d6i The Difcovery, Settlement, and Commerce Book 1. 
At that Seafon of the Year, which is their Rutting- time, 
in the Woods, the Elephants are apt to be furious ; and 
then, from being the mild eft, be becomes the maddeft and 
molt mifchievous oi all Creatures, killing any that come in 
his Way, even fuch as he had before the greateft Affedlion 
for-, and, when he returns to his ufual Temper, will fome- 
times grieve himfell to Death for the Lofs of them. This 
is, certainly, a very remarkable Inftance of their Servfe, 
and of their Companion. There are, however, much 
higher Virtues afcnbed to them by Pliny , who allures us, 
that they give vifible Marks ol their religious Sentiments, 
by worfhipping the Moon, and by totting up Herbs and 
Leaves towards Heaven, when they lie lick in the Woods, 
as if they meant to implore Mercy and Protedbion. This 
is {training things beyond all Bounds, and hurts the Credit 
ol all the other Fabts he relates ; but it mult be confidered, 
that Pliny generally exhaufts his Subjedts ; and, that he 
may not idem ignorant of anything, relates whatever came 
to his Knowledge, whether probable or not. Yet it mull 
be allowed, that Pliny is not the only Author who fpeaks 
of the Religion of Elephants *, the Mohammedans are fully 
perfuaded ol it ; and allure us, that it was owing to the 
Piety of an Elephant, that the Temple of Mecca was once 
left Handing and that, from this Elephant, others of a like 
Nature are defcended, as will be hereafter feen. 
5. But there is another Virtue yet unmentioned, which, 
if we may afford any Credit to Antiquity, juftly merits 
our Admiration ; and this is the Modefty of the Elephant : 
And, in regard to this, almoft all Writers are agreed, 
from whom we have any Account of this Animal, or its 
Nature a . It is Jikewife aliened, that the Elephant has a 
natural Abhorrence for Adultery ; of which many extraor- 
dinary Inftances are given, partcularly thefe. 
An Indian , who was grown weary of his old Wife, killed 
her ; and, to conceal this barbarous Fact, buried her Body in 
the Stable of his Ekphant. A few Days after, the Elephant, 
feeing a new Miftrefs about the Houfe, took her gently 
by the Arm with his Trunk, and led her to the Place 
where her Predeteffor was interred. Having opened the 
Grave with his Trunk, and expofed the Body of his de- 
ceafed Miftrefs to her View, as if he intended to acquaint 
her thereby with the Danger fhe was in, he then permitted 
her to depart b . 
Another Elephant, in the fame Country, killed the 
Wife of his Matter with her Paramour, as a Teftimony 
of his Fidelity. And it is faid, that, in the Reign of 
f Titus Vefpafian , it was a known Thing to all Rome , that 
an Elephant covered his Miftrefs and her Lover vrith a 
Garment, as if by that Ablion he meant to have taught 
them more Modefty, at leaft, in his Prefence c . 
As to thefe Facts, they muft reft upon the Authority of 
thefe Authors, who relate them : But, with refpebt to fome 
Opinions that were entertained by the Antients, with regard 
to this Animal, they were not only improbable, butfalfe : 
As for Inftance, that this Creature had no Joints, and 
therefore llept Handing ; which is not only alferted by 
Arifiotle , but aifo by Diodorus Siculus , Strabo , and other 
Authors, though abfolutely incompatible with their Motion 
in the Woods, which is allowed to be very quick ; and 
their walking on Ropes in public Shews, which is affirmed 
by Suetonius in the Lives of Nero and Galba. It was alfo 
an old Opinion, probably before Elephants were brought 
into the Weft, that the Ivory they produced was their 
Horns. Pliny , among other ftrange Things he relates of 
them, afferts, that there is nothing terrifies them more 
than the Grunting of Hogs ; whereas it is certain, that in 
the Woods of Malabar they feed with, and live conftantly 
in the Company of Swine d . 
But, perhaps, there is nothing ftranger among the Stories 
told of them, than that which Sir Thomas Brown , who 
has taken much Pains to refute other Miftakes about them. 
is himfelf inclined to believe poffible ; which is, that they 
may be taught to fpeak ; for which he affigns two Reafons: 
Firft, the Affinity of Knowledge in this Animal ; and,* 
next, the Fitnefs of its Organs for that Purpofe ; as to 
which he reafons thus : Since broad and thick Chaps are 
required in Birds that fpeak ; fmce Lips and Teeth are 
alfo Organs of Speech, there is a particular Advantage j a 
Quadrupeds, and a Proximity of Reafon in Elephants 
and Apes above them all e . Such are the Sentiments of 
this learned Man ; which fufficiently ihew, that it is a very 
difficult Thing to affign the Bounds of Credibility and In- 
credibility, when one, who, in other Cafes, refufes to be 
bound almoft by any Authority, is yet inclined to admit 
thereof in fuch an Inftance as this. 
