Cliap. 5.1 
ELEPHANTS. 
249 
rior to him in strengtli, size, and swiftness ? "No doubt, such 
is the law of JN'ature, such is the influence of her power — the 
most savage and the very largest of wild beasts have never 
seen that which they have reason to fear, and yet instantly 
have an instinctive feeling of dread, when the moment has come 
for them to fear.^* 
(5.) Elephants always move in herds. The oldest takes 
the lead, and the next in age brings up the rear. When they 
are crossing a river, they first send over the smallest, for fear 
lest the weight of the larger ones may increase the depth 
of the channel, by working away the bed of the river. "We 
learn from Antipater, that King Antiochus had two elephants, 
which he employed in his wars, and to which he had given the 
names of celebrated men ; and that they were aware too of this 
mark of distinction.^^ Cato, in his Annals, while he has passed 
over in silence the names of the generals, has given that of an 
elephant called Surus, which fought with the greatest valour 
in the Carthaginian army, and had lost one of its tusks. 
When Antiochus was sounding the ford of a river, an elephant 
named Ajax, which on other occasions had always led the van, 
refused to enter the stream ; upon which proclamation was 
made, that the first rank should belong to the one which should 
take the lead in passing over. One called Patroclus hazarded 
the attempt, and as a reward, the king presented it with some 
silver pendants, a kind of ornament with which these animals 
are particularly delighted, and assigned it all the other marks of 
2* It is a general opinion, and one founded upon observations of daily 
occurrence, that animals have an instinctive dread of man. We have, 
however, facts stated by travellers of undoubted veracity, which would 
lead to an opposite conclusion. One of the most reijiarkable is the ac- 
count which Denham gives of the tameness of the birds in Lake Tchad. 
— B. 
25 Cuvier observes, that this is correct ; see Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 408, and 
Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 338. — B. 
26 a ;N"overe ea." It is doubtful whether these words do not mean 
something more than merely " knew their names," as Hardouin explains 
it, for that would be nothing wonderful in an elephant. On the other 
hand, to say that they were aware of the honour which had been conferred 
on them, in giving the names of famous men, would be to make a state- 
ment which exceeds belief; for how could the elephants show that they 
appreciated this honour, even supposing that they did appreciate it ? Pliny's 
elliptical style repeatedly gives rise to doubts of this nature. 
27 *'Phaleris." See Notes to B. vii. c. 29, p. 170. 
