Chap. VIL] THE ELEPHANT. 
209 
Another favourite doctrine of the earlier visitors to 
the East seems to me to be equally fallacious ; Pyeaed, 
Beeniee, Phillipe, Thevenot, and other travellers in 
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, proclaimed the 
superiority of the elephant of Ceylon, in size, strength, 
and sagacity, above those of all other parts of India 1 ; 
and Taveeniee in particular is supposed to have stated 
that if a Ceylon elephant be introduced amongst those 
bred in any other place, by an instinct of nature they 
do him homage by laying their trunks to the ground, 
and raising them reverentially. This passage has been 
so repeatedly quoted in works on Ceylon that it has 
passed into an aphorism, and is always adduced as a 
testimony to the surpassing intelligence of the elephants 
of that island; although a reference to the original shows 
that Tavernier's observations are not only fanciful in 
themselves, but are restricted to the supposed excellence 
elephant figured in the sculptures 
of Nineveh is universally as wild, 
not domesticated. 
1 This is merely a reiteration of 
the statement of JElian, who as- 
cribes to the elephants of Taprobane- 
a vast superiority in size, strength, 
and _ intelligence, above those of 
continental India,— Kai oltie ye 
vr\(TiaTai ihecpavres rcov TyireipunSsv 
aAKi/xwrepol re rh\v pd>p,rjv Kai (ie'ifyys 
iSe?v et&l, Ka\ &vfj.o(To(p6repoi Se irdvra 
irdurri Kpivoivro ctV." — 2Elian, De 
Nat. Anim., lib. xvi. cap. sviii. 
JElian also, in the same chap- 
ter, states the fact of the ship- 
ment of elephants in large boats 
from Ceylon to the opposite conti- 
nent of India, for sale to the king 
of Kalinga; so that the export 
from JVIanaar, described in a former 
passage, has been going on appa- 
rently without interruption since 
the time of the Eomans. 
Elephant and the Sphynx, Classical 
Journal, No. lx. Although the 
trained elephant nowhere appears 
upon the monuments of the Egyp- 
tians, the animal was not unknown 
to them, and ivory and elephants 
are figured on the walls of Thebes 
and Karnac amongst the spoils of 
Thothmes III., and the tribute 
paid to Barneses I. The Island of 
Elephantine, in the Nile, near 
Assouan (Syene) is styled in hiero- 
glyphical writing " The Land of 
the Elephant ; " but as it is a mere 
rock, it probably owes its designa- 
tion to its form. See Sir Gard- 
ner Wilkinson's Ancient Egyp- 
tians, vol. i. pi. iv. j vol. v. p. 176. 
Above the first cataract of the Nile 
are two small islands, each bearing 
the name of Phylse; — quaere, is 
the derivation of this word at all 
connected with the Arabic term 
fill See ante, p. 76, note. The 
