210 
MAMMALIA. 
[Chap. VII. 
of the Ceylon animal in war. 1 This estimate of the 
superiority of the elephant of Ceylon, if it ever prevailed 
in India, was not current there at a very early period ; 
for in the Ramayana, which is probably the oldest epic 
in the world, the stud of Dasartha, the king of Ayodhya, 
was supplied with elephants from the Himalaya and the 
Vindhya Mountains. 2 I have had no opportunity of test- 
ing by personal observation the justice of the assumption ; 
but from all that I have heard of the elephants of the 
continent, and seen of those of Ceylon, I have reason to 
conclude that the difference, if not imaginary, is except- 
ional, and must have arisen in particular and individual 
instances, from more judicious or elaborate instruction. 
The earliest knowledge of the elephant in Europe 
and the West, was derived from the conspicuous 
position assigned to it in the wars of the East : in 
India, from the remotest antiquity, it formed one of 
the most picturesque, if not the most effective, features 
in the armies of the native princes. 3 It is more than 
1 The expression of Taveenieb is relevant. II est vrai que les ele- 
to the effect that as compared with all phants que les grands seigneurs 
others, the elephants of Ceylon are entretiennent, quand on les amene 
" plus courageux a la guerre." The devant eux, pour voir s'ils sont en 
rest of the passage is a curiosity: — bon point, font trois fois une espece 
" II faut remarquer ici une chose de reverence avee leur trompe, ce 
qu'on aura peut-etre de la peine a que fai vn souvent; mais ils sont 
eroire mais qui est toutefois tres- styles a cela, et leurs maitres le 
veritable : c'est que lorsque quelque leur enseignent de bonne heure." — 
roi ou quelque seigneur a quelqu'un Les Six Voyages de J.B. Taveenieb, 
de ces elephants de Ceylan, etqti'on lib. iii. ch. 20. 
en amene quelqu' autre des lieux 2 Bamayana, sec. vi. ; Carey 
ou les marchands vont les prendre, and Mabshman, i. 105; jFauche, 
commed'Achen, deSiam, d'Arakan, t. i. p. 66. 
de Pegu, du royaume de Boutan, 3 The only mention of the ele- 
d' Assam, des terres de Cochin et phant in Sacred History is in the 
de la coste du Melinde, des que les account given in Maccabees of the 
elephants en voient un de Ceylan, invasion of Egypt by Antiochus, 
par un instinct de nature, ils lui who entered it 170 B.C., "with 
font la reverence, portant le bout chariots and elephants, and horse- 
de leur trompe a la terre et la men, and a great navy." — 1 Mace. 
