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But it is not for drawing burdens alone that the elephants are serviceable in war; they are, in the East, often brought into the ranks, and compelled to fight in the most dangerous parts of the field of battle: they are led, armed before with coats of mail, and loaded on the back each with a square tower, containing from five combatants to seven. Upon its neck sits the conductor, who goads the animal into the thickest ranks, and encourages it to increase the devastation; *wherever it goes, nothing can withstand its fury; it levels the ranks with its immense bulk, flings such as oppose it into the air, or crushes them to death under its feet. In the mean time, those who are placed upon its back combat as from an eminence, and fling down their weapons with double force, their weight being added to their velocity. Nothing, therefore, can be more dreadful, or more irresistible, than such a moving machine, to men unacquainted with the modern arts of war; the elephant, thus armed and conducted, raging in the midst of a field of battle, inspires more terror than even those machines that destroy at a distance, and are often most fatal when most unseen.

The strength of an elephant is equal to its bulk, for it can, with great ease, draw a load that six horses could not move: it can readily carry upon its back three or four thousand weight; upon its tusks alone it can support nearly a thousand. Its force may also be estimated from the velocity of its motion, compared to the mass of its body. It can go, in its ordinary pace, as fast as a horse at an easy trot; and, when pushed, it can move as swiftly as a horse at full gallop. It can travel with ease fifty or sixty miles a day; and when hard pressed, almost double that distance. It may be heard trotting on at a great distance; it is easy also to follow it by its track, which is deeply impressed on the ground, and from fifteen to eighteen inches in diameter.

In India they are also put to other very disagreeable offices, for in some courts of the more barbarous princes, they are used as executioners; and this horrid task they perform with great dexterity. With their trunks they are seen to break every limb of the criminal at the word of command; they sometimes trample him to death, and sometimes impale him on their tusks, as directed. In this, the elephant is rather the servant of a cruel master, than a voluntary tyrant, since no other animal of the forest is so naturally benevolent and gentle; equally mindful of benefits as sensible of neglect, he contracts a friendship for his keeper, and obeys him to the utmost of his capacity.

*And that they might provoke the elephants to fight, they showed them the blood of grapes and mulberries. 1 Mac. vi. 34.

† And upon the beasts there were strong towers of wood, which covered each of them, and were girt fast to them by mechanical devices: there were also upon each of them, two and thirty strong men, who fought upon them, beside the Indian that ruled them.' 1 Mac. vi. 37.

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come; for their journey often lasts them several weeks, and their abstinence continues till their journey is accomplished.

The driest thistle and the barest thorn, are all the food this useful quadruped requires; and even these, to save time, he eats while advancing on his journey, without stopping or occasioning a moment of delay. As it is his lot to cross immense deserts where no water is found, and countries not even moistened with the dew of heaven, he is endued with the power, at one watering place, to lay in a store, with which he supplies himself for thirty days to come. To contain this enormous quantity of fluid, nature has formed large cisterns within him, from which, once filled, he draws at pleasure the quantity he wants, and pours it into his stomach, with the same effect as if he then drew it from the spring.

Notwithstanding that the camel is so extremely revengeful as to bear in mind, and resent in the most terrible manner any injury it may have sustained, its patience is the most extraordinary. Its sufferings seem to be great; for when it is overloaded, it sends forth the inost lamentable cries, but never offers to resist the tyrant who oppresses it. At the slightest signs it bends its knees, and lies upon its belly, suffering itself to be loaded in this position; at another sign it rises with its load, and the driver getting upon its back, encourages the animal to proceed with his voice and with a song.

Throughout Turkey, Persia, Egypt, Arabia, Barbary, and various other contiguous countries, all kinds of merchandise are car

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ried by camels, which, of all conveyances, is the most expeditious, and attended with the least expence. Merchants and other travellers assemble, and unite in caravans to avoid the insults and robberies of the Arabs. These caravans are often numerous, and are

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