208 MAMMALIA. [Chap. VII. 
of these times ascribed to inferiority of race, that which 
was but the result of insufficient education. 
It must, however, be remembered that the elephants 
which, at a later period, astonished the Eomans by their 
sagacity, and whose performances in the amphitheatre 
have been described by iElian and Pliny, were brought 
from Africa, and acquired their accomplishments from 
European instructors 1 ; a sufficient proof that under 
equally favourable auspices the African species are 
capable of developing similar docility and powers with 
those of India. It is one of the facts from which the 
inferiority of the Negro race has been inferred, that 
they alone, of all the nations amongst whom the elephant 
is found, have never manifested ability to domesticate it ; 
and even as regards the more highly developed races 
who inhabited the valley of the Nile, it is observable that 
the elephant is nowhere to be found amongst the animals 
figured on the monuments of aDcient Egypt, whilst the 
camelopard, the lion, and even the hippopotamus are re- 
presented. And although in later times the knowledge 
of the art of training appears to have existed under the 
Ptolemies, and on the southern shore of the Mediterra- 
nean, it admits of no doubt that it was communicated 
by the more accomplished natives of India who had 
settled there. 2 
can at once be pronounced African, Armandi lias, with infinite in- 
from the peculiarities of the con- dustry, collected from original 
vex forehead and expansive ears, sources a mass of curious inform- 
— Ibid. liv. i. cap. i. p. 3. ations relative to the employment 
of elephants in ancient warfare, 
which he has published under the 
title of Histoire Militaire des Ele- 
phants depuis les temps les phis 
recules jusqyH a V introduction des 
armes a feu. Paris. 1843. 
1 ./Elian, lib. ii. cap. ii. 
2 See Schlegel's Essay on the 
