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 Mle, it is observable that 

 the elephant is nowhere to be found amongst the animals 

 figured on the monuments of ancient 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 has, 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 



' \\ recules jusqyt a V introduction des 



of elephants in ancient warfare, 

 which he has published under the 

 title of Histoire Militaire des Ele- 

 phants dejpuis les temps les plus 



V armes a feu. Paris. 1843. 



1 -ZElian, lib. ii. cap. ii. 



See Schlegel's Essay on the 



