106 
MAMMALIA. 
[Chap. III. 
"Peaceful, beneath primeval trees, that cast 
Their ample shade on Niger's yellow stream, 
Or where the Granges rolls his sacred waves, 
Leans the huge Elephant." 1 
It is not difficult to see whence this antiquated delu- 
sion took its origin ; nor is it, as Sir Thomas Bkowne 
imagined, to be traced exclusively " to the grosse and 
cylindrical 1 structure " of the animal's legs. The fact 
is, that the elephant, returning in the early morning 
from his nocturnal revels in the reservoirs and water- 
courses, is accustomed to rub his muddy sides against 
a tree, and sometimes against a rock if more convenient. 
In my rides through the northern forests, the natives of 
Ceylon have often pointed out that the elephants which 
had preceded me must have been of considerable size, 
from the height at which their marks had been left on 
the trees against which they had been rubbing. Not 
unfrequently the animals themselves, overcome with 
drowsiness from the night's gambolling, are found 
dosing and resting against the trees they had so visited, 
and in the same manner they have been discovered by 
sportsmen asleep, and leaning against a rock. 
It is scarcely necessary to explain that the position is 
accidental, and that it is taken by the elephant not from 
any difficulty in lying at length on the ground, but 
rather from the coincidence that the structure of his 
legs affords such support in a standing position, that 
reclining scarcely adds to his enjoyment of repose ; and 
elephants in a state of captivity have been known for 
in a.d, 1610; wherein he explains he), and when he is once down he 
that the elephant is " so proud of cannot rise up again." — Sec. nr. ch. 
his strength that he never bows xii. p., 147. 
himself to any {neither indeed can 1 Thomson's Seasons, a.d. 1728. 
