118 THE ELEPHANT OF INDIA. 
were thought to be distributed,* a number which, 
at the present time, far exceeds our ideas of even 
eastern magnificence, and when combined with 
the quantity of food, and number of attendants 
requisite, seems more like an oriental tale than 
a reality. They were then used for show, for 
the transport of baggage, and in war. They 
were fed and treated in the most careful and 
luxurious manner, with sugar and rice, and 
long and round pepper, occasionally mixed up 
with milk ; and during the sugar season, each 
Elephant was furnished daily with three hundred 
canes for two months. In the travelling expedi- 
tions of these ancient kings, either for pleasure 
or war, from eight hundred to fifteen hundred 
Elephants were frequently employed in transport- 
ing the emperor’s baggage, besides nearly an 
equal number of camels. Those for the battle 
were separated, caparisoned and protected accord- 
ing to the way they were to be employed, and 
the enemy they were to encounter ; and from two 
thousand to three thousand of these animals were 
not unusual during the eastern wars of the eighth 
and ninth centuries. At the same courts were held 
almost daily the fights of wild beasts, in which 
the Elephants took a prominent part, and numbers 
of these noble animals fell, in giving a barbarous 
gratification to their royal masters. 
* Hawkins, quoted from Ranking. 
