'Collections of travels through Turky into Persia, and the East Indies. Giving an account of the present state of those countries, as also a full relation of the five years wars, between Aureng-Zebe and his brothers in their father's life time, about the succession. And a voyage made by the Great Mogul (Aureng-Zebe) with his Army from Dehli to Lahor, from Lahor to Bember, and from thence to the Kingdom of Kachemire, by the Mogols, call'd, the Paradise of the Indies. Together with a relation of the Kingdom of Japan and Tunkin, and of their particular manners and trade. To which is added a new description of the Grand Seignior's Seraglio, and also of all the Kingdoms that encompass the Euxine and Caspian Seas, being the travels of Monsieur TavernierBernier, and other great men.' [‎96] (415/1024)

I
96
Travels in India.
every one of the Sons of him that had fo generoufly laid dewn his life for th
fafety of his Sovereign. e
I obferv’d alfo, that though the Elephant's skin be very hard while he i iS ai;-
yet when he is dead, it is juft like melted-glue.
Elephants are brought from feveral parts of India ; as from the hland of Ov
where they are very fmal4 but the moft couragious of all: from thelfleof
Sumatra \ from the Kingdom of Gubin j from the Kingdom of Siam • and from
the Frontiers of the Kingdom of Boutam neer the Gixat-Tariark. They are
brought alfo from the Coaft of Melinda, Eaftward of Jffrica : where they are
in very great numbers, according to the report of a iVr^e^e-Captaic, made at
Goa, who came from thence to make fome complaint againft the Governor of Mo
zambique. He told me that he had feen all along that Coaft feveral Parks that
were empal’d with nothing but Elephants-teeth,the leaft of which Parks is above
a league about .* He added farther, that the Blacks of the Country hunt their
Elephants,and eat the Flelh. But they are oblig’d to give the tusks of every one
they kill to the Lord of the place. When they intend to take their Elephants in
the liland of Cey/^they make a long lane,clos’d in on both fides,fo that the Ele
phant can neither run to the right nor to the left •• this lane is broad at the fir#,but
grows narrower and narrower,till there is no more room left at the farther-end
than for the female-Elephant to lie down,which muft be one that is covetous of
the male at the fame time. Though Ihe be tame, yet Ihe is bound with good
Ropes and Cords,and by her cries will call the male-Elephant,who prefently runs
through the lane towards her. Now when the Elephant comes where the lane
grows narrow, they that lie hid for that purpofe, immediately barricadoupthe
lane behind,and when he comes neer the female,there is another Barricado fet up
that ftgps him from going any farther. When he is thus between the Barricade’s,
they fo entangle his legs and trunk with ropes and cords,that he is foon taken, ha
ving no way to help himfelf. The fame way they ufe for the moft part in the
Kingdoms of Siam, and Pegu, only that the Natives there mount the female-
Elephant,and go to find out the male in the Forrefts. And when they have met
with his haunt, they tye the female to the .moft convenient place they can find,
and then they fix their fnares for the Elephant, who in a Ihort time haltens
toward the female, hot for Generation, where her cries call him.
This is obfervable of the female-Elephant, that when file begins to be hot,fhe
gathers together a great heap of herbs and weeds, and makes her fdf a kind of
bed fome four or five-foot-high from the ground, where contrary to the cuftom
of all other creatures, fhe lies upon her back, in expectation of the male, whom
file calls to her by a peculiar cry. *
This is alfo particular to the Elephants in the file of Cey^that only the firft
Elephant which the female produces, has any tusks. And it is alfo obfervable,
that the Ivory which comes from Acben when it is wrought, has this peculiar
quality with it, that it never grows yellow, like that which comes out of the
Continent, and from the Eaft-Jndies, which makes it more efteem’d, and dearer
than any other.
When the Merchants bring Elephants to any place to fell, ’tis a pleafant fight
to fee them go along. For in regard there are generally old and young together,
when the old ones are gone by, the children will be running after the little ones
to play with them, and give them fomething or other to eat. While the young
Elephants, which are very wanton, are bulily taking what is offer’d them, the
children leap upon their backs .* but when the young Elephants that lately llopt
for the lucre of the Victuals perceiving their Dams, a great way before, double
their pace, and playing with their trunks, throw the children off their backs to
the ground, yet without doing them any harm.
Notwithftanding all the enquiry I have made, I could never find exa&ly how
long an Elephant will live. Nor can all the Governors and keepers of thole
creatures tell you more, than fuch an Elephant has been in the poffeflion 0^
their Father,their Grandfather,and great Grandfather. And by that computation,
I found that they had liv’d fome of them fix-fcore, or an hunder’d and thirty
years.
Tbs.