To those who are desirous of further particulars
on the numerous battles among the
successors of Alexander,—among the Romans,
the Carthaginians, and the later nations of the
East, in which elephants were employed, we
can recommend the work of Colonel Armandi,
as one full of curious, entertaining, and learned
information.

The use of elephants in armies was abandoned
from a variety of causes, not the least
of which was the difficulty of obtaining a supply,
to say nothing of the amount of provender
required to be carried to feed them
during a long march. The very sight of these
animals in process of time became uncommon.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the
first of these animals which was seen in Italy
was sent by the Caliph Haroun Alraschid as
a present to Charlemagne, who so highly
esteemed the gift, that he named the creature
Aboul-Abbas, after the first caliph of the race
of the Abbassides. This almost equals the
"Pure King," and the "Wonderful King" of
the royal enthusiast of Siam.

In their social relations, the ancestors of Bibi
Sahibeh must be regarded as objects of
considerable interest, and even of admiration,—
whether we regard them as ministering to
the grandeur of state occasions, to the luxuries
and amenities of private life, or in the more
arduous capacity of theatrical performers. In
the festive games given by Germanicus, we
learn from Ælian, that they often enacted a
sham fight with excellent intelligence and
effect, that they danced the Pyrrhic, and, to
crown all, enacted a pantomine. This is
seriously asserted by the above historian; but
we must, of course, understand that it bore no
resemblance to our modern pantomines, in
which the presentation of the parts of Harlequin
and Columbine would have been too
much to expect of the most accomplished
elephant. Pliny gives an account of a scene
enacted by them, in which four of them carried
a fifth in a litter, who represented a lady
taking the air, after having been in a delicate
situation. Others ranged themselves in a seated
posture at a great banquet table, and eat
their food from large plates of gold and silver,
with portentous gravity, that excessively
delighted the spectators. But the master-
feat of all, is related by Pliny (Hist. Nat. viii.
2, 3.), and by Suetonius (Nero, ii., and
Galba, 6.), both of whom assure us that
an elephant danced on the tight-rope! He
walked up a slanting tight-rope, from the
bottom of the arena to the top of the amphitheatre;
and, on one great occasion, a man was
found, daring enough, and confident enough
in the performer's skill, to sit upon his back
while he made the perilous ascent. The
dreadfully careful expression of the elephant's
countenance, while doing this, must have been
both painful and interesting to the highest
degree. If we must believe this story—and
we confess that it is difficult—we would suggest
that the elephant, having four legs, might
have been allowed two tight-ropes, placed
side by side, in which case the thing seems
possible. We are not told if he held a great
balancing-pole in his proboscis, though it is
probable that he did, and derived the usual
assistance from it.

The erudite author of the article in the
"Foreign Quarterly," previously quoted,
informs us that Emanuel, King of Portugal, in
1514, made a present of an elephant to Pope
Leo X. The animal had been so well trained
for the occasion, that the moment he was
ushered into the presence of his Holiness, he
made three distinct genuflexions, to the great
astonishment and delight of the Pope, and all
present. This was, indeed, an elephant!—an
unexpected convert to the Holy See. Many
poems in Latin and Italian were made on the
Occasion. Most extraordinary care was taken of
the "Wonderful King;" nevertheless, he died,
after a few months, and his demise is thus
recorded in very exquisite Latin, in the Epistolæ
Obscurorum Virorum, t. i., p. 305. Franc.,
1757. We cannot refrain from quoting the
original:—

"Vos bene audivistis qualiter Papa habuit unum
magnum animal quod vocatum fuit elephas, et
habuit ipsum in magno honore, et valde amavit
illud. Nunc igitur debetis scire quod tale animal
est mortuum. Et quando fuit infirmum, tunc
Papa fuit in magna tristitia, et vocavit medicos
plures, et dixit cis  'Si est possibile, sanate mihi
elephas.' Tunc fecerunt magnam diligentiam, et
viderunt ci urinam, et dederunt ci unam purgationem
qua constat quinque centum aureos: sed
tamen elephas est mortuum, et Papa dolet multum,
et dicunt quod daret mille ducatos pro elephas;
quia fuit mirabile animal, habeus longum rostrum
in magna quantitate; et quando vidit Papam,
tunc geniculavit, et dixit cum terribili voce, Bar,
bar, bar!"

The following translation, in the form of a
little poem, was politely given by Professor
Forbes, for the entertainment of the ladies
present at the conversazione:—

"You have, no doubt, heard that his
Holiness possessed a huge animal which was
called an 'Elephant,' and held him in high
honour, and loved him immensely.

"Now, therefore, you are to learn that this
animal is dead.

"And when it was ailing, the Pope was in
great tribulation, and summoned many doctors
to his presence, and said to them:—  'If it be
possible, restore the elephant to health for
me!'

"Then, made the doctors a great to-do,—
examined his crystal matula, and administered
a black draught, which cost five hundred
crowns of gold (as the doctors declared).

"But, notwithstanding, the elephant is
dead!

"And the Pope cried a good deal; and
they say that he would have given a thousand
ducats for such another elephant—because he
was a wonderful creature, having a long snout