244 
BOOK VIII. 
THE NATUKE OF THE TEERESTRIAL ANIMALS. 
CHAP. 1. (1.) — ELEPHAiiTTS; THEIK CAPACITY. 
Let us now pass on to the other animals, and first of all to the 
land animals. The elephant is the largest of them all, and in 
intelligence approaches the nearest to man. It understands the 
language of its country, it obeys commands, and it remembers 
all the duties which it has been taught. It is sensible 
alike of the pleasures of love and glory, and, to a degree 
that is rare among men even, possesses notions of honesty, 
prudence, and equity ; it has a religious respect also for 
the stars, and a veneration for the sun and the moon.^ It 
is said by some authors, that, at the first appearance of the 
new moon, herds of these animals come down from the forests 
of Mauritania to a river, the name of which is Amilo ;^ 
and that they there purify themselves in solemn form by 
sprinkling their bodies with water ; after which, having thus 
saluted the heavenly body, they return to the woods, carrying 
before them^ the young ones which are fatigued. They are 
supposed to have a notion, too, of the differences of religion f 
1 Cuvier remarks, that this account of its superior intelligence is ex- 
aggerated, it being no greater than that of the dog, if, indeed, equal to it. 
The opinion may perhaps have arisen from the dexterity with which the 
animal uses its trunk ; hut this is to he ascribed not to its own intelli- 
gence, but to the mechanical construction of the part. The Indians, from 
whom we may presume that Pliny derived his account, have always re- 
garded the elephant with a kind of superstitious veneration. — B. 
2 Some would read this Amilo," and others "Annulo.!' Hardouin 
considers it the same with the river Valo, which is mentioned by Ptolemy, 
B. iv. c. 1, and said to have its rise in the mountains known as the Seven 
Brothers, and mentioned in B. v. c. 1. 
3 ''Prse se ferentes," probably alluding to the use which the animal 
makes of its trunk in seizing and carrying bodies. — B. 
* Alienae religionis." The meaning of this is doubtful. It may mean 
differences in religion," or religious feeling in others,*' or perhaps, to 
judge from the context, the religious regard for their oath which others 
feel." 
