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 

 Cesab 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 kKluco, 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." — Pliny, Natur. 

 Hist. Transl. Philemon Holland, 

 book viii. ch. xv. p. 200. 



2 "Sunt item quae appellantur 

 Alces. Harum est consimilis cap- 

 reis figura, et varietas pellium ; 

 sed magnitudine paulo antecedunt, 

 mutilseque sunt cornibus, et crura 

 sine nodis articulisqite habent ; 

 neque quietis causa procumbunt; 

 neque, si quo afflictse 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 affiigunt, atque 

 una ipsa? concidunt." — Caesar, De 

 Bello 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 



