ELEPHANT. 
155 
opposed to bulls, and to the rhinoceros. Pliny 
relates that a number of elephants, exhibited in the 
circus by Pompey, when they found themselves des- 
tined to immediate death, made a vigorous, but in- 
effectual effort to break through the iron railing, 
in which they were inclosed. Frustrated in the 
attempt, they, w ith a wailing voice, and in a suppli- 
ant posture, seemed to implore the compassion of 
the spectators ; and so impulsively were the whole 
people affected with the distress and the sensibility 
of those majestic animals, that they, with one as- 
sent, arose, and in tears imprecated destruction on 
the head of the magnificent general who enter- 
tained them with that splendid spectacle ; impre- 
cations, says the historian, which soon after took 
effect. 
The successors of Alexander appear to have 
iong continued the use of elephants in their ar- 
mies. One of the brave Jewish brothers, th€ 
Maccabees, terminated his life in a glorious man- 
ner, by piercing the belly of an elephant, in the 
army of one of those monarclis fighting against 
his countrymen, with a deadly wound, and suffer- 
ing himself to be crushed to death under the fall- 
ing mass. Elephants trained to war among the 
Greeks, had turrets raised on their backs, from 
which troops of armed men annoyed the enemy ; 
while a person, sitting on the neck, directed the 
motions of the elephant, and animated him to 
fight with his trunk. But when scared or wound- 
ed, they disdained all government, and spread 
confusion not less readily among their friends, thas 
through the adverse army. 
The East is the great theatre on which the 
strength, the ingenuity, and the generous qualities 
of this species have been chiefly displayed. Thj« 
Indian princes estimate their power and grandeur 
the number of their elephants. Many of the 