6. It does not appear from any Writer of Antiquity, by 
what Name the Elephant was called in the Language of 
the Indians ; but we know that in Arabic they make 
ufe of Fil to fignify this Animal, which is probably de- 
rived from the Perfic Word PH, which, in the Tongue 
of the old Inhabitants of Perfia , fignifies an Elephant : 
And hence the antient Fabulift Pilpay, whofe Works are 
fo famous throughout the Eaft, derived his Name, which 
implies an Elephant’s Foot, and, perhaps, was given 
him on account of his having a fvvelled Leg or Foot ; as 
there is a Difeafe in Egypt, called Elephantiafis , becaufe 
the Patients Legs fwell fo, as to refemble an Elephant’s in 
Size and Stiffnefs. According to the oriental Hiftorians, 
Feridcun , one of the Kings of Perfia , of the firft Dy- 
nafty, was the original Tamer of Elephants ; but this 
muft be underftood of the Ufe of Elephants in that King- 
dom : For, as to the taming them in India , we find it at- 
tributed, by all Authors, to the Indian Bacchus , that is, 
to the molt antient Monarch in that Country, and who is 
looked upon as the Author of civil Society alfo : Whence 
it is evident, that the Ufe of Elephants is as old in that 
Country as Government itfelf f . 
It was for this Reafon that they had always more, and 
better difciplined Elephants in their Service, than any of 
the Princes ol the Eaft fo that when the Mohammedan 
Sultan became powerful in Arabia and Perfia, they im- 
pofed upon the Kings of the Indies a Tribute of Ele- 
phants, in which they imitated the Policy of the Greeks 
and Romans , and with the fame Succefs ; for, by the 
Help ol thefe Elephants, their Armies became extremely 
terrible to other Nations ; though, from the peaceable 
Difpofition of the Indian Princes, they made no great 
Figure in that Country where they were bred. As the Mo- 
hammedans were, originally, a People of very grofs Con- 
ceptions, fo, when they were informed, that in certain 
Provinces of the Indies the Elephants were accuftomed 
to knee], they, from thence, entertained the fame Notion 
which the Antients had done, viz. that thefe Creatures had 
fome Notions of Religion; and, therefore, in the Year 
of the Hegyra 405, Sultan Mahmoud , who was Author of 
the Dynafty of the Gaznevides , made War upon an In- 
dian Prince in favour of thefe Mufulmans , and conquered 
his Dominions g . 
It is related, by many great Authors, as a Fabt not to 
be bifputecl, that the Indians believe the Globe of the 
World is fupported by a great Elephant which very pro- 
bably took Rife from a Proverb of theirs to that Purpofe, 
which certainly meant no more, than that the Power, and 
perhaps the Commerce, of their Country depended, in a 
great meafure, upon Elephants ; which, being expreffed 
metaphorically, gave Rife to the upbraiding them with the 
Belief of this Fable. In this refpebb, indeed, I have 
often fufpebted, that, when we deride the Folly and Stu- 
pidity of the Eaftern Nations, for giving into fuch ridi- 
culous Opinions, it is very doubtful at leaft, on which 
Side this Ignorance lies; for very often we miftake Fables for 
Fabts, and afcribe to them, as their real Sentiments, what 
a This Virtue in the Elephant is largely infilled on by JElian de Animalibus , lib. viii. cap 17. but, for fome particular Reafons, I chufe to give 
the Pafiage in Latin : Spue?nadmodu?n rnoderati Elephanti fnas libidines contineant, explicare convenit. Ii igitur ab omni immoderata Hbidine cafijfmi 
funt. txunquam enim neque <vi aut proternjius, neque nimis lafcinse, focietatem ‘veneris cum fce?nina faciunt : fed tamquam generis fucceffone carentes , 
liberis procreandis dant operam ; fee bi, fuafiirps ut ne deficiat, cotnplexii <ve 7 iereo junguntur ; Neque id fane plufquam feme l in <vita , & eo dumtaxat 
tempore quitm fee iniri faeminee patiuntur. Ut autem quifque eorum uxorem impleajerit , non earn amplius attingit. Apert e porro ac palam in aliorum ocu- 
lis non coeunt , fed fecedentes , aut fefe in arbor es denfas & frequentes ocadtant, aut in concavum locum A profundum , ad occult andos eos idoneum, ab~ 
dunt. Here de Elephantorum temperantia. b JElian, lib. xi. cap. 15. c Idem ibid, ^ Arif at. de Nat. Anim . lib . vi. 
P/in. Nat Hi ft. lib. viii. All the Portuguefe Voyages in general afiert their living with Swine. e Brown's Vulgar Errors, Book iii. cap. 1. 
f Strabo, lib. xv. Arrian, in India’s. 2 D'Herbelot Bibliotheque Orieniafe, p. 349. 
4 
arc 
