lands, in Niy. He hunted one hundred 

 and twenty elephants because of their tusks. I encountered 

 the largest of them, when he was charging against His 

 Majesty. I lopped off his trunk [lit. "his hand"] while he 

 still lived, before the King, while I stood in the water be- 

 tween the rocks. Upon this my Lord rewarded me with 

 gold . . . and with three changes of raiment." 



That Assyrian monarchs also hunted the elephant is 

 shown in an inscription of Tiglath Pileserl (c. 1100 B. C), 

 which was found at the ruins of Kalat Sherkat, on the right 

 bank of the Tigris and is now in the British Museum. The 

 king says: "I brought down ten immense bull elephants in 

 the region of Harran, and on the banks of the Haber. I 

 took four elephants alive. The skins and tusks, as well as 

 the live elephants, I sent to my city Asshur."t 



*"Altorieiitalische Texte," ed. by Dr. Hugo Grossman, Tubingen, 1909, p. 242. See 

 also W. Max Miiller, "Asien und Europa," Leipsic, 1893, p. 263, and James Henry Breasted, 

 "Ancient Records of Egypt," Chicago, 1906, Vol. II, p. 232. 



fKeilinschriftliche Bibliothek, ed. by Eberhard Schrader, Vol. I, Berlin, 1889, p. 39. 

 German trans, by Hugo Winckler. 



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