ELEPHANTS. 805 



by its enormous consumption of food remarks, "As the keep- 

 ing of an elephant is so expensive, we may conclude that no 

 full-grown one will ever be brought here for show," which was an 

 ^Ssuinption remarkably wide of the mark, for within the same 

 century elephants became quite a common sight in England, and 

 one hundred years later the Zoological Society exhibited five at one 

 time. In the United States, last year, a visitor to Barnum's circus 

 would have seen " Jumbo " and thirty others, all taking part in 

 the performance together which terminated by the animals at the 

 word of command, lying down, within a ring, while their owner, 

 standing on the stomach of the centre one proclaimed the sight a 

 unique one that he defied the world to beat, and that the money 

 value of the beasts was represented by a fabulous amount of dollars, 

 which was an evident and indisputable fact. 



In England or even in Europe, however, prior to the end of the 

 last century, elephants were rarely seen and the artists who drew 

 the representations of these animals in many of the mediaeval 

 bestiaries now extant, must have rehed upon their imagination 

 rather than their vision for their models, for the trunk is geuerally 

 represented as trumpet-shaped, widening towards the end until 

 it looks like a huge funnel or post-boy's horn. No doubt they 

 were led into this error through the elephant being reported as 

 " trumpeting" whenever it utters a sound, and their minds being 

 unable to grasp the fact, that it could do this without it had a 

 trunk shaped like the human instrument, they accordingly 

 furnished the animal with the article. 



In the middle ages wild beasts of every description were 

 deemed of great value for presents— among the nobility especially. 

 The Sultans and eastern rulers were constantly soliciting the 

 goodwill and friendship of western potentates by sending them 

 specimens of the rare beasts they had imported or that were 

 natives of their countries, and elephants were occasionally to be 

 seen at European courts, which their owners had obtained in this 

 -way. The Soldan of Babylon presented one to the Emperor 

 Frederick the Second, and guarded by a troop of Saracens, it 

 became the adventurous monarch's standard-bearer. One was 

 also sent about the same time to our Henry III. by Louis IX. of 



