58 



and twenty seer of food a day, equal to fifty English pounds: they 

 had besides five seers of sugar, four seers of ghee, and half a 

 maund of rice, with pepper and spices, mixed with twenty quarts 

 of milk; and in the season of sugar canes, each elephant had a 

 daily allowance of two or three hundred canes, according to his 

 size, for the space of three months. 



I could mention many anecdotes of the elephant's sagacity and 

 tractability, but will confine myself to one occurrence with Rago- 

 bah's elephants in camp; which, like those belonging to the Mogul 

 emperors abovementioned, besides their daily provender of grass, 

 fresh-gathered leaves, and vegetables, were fed with balls, called 

 mossaulla, composed of flour, spices, sugar, and butter; ingredients 

 generally expensive, especially in a camp where every thing was 

 extravagantly dear. A vegetable diet, and about thirty pounds of 

 grain, is the usual daily allowance for an elephant; the mossaulla 

 is an indulgence on service, and was accordingly allowed to the 

 peshwa's elephants and Arabian horses, in a country frequently 

 laid waste, and affording little provender for cattle. In our Gu- 

 zerat encampments, man and beast suffered many deprivations, 

 and were often at a loss for food ; notwithstanding this general 

 deficiency, an ample supply of mossaulla was allotted to Rago- 

 bah's favourite elephants: yet they became gradually emaciated, 

 and pined away without an apparent cause : the keepers were 

 suspected of withholding their mossaulla, as those delicate balls 

 were composed of the most expensive and savory parts of the pi- 

 lau's, curries, and other dishes, too costly for persons in their 

 situation: the fraud being proved, the keepers were punished; 

 and the master of the elephants (who like the master of the horse 



