Cuar. VII.] THE ELEPHANT. 209 
Another favourite doctrine of the earlier visitors to 
the East seems to me to be equally fallacious; Pyrarp, 
Bernier, Puiiipz, Tuevenot, and other travellers in 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, proclaimed the 
superiority of the elephant of Ceylon, in size, strength, 
and sagacity, above those of all other parts of India'; 
and TAVERNIER in particular is supposed to have stated 
that if a Ceylon elephant be introduced amongst those 
bred in any other place, by an instinct of nature they 
do him homage by laying their trunks to the ground, 
and raising them reverentially. This passage has been 
so repeatedly quoted in works on Ceylon that it has 
passed into an aphorism, and is always adduced as a 
testimony to the surpassing intelligence of the elephants 
of that island ; although a reference to the original shows 
that Tavernier’s observations are not only fanciful in 
themselves, but are restricted to the supposed excellence 
Elephant and the Sphynx, Classical elephant figured in the sculptures 
Journal, No. lx. Although the of Nineveh is universally as wild, 
trained elephant nowhere appears not domesticated. 
upon the monuments of the Egyp- 1 This is merely a reiteration of 
tians, the animal was not unknown the statement of Ait1an, who as- 
to them, and ivory and elephants cribes to the elephants of Taprobane 
are figured on the walls of Thebes a vast superiority in size, strength, 
and Karnac amongst the spoils of and intelligence, above those of 
Thothmes III., and the tribute continental India,—Kal oi8é ye 
paid to Rameses I. The Island of vnoiro: eAcpaytes tov Hreipwrav 
Elephantine, in the Nile, near GAnipmérepol re thy pony kal welfous 
Assouan (Syene) is styled in hiero- i8¢eiv eio}, kal Sypocopdrepo: 5¢ mavra 
glyphical writing “The Land of mdvry xplvowro Gy.”—Zutan, De 
the Elephant ;” but as itis a mere Nat. Anim., lib. xvi. cap. xviii. 
rock, it probably owes its designa- xian also, in the same chap- 
tion to its form. See Sir Garp- ter, states the fact of the ship- 
NER Wiixxuyson’s Ancient Egyp- ment of elephants in large boats 
tians, vol. i. pl. iv.; vol. v. p. 176. from Ceylon to the opposite conti- 
Above the first cataract of the Nile nent of India, for sale to the king 
are two small islands, each bearing of Kalinga; so that the export 
the name of Phyle;—quere, is from Manaar, described in a former 
the derivation of this word at all passage, has been going on appa- 
connected with the Arabic term rently without interruption since 
fil? See ante, p. 76, note. The the time of the Romans. 
P 
