The Elephant. 
147 
“ Ulysses. The elephant hath joints, hut none for courtesy : 
His legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure.” 
(Troilus and Gressida , ii. 3, 113.) 
4, I hope you are no elephant, you have joints.” 
C All Fools, 1605.) 
Sir Thomas Browne considers this absurd notion 
sufficiently prevalent in his time to be worthy of refuta¬ 
tion. He also notes another fallacy regarding this animal. 
In consequence of its lack of joints it was necessarily 
unable to lie down, and as a substitute for a couch it had 
to lean up against a tree to sleep. Hunters came before 
dusk to saw the tree almost asunder, and when the tired 
animal sought repose the trunk gave way, and once down 
rising was an impossibility. Travellers, who had oppor¬ 
tunities of watching the elephant’s habits, contradict 
this statement as to the joints. Cada Mosto, a Venetian, 
writing in 1509, says:— 
“ Before my voyage to Africa I had been told that the elephant 
could not bend its knee, and slept standing ; but this is an egregious 
falsehood, for the bending of their knees can be plainly perceived when 
they walk, and they certainly lie down and rise again like other 
animals.” 
This author, while correcting one error, gives credit to 
another not less absurd; he says, “ Of the large teeth, or 
rather tusks, each elephant has two in the lower jaw, the 
points of which turn down, whereas those of the wild boar 
are turned up ” ( Kerr's Voyages , vol. ii. p. 233). The 
first elephant seen in England was a specimen brought 
from France in the year 1255. 
Csesar Eredericke, a Venetian merchant, giving an 
account of his travels in the East Indies, mentions the 
white elephant of Siam, an animal as rare as it is 
proverbially expensive. Describing the King of Siam’s 
court at Pegu, he writes :— 
“ Truly it may be a king’s house : withing the gate there is a faire 
large court, from the one side to the other, wherein there are made 
