y6 Travels in India. Part II. 



every one of the Sons of him that had lb generouily laid down bis life for the 

 iafety of his Sovereign. 



I obferved alfb, that though the Elephant's skin be very hard while lie is alive 3 

 yet when he is dead, the skin is jult like melted-glue. 



Elephants are brought from feveral parts of India ; as from the Ifland of Ccj- 

 Lin i where they are very (mail j but the molt couragious of all : from the [fie of 

 Sumatra; from the Kingdom of Cochin j from the Kingdom of Si*m\ and from 

 the Frontiers of the Kingdom of Bout am necr the Qxczt-Tartarit* They are 

 brought alfb from the Coaft oLA<fel:nda, Ealtward of sijfnca : where they are 

 in very great numbers, according to the report of a Portugucz.i --Captain, made at 

 Goa 3 who came from thence to make fome complaint againlt the Governor of M*. 

 ^ambique. He told me that he had teen all along that Coait feveral Parks that 

 wereempal'd with nothing but Elephants-teeth, the leaft or which Parks is above 

 a league about : He added farther, that the Blacks of the Countrcy hunt their 

 Elephants, and cat the flefh. But they are obliged to give the tufhes of every one 

 thev kill to the Lord of the place. When they intend to take their Elephants in 

 trr "Hand or' Ceylon, they make a long lane, clos'd iq on both fides, lb that the Ele- 

 phant can neither run to the right nor to the left : this lane is broad at the tirlr, but 

 grows narrower and narrower, till there is no more room left at the farther-end 

 than for the female -Elephant to lie down, which mull be one that is covetous of 

 the male at the fame time. Though (lie be tame, vet fhe is bound with good 

 Ro 4 nd Cords, and by her cries will call the male-Elephant, who prefently runs 

 through the lane towards her. Now when the Elephant comes where the lane 

 grows narrow, they that lie hid for that purpole, immediately barricado up the 

 lane behind, and when he comes neer the female, there is another barricado fet up 

 that hops him from going any farther. When he is thus between the Barricado's, 

 they fomtangle his legs and trunk with ropes and cords, that he is fbon taken, ha- 

 ving no way to help himfelf. The lame way they ufe for the molt part in the 

 Kingdoms of Siam 9 and Pegu, only that the Natives there mount the female- 

 Elephant, and go to find out the male in the Forrefts. And when they have met 

 with his haunt, they tye the female to the molt convenient place they can find, 

 and then they fix their fnares for the Elephant, who in a fliort time haitens 

 toward the female, hot for generation where her cries call him. 



This is obfervable of the female-Elephant, that when flic begins to be hot, fhe 

 gathers together a great heap of herbs and weeds, and makes her fclf a kind of 

 bed fome four or five- foot-high from the ground, where contrary to the cuitom 

 of all other creatures, die lies upon her back, in expectation of the male, whom 

 (he calls to her by a peculiar cry. 



This is alfb particular to the Elephants in the Ifle of Ceylan, that only the firft 

 Elephant which the female produces, has any tufhes. And it is alfo obfervable, 

 that the Ivoty which comes from Achen when it is wrought, has this peculiar 

 quality with it, that it never grows yellow, like that which comes out of the 

 Continent, and from the Eaft-Indies, which makes it more efteem'd, and dearer 

 than>jny other. 



When the Merchants bring Elephants to any place to fell $ 'tis a pleafant fight 

 to fee them go along. For in regard there are generally old and young together, 

 when the old ones are gone by, the children will be running after the little ones 

 to play with them, and give them fomething or other to eat. While the young 

 Elephants,, which are very wanton, are bufily taking what is offer'd them, the 

 children leap upon the r backs : but then the young Elephants, that lately ftopc 

 for th. lucre o( victuals, perceiving their Dams a great way before them, double 

 their pa. e, and playing with their trunks, throw the children off their backs to 

 the ground, yet without doing them any harm. 



Notwithstanding all the enquiry I have made, I could never find exactly hovv 

 long an Elephant will live. Nor can all the governors and keepers of thofe 

 creatures tell you more, then that fuch an Elephant has been the poffeffion of their 

 Father, -heir Grandfather, and great Grandfather. And by that computation, I 

 found that they had Hv'd fome of them fix-fcore, or an hunder'd and thirty 

 years. 



The 



