218 GREAT ELEPHANT. 



Great care is taken by the grandees of India in 

 the management and decoration of their Ele- 

 phants; which, after their daily feeding, bathing, 

 oiling, and rubbing, are often painted about the 

 ears and head with various colours, and their 

 tusks are surrounded with rings of gold or silver; 

 and when employed in processions, &c. they are 

 clothed in the most sumptuous trappings. 



By the ancient Indians they were much used in 

 war; and we are told that Poms, the Indian mo- 

 narch, opposed the passage of Alexander over the 

 Hydaspes with eighty-five Elephants. Buffon also 

 imagines that some of the Elephants which were 

 taken by Alexander, and sent into Greece, were 

 employed by Pyrrhus against the Romans. The 

 Romans received their Elephants from Africa, and 

 that in great numbers; since it appears that 

 Pompey entertained the people with a show of 

 eighteen in the space of five days ; which were all 

 destroyed in conflicts with armed men. Fifty lions 

 were also exhibited in the same space. The cry- 

 ing and distress of the wounded Elephants is said 

 to have excited much commiseration among the 

 Roman people. It is highly remarkable, if true, 

 that the young Elephants do not attach them- 

 selves to their dams in particular, but suck indis- 

 criminately the females of the whole herd. Mr. 

 Bruce, however, in his travels, gives a particular 

 description of the more than common attachment 

 of a young Elephant to its dam, which it endea- 

 voured to defend, when wounded, and with much 

 fierceness assaulted the invaders. The young Ele- 



