Chap. II. of the East Indies. 49$ 
concerning it, 23, The Chameleon particularly defcribed 3 its remarkable Properties f and the Caufes of 
■ thofe Errors that have been fpread about it. 24. Of the Ants of India, the Wonders related of them , and 
- how far they are fuf ported by Fa bis. 2 j\ Various Remarks , curious Objervations , on this Subjell. 
|T has, in the foregoing Sections, been fully fhewn, 
I that the People of the Indies were very Angu- 
&. lar in ail refpects. This, tho’ it might be, in 
I fome meafure, due to Education, and other Accidents, 
1 yet ought to be chiefly afcribcd to their Nature and Con- 
1 ifitutions, fince we, know by Experience, that the Cha- 
i rafters given of molt Nations by antient Authors, are 
, excellent Pictures of them, even at this Day. To fay 
t the Truth, India was alike Angular in all things, and par- 
I ticularly happy in one, that while the reft of the World 
earneftly preffed through all Obftacles, to come at a Share 
; of her Riches, the Inhabitants of India themfelves felt no In- 
clination to wander, and were never compelled by any kind 
of Wants, to go and proclaim their Indigence in foreign 
, Climates. The accurate Defcription of the Singularities 
> and Riches, with which this Country abounded, was natu- 
t rally the Work of every Traveller, and of every Author 
: too, that pretended to write any thing of a Region fo re- 
markable. 
Amongft thefe, it is natural to fuppofe, that, next to the 
: Men, the Animals ftruck them fir ft; and of thefe, that Ani- 
mal moft, which of all the reft was, in every refped, the 
moft extraordinary. This, without Queftion, was the 
Elephant, a Creature found only in the Indies , and in the 
Southern Provinces of Africa . The Indian Elephant, 
however, was, in every refped, fuperior, not only in the 
Eyes of Men, but even of thofe Creatures themfelves, if 
we may credit what fome Authors relate a . 
Thele Creatures are, generally fpeaking, either of 
a dark Colour, or of a white ; but the latter are very 
r rare. 
Their Bodies are heavy and grofs, and far enough from 
being beautiful in their Appearance : Their Eyes are like 
thofe of a Hog ; their Legs and Feet referable Columns ; 
yet they bend their Fore-legs, when they reft themfelves, 
or fieep : They cannot bend their Heads, or turn their 
Necks ; their Ears lie pretty much behind, and are very 
. clofe : Their Trunk is as long as their Fore-legs, and 
reaches down to the Ground ; it is ftrong, tough, and 
hollow ; they can open and fhut it, and by the Help of 
litde Caruncles, like fmall Points, they are able to take up 
any thing ; a Pin, for Inftance, or a Grain of Muftard- 
leed : They make ufe of their Trunks in Eating and 
Drinking, conveying with them what they take into their 
Mouths. The whole Force of the Animal chiefly confifts 
in this Member, in which if he be deeply wounded, the 
Creature dies. There lies behind the Ear a little Cavity, 
covered with a Membrane, no thicker than the Head of 
a Drum, and any Wound in that Part alfo is mortal. At 
the two Corners of the Mouth grow two large Teeth, and 
between thefe the Trunk is placed, in the Male : Thefe 
I Tufhes, or large Teeth, are fix or feven Foot long ; but in 
the female Elephants, they rarely exceed a Foot. They 
feed on Grafs, Nuts, Sugar-canes, and other things of a 
like Nature ; and they are chiefly afraid of Smoke or Fire, 
of the Lion, and of fome kind of Serpents b . 
They are naturally as wild as Tygers, or any other 
Beafts ; and are therefore, like them, caught by Hunting, 
by that Call of Indians , which, as we have before fhewn, 
made this Exercife a Part of their Profeffion. The Man- 
ner in which they hunted them, is very remarkable, and 
thus related by good Authors : In the firft Place, they in- 
; clofed a Plain fome what lefs than a Mile over, with a large 
and deep Ditch, over which, in feveral Places, there were 
wooden Bridges ; and in the midft, there were Cabins 
creeled for the Reception of the Elephants. Into this In- 
tclofure they conducted fome female Elephants, to whom 
the Males were fure to come in the Night : As boon as the 
Hunn men. heard them, they withdrew, and took up the 
Bridges, fummoning the Inhabitants of the neighbouring 
Villages, to affift in bringing them away. Some Days 
after, when they judged them to be fufficiently weakened 
by Hunger and Thirft, they returned, mounted upon tame 
Elephants, with which they purfued and fatigued them, till 
they were quite fpent. Then they bridled them, and gave 
them fome Cuts over their Jaws, and over their Neck, that 
they might humble them more effectually ; and then, 
mounting them, they forced them, by Blows, to proceed 
to their Stables c . 
