Chap. III.] THE ELEPHANT. 
101 
appearing, when he standeth, like pillars of flesh ; " but 
he overlooks the fact that Pliny has ascribed the same 
peculiarity to the Scandinavian beast somewhat resem- 
bling a horse, which he calls a " machlis," 1 and that 
CLesar in describing the wild animals in the Hercynian 
forests, enumerates the alee, " in colour and configura- 
tion approaching the goat, but surpassing it in size, its 
head destitute of horns and its limbs of joints, whence 
it can neither lie down to rest, nor rise if by any acci- 
dent it should fall, but using the trees for a resting-place, 
the hunters by loosening their roots bring the alee to 
the ground, so soon as it is tempted to lean on them." 2 
This fallacy, as Sir Thomas Browne says, is " not the 
daughter of latter times, but an old and grey-headed 
errour, even in the days of Aristotle," who deals with 
the story as he received it from Ctesias, by whom it 
1 Machlis (said to be derived 
from a, priv., and k\iVo>, cubo, 
quod non cubat). "Moreover in 
the island of Scandinavia there is a 
beast called Machlis, that hath 
neither ioynt in the hough, nor 
pasternes in his hind legs, and there- 
fore he never lieth down, but sleep- 
eth leaning to a tree, wherefore the 
hunters that lie in wait for these 
beasts cut downe the trees while 
they are asleepe, and so take them; 
otherwise they should never be 
taken, they are so swift of foot that 
it is wonderful." — Puny, Natur. 
Hist. Transl. Philemon Holland, 
book viii. ch. xv. p. 200. 
2 "Sunt item quse appellantur 
Aloes. Harum est consimilis cap- 
reis figura, et varietas pellium ; 
sed magnitudine paulo antecedunt, 
mutilseque sunt cornibus, et crura 
sine nodis articulisque habent ; 
neque quietis causa procumbunt; 
neque, si quo afflictae casu con- 
siderunt, erigere sese aut subleva- 
re possunt. His sunt arbores pro 
cubilibus; ad eas sese applicant, 
atque ita, paulum modo reclinatse, 
quietem capiunt, quarum ex vesti- 
giis cum est animadversum a vena- 
toribus, quo se recipere consueve- 
rint, omnes eo loco, aut a radicibus 
subruunt aut accidunt arbores tan- 
tum, ut summa species earum stan- 
tium relinquatur. Hue cum se 
consuetudine reclinaverint, infirmas 
arbores pondere affligunt, atque 
una ipsse concidunt." — CLesar, De 
Hello Gall. lib. vi. ch. xxvii. 
The same fiction was extended by 
the early Arabian travellers to the 
rhinoceros, and in the MS. of the 
voyages of the " Two Mahometans" 
it is stated that the rhinoceros of 
Sumatra "n'a point d' articulation 
au genou ni a la main." — Relations 
des Voyages, §c, Paris, 1845, vol. i. 
p. 29. 
H 3 
