- E.]

Having continued the course of the voyage as described by the before-mentioned pilot, I will now say something of the country and people, and of such things as are brought from thence[211].

[Footnote 211: These subsequent notices seem subjoined by Richard Eden, the original publisher. - E.]

They brought home in this voyage, 400 pounds weight and odd of gold[212], twenty-two carats and one grain fine. Also 36 buts of _grains_, or Guinea pepper, and about 250 elephants teeth of different sizes. Some of these I saw and measured, which were nine spans in length measured along the crook, and some were as thick as a mans thigh above the knee, weighing 90 pounds each, though some are said to have been seen weighing 125 pounds. There were some called the teeth of calves, of one, two, or three years old, measuring one and a-half, two, or three feet, according to the age of the beast. These great teeth or tusks grow in the upper jaw downwards, and not upwards from the lower jaw, as erroneously represented by some painters and _arras_ workers. In this voyage they brought home the head of an elephant of such huge bigness that the bones or cranium only, without the tusks or lower jaw, weighed about two hundred pounds, and was as much as I could well lift from the ground. So that, considering also the weight of the two great tusks and the under jaw, with the lesser teeth, the tongue, the great hanging ears, the long big snout or trunk, with all the flesh, brains, and skin, and other parts belonging to the head, it could not in my opinion weigh less than five hundred weight. This head has been seen by many in the house of the worthy merchant Sir Andrew Judde, where I saw it with my bodily eyes, and contemplated with those of my mind, admiring the cunning and wisdom of the work-master, without which consideration such strange and wonderful things are only curiosities, not profitable subjects of contemplation.

[Footnote 212: Or 4800 ounces, worth, L.18,600 sterling at the old price of L.3 17s. 6d. per ounce; and perhaps worth in those days as much as ninety or an hundred thousand pounds in the present day. - E.]

The elephant, by some called oliphant, is the largest of all four-footed beasts. The fore-legs are longer than those behind; in the lower part or ancles of which he has joints. The feet have each five toes, but undivided. The trunk or snout is so long and of such form that it serves him as a hand, for he both eats and drinks by bringing his food and drink to his mouth by its means, and by it he helps up his master or keeper, and also overturns trees by its strength. Besides his two great tusks, he has four teeth on each side of his mouth, by which he eats or grinds his food, each of these teeth being almost a span long, as they lie along the jaw, by two inches high and about as much in breadth. The tusks of the male are larger than those of the female. The tongue is very small, and so far within the mouth that it cannot be seen. This is the gentlest and most tractable of all beasts, and understands and is taught many things, so that it is even taught to do reverence to kings, being of acute sense and great judgment. When the female is once seasoned, the male never touches her afterwards. The male lives two hundred years, or at least 120, and the female almost as long; but the flower of their age is reckoned 60 years. They cannot endure our winter or cold weather; but they love to go into rivers, in which they will often wade up to their trunk, snuffing and blowing the water about in sport; but they cannot swim, owing to the weight of their bodies. If they happen to meet a man wandering in the wilderness, they will go gently before him and lead him into the right way. In battle they pay much respect to those who are wounded, bringing such as are hurt or weary into the middle of the army where they may be defended. They are made tame by drinking the juice of barley[213].

[Footnote 213: The meaning of this expression is by no means obvious. It is known that in India, arrack, or a spirituous liquor distilled from rice, is given regularly to elephants, which may be here alluded to. - E.]

They have continual war with dragons, which desire their blood because it is very cold; wherefore the dragon lies in wait for the passing of an elephant, winding its tail of vast length round the hind legs of the elephant, then thrusts his head into his trunk and sucks out his breath, or bites him in the ears where he cannot reach with his trunk. When the elephant becomes faint with the loss of blood, he falls down upon the serpent, now gorged with blood, and with the weight of his body crushes the dragon to death. Thus his own blood and that of the elephant run out of the serpent now mingled together, which cooling is congealed into that substance which the apothecaries call _sanguis draconis_ or cinnabar[214]. But there are other kinds of cinnabar, commonly called _cinoper_ or vermillion, which the painters use in certain colours.

[Footnote 214: It is surely needless to say that this is a mere fable. - E.]

There are three kinds of elephants, as of the marshes, the plains, and the mountains, differing essentially from each other. Philostratus writes, that by how much the elephants of Lybia exceed in bigness the horses of Nysea, so much do the elephants of India exceed those of Lybia, for some of the elephants of India have been seen nine cubits high; and these are so greatly feared by the others, that they dare not abide to look upon them.

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