the elephant is the largest of all the land animals, and in intelligence approaches the nearest to man. he understands the language of his country, obeys commands, and remembers all the duties which he has been taught. he is sensible alike of the pleasures of love and glory, and, to a degree that is rare among men even, possesses notions of honesty, prudence, and equity; he has a religious respect also for the stars, and a veneration for the sun and the moon.[79] it is said by some authors, that, at the first appearance of the new moon, herds of these animals come down from the forests of mauritania to a river, the name of which is amilo; and that they there purify themselves in solemn form by sprinkling their bodies with water; after which, having thus saluted the heavenly body, they return to the woods, carrying before them the young ones which are fatigued. they are supposed 61 to have a notion, too, of the differences of religion; and when about to cross the sea, they cannot be prevailed upon to go on board the ship until their keeper has promised upon oath that they shall return home again. they have been seen, too, when worn out by disease, lying on their backs and throwing the grass up into the air, as if deputing the earth to intercede for them with its prayers. as a proof of their extreme docility, they pay homage to the king, fall upon their knees, and offer him the crown.
the first harnessed elephants that were seen at rome, were in the triumph of pompey the great over africa, when they drew his chariot; a thing that is said to have been done long before, at the triumph of father liber on the conquest of india. procilius[80] says, that those which were used at the triumph of pompey were unable to go in harness through the gate of the city. in the exhibition of gladiators which was given by germanicus, the elephants performed a sort of dance with their uncouth and irregular movements. it was a common thing to see them throw arrows with such strength, that the wind was unable to turn them from their course, to imitate among themselves the combats of the gladiators, and to frolic through the steps of the pyrrhic dance. after this, too, they walked upon the tight-rope,[81] and four of them would carry a litter in which lay a fifth, who pretended to be ill. they afterwards took their places at table, reclining upon couches which were filled with people; and so nicely did they manage their steps, that they did not so much as touch any of those who were drinking there.
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it is a well-known fact,[82] that one of these animals, who was slower than usual in learning what was taught him, and had been frequently chastised with blows, was found conning over his lesson in the night-time. it is a most surprising thing also, that the elephant is able not only to walk up the tight-rope backwards, but to come down it as well, with the head foremost. mutianus, who was three times consul, informs us that one of these animals had been taught to trace the greek letters, and that he used to write in that language the following words: “i have myself written these words, and have dedicated the celtic spoils.”[83] mutianus states also, that he himself was witness to the fact, that when some elephants were being landed at puteoli and were compelled to leave the ship, being terrified at the length of the platform, which extended from the vessel to the shore, they walked backwards, in order to deceive themselves by forming a false estimate of the distance.
these animals are well aware that the only spoil that we are anxious to procure of them is the part which forms their weapon of defence, by juba called their horns, but by herodotus, a much older writer, as well as by general usage and more appropriately, their teeth. hence it is that, when their tusks have fallen off, either by accident or from old age, they bury them in the earth.[84] these tusks form the only real ivory, and, even in these, the part which is covered by the flesh is merely common bone, and of no value whatever; though, indeed, of late, in consequence of the insufficient supply 63 of ivory, they have begun to cut the bones as well into thin plates. large teeth, in fact, are now rarely found, except in india, the demands of luxury[85] having exhausted all those in our part of the world. the youthfulness of the animal is ascertained by the whiteness of the teeth. these animals take the greatest care of their teeth; they pay especial attention to the point of one of them, that it may not be found blunt when wanted for combat; the other they employ for various purposes, such as digging up roots and pushing forward heavy weights. when they are surrounded by the hunters, they place those in front which have the smallest teeth, that the enemy may think that the spoil is not worth the combat; and afterwards, when they are weary of resistance, they break off their teeth, by dashing them against a tree, and in this manner pay their ransom.[86]
it is a wonderful thing, that most animals are aware why it is that they are sought after, and what it is, that, under all circumstances, they have to guard against. when an elephant happens to meet a man in the desert, who is merely wandering about, the animal, it is said, shows himself both merciful and kind, and even points out the way. but the very same animal, if he meets with the traces of a man, before he meets the man himself, trembles in every limb, for fear of an ambush, stops short and scents the wind, looks around him, and snorts aloud with rage; and then, without trampling upon the object trodden upon, digs it up, and passes it to the next one, who again passes it to the one that follows, and so on from one to the other, till it comes to the very last. the herd then faces about, returns, and ranges itself in order of battle; so strongly does the odor, in all cases, attach itself to 64 the human footstep, even though, as is most frequently the case, the foot itself is not naked. in the same way, too, the tigress, which is the dread of the other wild beasts, and which sees, without alarm, the traces even of the elephant itself, is said at once, upon seeing the footsteps of man, to carry off her whelps. how has the animal acquired this knowledge? and where has it seen him before, of whom it stands in such dread? doubt there can be none, that forests such as it haunts are but little frequented by man! it is not to be wondered at, if they are astonished at the print of a footstep before unknown; but how should they know that there is anything that they ought to dread? and, what is still more, why should they dread even the very sight of man, seeing that they are so far superior to him in strength, size, and swiftness? no doubt, such is the law of nature, such is the influence of her power—the most savage and the very largest of wild beasts have never seen that which they have reason to fear, and yet instantly have an instinctive feeling of dread, when the moment has come for them to fear.
elephants always move in herds. the oldest takes the lead, and the next in age brings up the rear. when they are crossing a river, they first send over the smallest, for fear lest the weight of the larger ones may increase the depth of the channel, by working away the bed of the river. we learn from antipater, that king antiochus had two elephants, which he employed in his wars, and to which he had given the names of celebrated men; and that they were aware too of this mark of distinction. cato, in his annals, while he has passed over in silence the names of the generals, has given that of an elephant called surus, which fought with the greatest valor in the carthaginian army, and had lost one of its tusks. when antiochus was sounding the ford of a river, an elephant named ajax, which on other occasions had always led the van, refused to enter the stream; upon which proclamation was made, that the first rank should 65 belong to the one which should take the lead in passing over. one called patroclus hazarded the attempt, and as a reward, the king presented it with some silver pendants, a kind of ornament with which these animals are particularly delighted, and assigned it all the other marks of command. upon this, the elephant that had been degraded refused to take its food, and so preferred death to ignominy. indeed their sense of shame is wonderful, and when one of them has been conquered, it flies at the voice of the conqueror, and presents him with earth and vervain.
nor ought we to be surprised that such an animal should be sensible of affection: for juba relates, that an elephant recognized, after the lapse of many years, an old man who had been its keeper in his youth. they would seem also to have an instinctive feeling of justice. king bocchus once fastened thirty elephants to the stake, with the determination of wreaking his vengeance on them, by means of thirty others; but though men kept sallying forth among them to goad them on, he could not, with all his endeavors, force them to become the ministers of the cruelty of others.
elephants were seen in italy, for the first time, in the war with king pyrrhus, in the year of the city 472; they were called “lucanian oxen,” because they were first seen in lucania. seven years after this period, they appeared at rome in a triumph. in the year 502 a great number of them were brought to rome, which had been taken by the pontiff metellus, in his victory gained in sicily over the carthaginians.[87] one hundred and forty-two of them were conveyed to our shores upon rafts, which were constructed on rows of hogsheads joined together. verrius informs us, that they fought in the circus, and that they were slain with javelins, for want of some better method of disposing of them; as the people neither liked to keep them nor yet to give them to the kings.