They ufed, befides this, another Method as Angular as 
the former : They hunted them out of the Foreft with a 
great Noife, and drove them before them all Day long : 
When it was Evening, they drove them back again ; but, 
in the mean time, the Huntfmen had taken care to fet the 
Brushwood on the Skirts of the Foreft, on Fire. The Ele- 
phants, being extremely afraid of that Element, when they 
drew near the Flames, were fo aftonifhed, that they ftood 
ftock-ftill, and buffered themfelves to be eafily taken ; and 
then they beat them till they grew tame. This, however, 
feldom anfwered the End at once ; and, therefore, to com- 
plete the Buftnefs, they faftened them to Pillars, and there, 
by Hunger and Beating, made them perfectly tame. 
Sometimes, however, the Lofs of their Liberty threw them 
into fo deep a Melancholy, that they began to pine and 
languifh, refufing all Suftenance, and feeming difpofed to 
feek a Remedy for their ill Ufage in Death. Their Keepers, 
in this cafe, had Recourfe to Singing and MuAc ; which 
foon diffipated the Grief of the Animal, and brought it to 
its Stomach again d . 
Pliny affures us, that the Troglodytes, who live on the 
Frontiers of Ethiopia , and who hunted thefe Creatures 
merely for the fake of feeding upon them, did it in quite 
another manner : They got up into high Trees, and there 
they waited the coming of the Elephants in Herds : They 
buffered all to pafs them but the hind moft ; upon which he 
who had the moft Courage, and was efteemed moft adive, 
leapt down on the Back of this Elephant ; and, ftriking his 
Heels into the Creature’s Sides, and laying hold of the 
Tail with his Left Hand, he fat faft : Then bending back- 
wards, with a Hatchet, which he held in his Right, he ham- 
ftringed the Elephant on one Side ; and as he grew faint 
thro’ Lofs of Blood, and began to flacken his Pace, the 
Man got down, and took his Leave with another Stroke 
with his Hatchet, at the Sinews on the other Side. He 
afterwards tracked the Elephant by his Blood ; and, having’ 
found where the Creature lay, feized him when dying, and 
cut him to Pieces e . Of this Sort of Venifon thefe Troglo- 
dytes were fo fond, that they feldom eat any thing elfe : 
Nor would they liften to any Propofals that were made them 
by Ptolemy Philadelphia , to forbear deftroying Elephants ; 
for the preferving and taming of which, that Monarch had 
a particular Paftion. The Elephants in the Indies were 
never hunted in this barbarous manner. 
2. The modem Method of hunting Elephants is parti- 
cularly defcribed by the Embaffadors lent by the late Louis 
XIV. to the King of Siam. They fay that it is a Di- 
verAon in its Nature truly Royal ; and from their Account 
of it, the Reader will be probably of the fame Opinion, 
The Ground originally encompaffed, fay they, is in Ex- 
tent near twenty Leagues ; and this is bounded by a double 
Row of Fires, which burn all Night. At each Fire, that 
is to fay, at the Diftance of about ten Yards, there are two 
Men polled with Pikes ; and the intervening Space is Ailed 
up by Elephants trained to War, and fmall Pieces of Can- 
non. When the Hunting begins, a Body of armed Men 
enter theinclofed Space, and by degrees proceed to ftreighten 
the wild Beafts. The Fire, the Elephants, and the fmall 
Pieces of Cannon, gradually advance, till fuch time as they 
are very near the wild Elephants ; and then they begin to 
attack them with their Lances. When one of them is fur- 
rounded, and taken, the War Elephants, which are trained 
for this Purpofe, place themfelves on each Side of him ; 
Bochart. Hier. p. x. lih. Ii . T. liv. lib. xxxvii. c. 39. Plin. Nat.HiJl. lib. viii. 
coan £ of China. c Strabo , lib. xv. Arrian* in lnditis. Philo fir at. lih „ ii. 
BUn, Nat, Hijt. lib, viii. 
b This Defcription is taken from a Manufcript Ac- 
Plin. lih. viii. d Mandelflo’s Travels, p, 3x9, 
and 
