60 THE CAMP. 



haired aborigines of India, with their bows of the 

 bamboo, and their shields made of the skins of cranes ; 

 and, above all, the Hindoos, dressed' in white muslin, 

 and seated on the necks of elephants, which were 

 clothed in Indian steel, and which looked like moving 

 mountains, with snakes for hands. Towers were 

 erected on their backs, in which sat bowmen, who 

 shot down the foe with unerring aim, while the ele- 

 phants were taught to charge, to trample down the 

 opposing ranks in heaps, and to take up armed men in 

 their trunks and hand them to their riders. Some- 

 times huge scythes were fastened to their trunks, and 

 they mowed down regiments as they marched along. 

 The army was also attended by packs of enormous 

 blood hounds to hunt the fugitives when a victory had 

 been gained, and by falcons, which were trained to fly 

 at the eyes of the enemy to baffle them, or even blind 

 them as they were fighting. 



When this enormous army began to march, it de- 

 voured the whole land over which it passed. At night 

 the camp fires reddened the sky as if a great city was 

 in flames. In the morning, a little after daybreak, a 

 trumpet sounded, and the image of the sun cased in 

 crystal, and made of burnished gold, was raised on the 

 top of the king's pavilion, which was built of wood, 

 covered with cashmere shawls, and supported on silver 

 poles. As soon as the ball caught the first rays of the 

 rising sun, the march began. First went the chariot 

 with the altar and the sacred fire, drawn by eight milk- 

 white horses, driven by charioteers, who walked by the 

 side with golden wands. The chariot was followed by 

 a horse of extraordinary magnitude, which was called 

 the Charger of the Sun. The king followed with the 

 ten thousand Immortals, and with his wives in covered 



