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any of the English clergy attended such sports. I said it was a maxim with most of us to do no harm to any creature needlessly: which was, he said, the 'doctrine of their learned men also."*. At the palace of Jyepoor, says the same humane person, we were shown five or six elephants in training for a fight. Each was separately kept in a small paved court, with a little litter, but very dirty. They were all what is called 'must,' that is, fed on stimulating substances to make them furious; and all showed in their eyes, their gaping mouths, and the constant motion of their trunks, signs of fever and restlessness. Their mohouts seemed to approach them with great caution; and on hearing a step they turned round as far as their chains would allow, and lashed fiercely with their trunks. I was moved and disgusted at the sight of so noble creatures, thus maddened and diseased by the absurd cruelty of man, in order that they might for his diversion inflict fresh pain and injuries on each other."+ In the combats of elephants, according to Mr. Craw. furd, "after a rencounter, which does not last above a few seconds, one of the parties is sure to run away." At Ava, the elephants, bearing riders, are fought across a stout påling. They are brought up to the charge with much spirit, but often refuse to engage. They have but one mode of fighting; they butt with the forehead, and endeavour to wound each other with their tusks. The following account of an elephant fight is from Bernier :

"The festivals generally conclude with an amusement unknown in Europe; a combat between two elephants, which takes place in the presence of all * Journal, vol. iii., p. 11. + Ibid., vol. ii., p. 405.

the people, on the sandy space near the river; the king, the principal ladies of the court, and the omrahs, viewing the spectacle from different apartments in the fortress.

"A wall of earth is raised three or four French feet wide, and five or six high, The two ponderous beasts meet one another face to face, on opposite sides of the wall, each having a couple of riders, that the place of the man who sits on the shoulders, for the purpose of guiding the elephant with a large hook, may be immediately supplied if he should be thrown down. The riders animate the elephants either by soothing words, or by chi. ding them as cowards, and urge them on with their heels, until the poor creatures approach the wall and are brought to the attack. The shock is tremendous, and it appears surprising that they ever survive the dreadful wounds and blows inflicted with their teeth, their heads, and their trunks. There are frequent pauses during the fight; it is suspended and renewed; and the mud wall being, at length thrown down, the stronger or more courageous elephant passes on and attacks his opponent, and, putting him to flight, pursues and fastens upon him with so much obstinacy, that the animals can be separated only by means of cherkys, or fireworks, which are made to explode between them; for they are naturally timid, and have a particular dread of fire, which is the reason why elephants have been used with so very little advantage in armies since the use of firearms. The boldest come from Ceylon, but none are employed in war which have not been regularly trained, and accustomed for years to the discharge of muskets close to their heads, and the bursting of crackers between their legs.

"The fight of these noble creatures is attended with much cruelty. It frequently happens that some of the riders are trodden under foot and "killed on the spot, the elephant having always cunning enough to feel the importance of dismounting the rider of his adversary, whom he therefore endeavours to strike down with his trunk. So immi. nent is the danger considered, that on the day of combat the unhappy men take the same formal leave of their wives and children as if condemned to death. They are somewhat consoled by the reflection, that if their lives should be preserved, and the king be pleased with their conduct, not only will their pay be augmented, but a sack of peyssas (equal to fifty francs) will be presented to them the moment they alight from the elephant. They have also the satisfaction of knowing that, in the event of their death, the pay will be continued to the widows, and that their sons will be appointed to the same situation. The mischief with which this amusement is attended does not always terminate with the death of the rider: it often happens that some of the spectators are knocked down and trampled upon by the elephants or by the crowd; for the rush is terrible when, to avoid the infuriated combatants, men and horses in confusion take to flight. The second time I witnessed this exhibi. tion, I owed my safety to the goodness of my horse and the exertions of my two servants."*

The barbarous sports of the amphitheatre appear to have furnished the chief amusements of the luxurious princes of the Mogul empire. About the middle of the seventeenth century, "the daily *Travels, vol. i., p. 314.

diversions of the Mogul, except on Fridays, were to see the lions, leopards, tigers, and elephants fight with each other."* These exhibitions were varied in every mode that an ingenious cruelty could de. vise. "Some elephants," says Covert, "fight with wild horses, six horses to an elephant, which he kills with clasping his trunk about their necks, and, pulling them to him, breaks their necks with his teeth." It is not uncommon to fight elephants with tigers. The accounts of the courage display. ed by the elephant on these occasions are some. what contradictory. At Saigon, in Cochin China, a combat of this nature was exhibited before Mr. Crawfurd, where the tiger was muzzled and his claws torn out, and yet the first elephant was wounded and put to flight. The tiger was at length killed by successive tosses upon the tusks of his adversaries; and, when he was perfectly dead, an elephant seized the carcass with his proboscis, and threw it to a distance of thirty feet. Fa ther Tachard, on the contrary, saw a similar fight at Siam, in which the tiger was wounded and driven away upon the first onset. These differences in conduct doubtless arise, in some degree, from the differences in the tempers of the individual animals. At the lion-fight at Warwick, one lion played with the dogs that attacked him, while the other destroyed them in an instant. Different de grees of training may also produce considerable varieties of behaviour in the elephant when he en. counters an enemy. A strange terror is always the most formidable to him. "An English dog seized an elephant by the trunk, and kept his hold

Albert de Mandelsloe's Travels.