anciful in themselves, but are
restricted to the supposed excellence of the Ceylon animal _in war_.[2]
This estimate of the superiority of the elephant of Ceylon, if it ever
prevailed in India, was not current there at a very early period; for in
the _Ramayana_, which is probably the oldest epic in the world, the stud
of Dasartha, the king of Ayodhya, was supplied with elephants from the
Himalaya and the Vindhya Mountains.[3] I have had no opportunity of
testing by personal observation the justice of the assumption; but from
all that I have heard of the elephants of the continent, and seen of
those of Ceylon, I have reason to conclude that the difference, if not
imaginary, is exceptional, and must have arisen in particular and
individual instances, from more judicious or elaborate instruction.

[Footnote 1: This is merely a reiteration of the statement of AELIAN, who
ascribes to the elephants of Taprobane a vast superiority in size,
strength, and intelligence, above, those of continental India,--[Greek:
"Kai oide ge naesiotai elephantes ton haepiroton halkimoteroi te taen
rhomaen kai meixous idein eisi, kai thumosophoteroi de panta pantae
krinointo han."]--AELIAN, _De Nat. Anim_., lib. Xvi. Cap. xviii.

AELIAN also, in the same chapter, states the fact of the shipment of
elephants in large boats from Ceylon to the opposite continent of India,
for sale to the king of Kalinga; so that the export from Manaar,
described in a former passage, has been going on apparently without
interruption since the time of the Romans.]

[Footnote 2: The expression of TAVERNIER is to the effect that as
compared with all others, the elephants of Ceylon are "plus courageux _a
la guerre_." The rest of the passage is a curiosity:--

"Il faut remarquer ici une chose qu'on aura peut-etre de la peine a
croire main quit est toutefois tres-veritable: c'est que lorsque quelque
roi on quelque seigneur a quelqu'un de ces elephants de Ceylan, et qu'on
en amene quelqu'autre des lieux ou les marchands vont les prendre, comme
d'Achen, de Siam, d'Arakan, de Pegu, du royaume de Boutan, d'Assam, des
terres de Cochin et de la coste du Melinde, des que les elephants en
voient un de Ceylan, par un instinct de nature, ils lui font la
reverence, portant le bout de leur trompe a la terre et la relevant. Il
est vrai que les elephants que les grand seigneurs entretiennent, quand
en les amine devant eux, pour voir s'ils sent en bon point, font troi
fois une espere