207 



CHAP. VII. 



THE ELEPHANT. 



Conduct in Captivity. 



The idea prevailed in ancient times, and obtains even at 

 the present day, that the Indian elephant surpasses that 

 of Africa in sagacity and tractability, and consequently 

 in capacity for training, so as to render its services more 

 available to man. There does not appear to me to be 

 sufficient ground for this conclusion. It originated, in 

 all probability, in the first impressions created by the 

 accounts of the elephant brought back by the Greeks 

 after the Indian expedition of Alexander, and above all 

 by the descriptions of Aristotle, whose knowledge of the 

 animal was derived exclusively from the East. A long 

 interval elapsed before the elephant of Africa, and its 

 capabilities, became known in Europe. The first ele- 

 phants brought to Greece by Antipater, were from India, 

 as were also those introduced by Pyrrhus into Italy. 

 Taught by this example, the Carthaginians undertook to 

 employ African elephants in war. Jugurtha led them 

 against Metellus, and Juba against Caesar ; but from in- 

 experienced and deficient training, they proved less 

 effective than the elephants of India 1 , and the historians 



1 Armandi, Hist. Milit. des EU- on the coins of Alexander, and the 



phants, liv. i. ch. i. p. 2. It is an Seleucidse invariably exhibit the 



interesting fact, noticed by Ar- characteristics of the Indian type, 



mandi, that the elephants figured whilst those on Koman medals 



