207 
CHAP. VII. 
THE ELEPHANT. 
Conduct in Captivity. 
The idea prevailed in ancient times, and obtains even at 
the present day, that the Indian elephant surpasses that 
of Africa in sagacity and tractability, and consequently 
in capacity for training, so as to render its services more 
available to man. There does not appear to me to be 
sufficient ground for this conclusion. It originated, in 
all probability, in the first impressions created by the 
accounts of the elephant brought back by the Greeks 
after the Indian expedition of Alexander, and above all 
by the descriptions of Aristotle, whose knowledge of the 
animal was derived exclusively from the East. A long 
interval elapsed before the elephant of Africa, and its 
capabilities, became known in Europe. The first ele- 
phants brought to Greece by Antipater, were from India, 
as were also those introduced by Pyrrhus into Italy. 
Taught by this example, the Carthaginians undertook to 
employ African elephants in war. Jugurtha led them 
against Metellus, and Juba against Cesar; but from in- 
experienced and deficient training, they proved less 
effective than the elephants of India}, and the historians 
1 Armannl, Hist. Milit. des Elé- on the coins of Alexander, and the 
phants, liv. i. ch. i. p. 2. It is an Seleucid invariably exhibit the 
interesting fact, noticed by Ar- characteristics of the Indian type, 
MANDI, that the elephants figured whilst those on Roman medals 
