THE ELEPHANT. 663 



strong points of steel. Plumes of feathers, small flags, and bells, were 

 also affixed to them. It is said that some of the most sagacious and skil- 

 ful of the fighting elephants were taught the use of the sword, and, the 

 handles being made suitable to the grasp of the trunk, they wielded 

 enormous cimeters with extraordinary address. The Sultan Akbar had 

 many of these sword-bearing elephants in his army. 



According to Pliny, elephants were trained in Rome for the stage. 

 He gives an account of a scene enacted by them, in which four of them 

 carried a fifth in a litter, the latter representing an invalid. Others 

 ranged themselves in a seated posture at a great banquet-table, and eat 

 their food from large plates of gold and silver, with portentous gravity, 

 that excessively delighted the spectators. Moreover, he and Suetonius 

 both assure us that an elephant danced on the tight-rope ! He walked 

 up a slanting tight-rope from the bottom of the arena to the top of the 

 amphitheatre ; and on one great occasion a man was found daring enough, 

 and confident enough in the performer's skill, to sit upon his back while 

 he made the perilous ascent. There is no exaggeration in this statement. 

 There was in Paris, in 1867, an elephant performing at the circus of the 

 Boulevard du Prince-Eugene, which was called L Elephant ascensioniste ; 

 it had learned to balance its heavy mass on a tight-rope, like Blondin. 



The Romans justly considered the Asiatic Elephant more intelligent 

 and courageous than the African one. They introduced both in large 

 numbers to their combats in the circus, and Pliny tells a touching story 

 of the pathetic appeals which the poor creatures made to the spectators 

 against the cruelty of their foes. After the fall of the Roman Empire, 

 the first of these animals which was seen in Europe was sent to Charles 

 the Great by the Caliph Haroun al Raschid. Pope Leo X received one 

 as a present from the Sultan. It excited great curiosity, but soon died. 

 At present both species are common in Zoological Gardens. But, natu- 

 rally, the performing elephants we see are natives of Asia. 



GENERAL HABITS. 



Elephants of both kinds live in large forests, preferring those where 

 water is most abundant. They are sometimes, however, found in 

 Ceylon, at a height of six thousand feet above the sea. They are 

 more nocturnal than diurnal animals. They live in herds, and the 

 traveler who comes upon a herd without disturbing it, sees them 



