ELEPHANTS. 157 



their suitability for Army Service, their care, reduction of 

 inefficiency by enhghtened management, and last, but not least, 

 the scientific elucidation of the peculiar diseases to which camel 

 kind is heir, and which are imperfectly understood. 

 And may good luck always attend him in peace and war. 



Chapter XII— ELEPHANTS. 



From very early times elephants have taken part in war. 

 They were not only used to stampede Cavalry and to trample 

 down Infantry, but they were fighting machines, protected by 

 armour, vdth steel blades fastened to their tusks, and saddled 

 v?ith towers or howdahs containing several men from which 

 missiles of various kinds could be thrown. On occasion the 

 elephants of rival forces would have a duel a la mort, the rest 

 of the forces halting to contemplate the contest. 



Perhaps the first appearance of elephants in historical battle 

 was at the Battle of Arbela in 331 B.C., when Darius 

 Codomannus marshalled fifteen elephants in his fighting line 

 against Alexander the Great. No mention is made of the part 

 they played on that occasion, but from that time onward their 

 importance was considerable. 



In 326 B.C. when Alexander the Great reached the Eiver 

 Jhelum (Hydaspes) he was opposed by King Porus. In the. 

 battle which ensued in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 Chillianwala, King Porus, trusting to the terror inspired by his. 

 elephants, disposed them to the number of 200 in the front 

 line, a hundred paces apart, his infantry being behind and his. 

 cavalry and chariots being on the flanks. Seeing the elephants 

 Alexander decided not to make a frontal attack, but relying on 

 his superiority in cavalry he made his main attack against the 

 left flank of Porus, one Brigade working to the rear. The 

 result of this was that the Indian Cavalry were driven to shelter 

 behind the elephants. The Macedonian phalanx then advanced, 

 and as elephants crashed through it the situation was for a 

 while serious. The Indian troops were, however, gradually 

 hemmed in, the elephants as the battle progressed became. 



