Chap. 2.] 
ELEPHANTS. 
245 
and when about to cross the sea, they cannot be prevailed 
upon to go on board the ship, until their keeper has promised 
upon oath that they shall return home again. They havfe been 
seen, too, when worn out by disease, (for even these vast masses 
are liable to disease,) lying on their back, and throwing the grass 
up into the air, as if deputing the earth to intercede for them 
with its prayers.^ As a proof of their extreme docility, they 
pay homage to the king, fall upon their knees, and offer him 
the crown. Those of smaller growth, which the Indians call 
bastards/ are employed by them in ploughing.^ 
CHAP. 2. (2.) — WHEN ELEPHANTS WEKE EIEST PUT INTO HAENESS. 
The first harnessed elephants that were seen at Eome, were 
in the triumph of Pompeius Magnus over Africa, when they 
drew his chariot ; a thing that is said to have been done long 
before, at the triumph of Father Liber on the conquest of 
India. Procilius ® says, that those which were used at the 
triumph of Pompeius, were unable to go in harness through 
the gate of the city. In the exhibition of gladiators which 
was given by Germanicus,^ the elephants performed a sort of 
dance with their uncouth and irregular movements. It was a 
common thing to see them throw arrows with such strength, 
that the wind was unable to turn them from their course, to 
imitate among themselves the combats of the gladiators, and 
to frolic through the steps of the Pyrrhic dance. After this, 
^ " Veluti tellure precibus alligata," one, of the harsh metaphorical ex- 
pressions occasionally occurring in Pliny, which it is very dif&cult to trans- 
late, and even perhaps fully to comprehend. — B. 
6 *'Nothi." 
Cuvier remarks, that there are two kinds of elephants, one of which 
attains sixteen feet, and is chiefly known in Cochin China and Tonquin, 
while those that are domesticated in India are seldom more than half that 
height. They are supposed, however, to be only varieties of the same spe- 
cies. Pliny, in B. vi. c. 22, gives an account of the uses which the Indians 
made of the elephant, and of their diiferent sizes, but he does not state 
there that it is the smaller ones only that are employed in agriculture. — B. 
* Plutarch informs us, that Pompey had resolved to have his chariot 
drawn by four elephants, but finding the gate too narrow, he was obliged 
to use horses. — B. 
^ See an account of this, and of the feats performed by the elephants, in 
^lian, Hist. Anim. B. ii. c. 11.— B. 
10 The Pyrrhic dance has been referred to in the last Book, c. 57. p. 
