the nicest discipline was used to extinguish whatever was ferocious in their nature, and to call forth their sagacity by undeviating kindness. Particular attention was directed to the effect of music upon them; and they were so accustomed to musical instruments, that they not only lost all dread of the clashing of cymbals, but learnt to feel delight at the gentle notes of flutes, and would beat time with their feet when their ears were gratified with the agreeable sounds to which they were habituated. Their keeper accustomed them also to the sight of great multitudes of people. Upon an occasion when a particular exhibition of the docility of the elephants was required, twelve of the most sagacious and well-trained were selected, who, marching into the theatre with a regular step, at the voice of their keeper moved in harmonious measure, sometimes in a circle, and sometimes divided into parties, scattering flowers over the pavement. In the intervals of the dance, they would beat time to the music, still preserving their proper order. The Romans, with their accustomed luxury, feasted the elephants, after this display, with prodigal magnificence. Splendid couches were placed in the arena, ornamented with paintings, and covered with tapestry. Before the couches, upon tables of ivory and cedar, was spread the banquet of the elephants, in vessels of gold and silver. The preparations being completed, the twelve elephants marched in, six males clad in the robes of men, and six females attired as women. They lay down in order upon their couches, or "Tricliniums of festival recumbency*" and, at a signal, extended their trunks and ate with most praiseworthy moderation. Not one of them, says Ælian, appeared the least voracious, or manifested any disposition for an unequal share of the food, or an undue proportion of *Sir T. Brown.

the delicacies. They were as moderate, also, in their drink, and received the cups which were presented to them with the greatest decorum *. According to Pliny, at the spectacles given by Germanicus, it was not an uncommon thing to see elephants hurl javelins in the air, and catch them in their trunks, fight with each other as gladiators, and then execute a Pyrrhic dance. Lastly, they danced upon a rope, and their steps were so practised and certain, that four of them traversed the rope, bearing a litter which contained one of their companions who feigned to be sick t. This feat of dancing or walking upon a rope, might, perhaps, be doubted, if it rested merely upon the testimony of a single author; but the practice is confirmed by many ancient writers of authority, who agree with Pliny, that the elephants trained at Rome would not only walk along a rope forward, but retire backward with equal precision. Seneca describes an elephant who, at the command of his African keeper, would kneel down, and walk upon a rope‡. Suetonius also mentions, that an elephant, in the presence of the Emperor Galba, climbed up an inclined rope to the roof of the theatre, and descended in the same way, bearing a sitter §. Dion gives a similar testimony to the extraordinary power of so heavy an animal to walk along a rope without any balance-a docility which is the more wonderful, when we bear in mind that one of the strongest instincts which the elephant possesses, is that which impels him to experiment upon the stability of every surface which he is required to cross, before he will trust his body to the * See Ælian de Animalibus, lib. ii. cap. xi. Gesner's translation. Plinii Nat. Hist. lib. viii. c. 2. It is difficult to understand how the elephants could carry a litter, without walking along two parallel ropes. The text of Pliny gives no elucidation of this point. Epist. 86, § Suetonius in Galba, cap. vi.

chance of breaking down the support which is prepared for him. The yielding rope must have called this instinct into action; although it should be observed, that the elephant will pass a bridge which vibrates, when nothing will induce him to set foot upon one whose tottering condition manifests its insecurity*. It may a little abate our surprise at the rope-dancing faculty of the elephant, when we learn that a horse has exhibited the same performance. At the solemnities which attended the wedding of Robert, brother to the King of France, in 1237, a horse was ridden along a rope t.

Amongst the curious feats of elephants, though less remarkable than those we have described, Arrian mentions, that he saw an elephant who, having a cymbal attached to each knee, and holding a third by his proboscis, beat a measure with astonishing exactness; and that other elephants danced in a circle round him, without deviating in the least from the time which their companion indicated. Busbequius (or Busbec), who was ambassador from the Emperor of Germany, to Constantinople, in 1555, saw an elephant there not only dance with elegance and accuracy, but play with a ball with great skill, throwing it with his trunk, and catching it again, as easily as a man could with his hands. Of the reverence which elephants may be taught to pay to human beings, we have several remarkable instances. An elephant is recorded to have saluted Domitian : and Martial has alluded to the circumstance in a nauseously flattering epigram, which intimates that the creature paid this homage without any command; and that he instinctively felt the divinity, as the poet calls it, of this pampered tyrant. The elephant which Emanuel of Portugal presented to Leo X. went * Williamson's Field Sports.

+ Leibnitz Accessiones Historica; quoted in Beckmann, vol. iii,

upon his knees, with a profound inclination of his head, when he first saw the Pope *. The veneration of the elephant for persons in authority has descended to those of secondary dignity; for Cardan saw the one belonging to the Queen of Bohemia, which was also very sagacious in other respects, welcome an archbishop of Milan, upon his bended knees. Such homage as this, however agreeable it may be to human pride, is as worthless as that which Augustus received upon his triumphal entry into Rome, after the battle of Actium, when the parrots from the windows cried out "Honour and victory to Cæsar." The conqueror gave enormous prices for these sagacious birds; but one bird, unluckily forgetting his last lesson, repeated that which he had been taught when the success of Augustus over his great rival was not so sure—“ Honour and victory to Antony the Emperor" and then Augustus grew tired of his winged flatterers, as he called them,-perhaps without making the discovery that all flatterers are equally contemptible.

The exhibition of the elephant at the Adelphi Theatre, however it may have been exceeded by the feats of the elephants of antiquity, was exceedingly curious and instructive. The animal took part in the scene with almost undeviating precision; displayed no want of confidence or self-possession in the midst of lights, and music, and the shouts of the people; and made her parting salute with as much grace as if she had Emperors and Popes only to bow to. One of the most curious scenes in which she took a prominent part, was that in which she assisted the escape of the Prince and his adherents from prison, by kneeling upon her hind legs, and thus forming an * Osorius de Gestis Emanuelis Regis,-cited in Sallengre. + Budæus de Asse, cited in Le Gendre, Traité de l'Opinion, vol. ii. VOL. II.