Travels in India. 



Part U. 



every one of the Sons of him that had fo generoufly laid down his life for the 

 fafety of his Sovereign. 



I obferved alfo, that though the Elephant's skin be very hard while he is alive ; 

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



Elephants are brought from lèverai parts of India ; as from the IOand of Cej- 

 Un„ where they are very fmall j but the moft couragious of all : from the Ifle of 

 Sumatra } from the Kingdom of Cochin ; from the Kingdom of Siam ; and from 

 the Frontiers of the Kingdom of Boutam neer the Great- 7>^n>. They are 

 brought alfo from the Coaft of Melinda> Eaftward of siffrica : where they are 

 in very great numbers, according to the report of a Pom^^e-Captain, made at 

 Goa, who came from thence to make fome complaint againft the Governor of Mo- 

 zambique. He told me that he had feen all along that Coalt fevera! Parks that 

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

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

 Elephants, and eat the flefh. But they are oblig'd to give the tufhes of every one 

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

 the Ifland of CeyUn, they make a long lane, clos'd in on both fides, fo that -the Ele- 

 phant can neither run to the right nor to the left : This lane is broad at the firft, 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 rauft be one that is covetous of 

 the male at the iame time. Though (he be tame, yet (he is bound with good 

 Ropes and 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 Jane 

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

 îane behind, and when he comes neer the female, there is another barricado let up 

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

 they fo intangle his le^s and trunk with ropes and cords, that he is foon taken, ha- 

 ving no way to help himfelf. The fame way they ufe for the moft part in the 

 Kingdoms of Siam> and Peg*, 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 moft convenient place they can find* 

 and then they fix their fnares for the Elephant, who in a Ihort time haftens 

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



This is obfervable of the female-Elephant, that when Ihe begins to be hot, (he 

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

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

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

 Ihe calls to her by a peculiar cry. 



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

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

 that the Ivory which comes from lichen 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-lndies, which makes it more efteem'd, and dearer 

 than any other. 



When the Merchants bring Elephants to any place to fell ; 'tis a pleafant light 

 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 their backs : but then the young Elephants, that lately ftopt 

 for the lucre of victuals., perceiving their Dams a great way before them, double 

 their pace, and playing with their trunks, throw the children off their backs to 

 the ground, yet without doing them any harm. 



Notvvithftanding all the enquiry I have made, I could never find exactly how 

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

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

 Father, their Grandfather, and great Grandfather. And by that computation, I 

 found that they had liv'd fome of them fix^core, or an hunder'd and thirty 

 years. 



The 



