ind this legend of Ceylon in what has, not inaptly, been
described as the "Arabian Odyssey" of Sinbad; the original of which
evidently embodies the romantic recitals of the sailors returning from
the navigation of the Indian Seas, in the middle ages[3], which were
current amongst the Mussulmans, and are reproduced in various forms
throughout the tales of the _Arabian Nights_.

[Footnote 1: The selection by animals of a _place to die_, is not
confined to the elephant, DARWIN says, that in South America "the
guanacos (llamas) appear to have favourite spots for lying down to die;
on the banks of the Santa Cruz river, in certain circumscribed spaces
which were generally bushy and all near the water, the ground was
actually white with their bones; on one such spot I counted between ten
and twenty heads."--_Nat. Voy._ ch. viii. The same has been remarked in
the Rio Gallegos; and at St. Jago in the Cape de Verde Islands, DARWIN
saw a retired corner similarly covered with the bones of the goat, as if
it were "the burial-ground of all the goats in the island."]

[Footnote 2: _Arabian Nights' Entertainment_, LANE'S edition, vol. iii.
p. 77.]

[Footnote 3: See a disquisition on the origin of the story of Sinbad, by
M. REINAUD, in the introduction prefixed to his translation of the
_Arabian Geography of Aboulfeda_, vol. i. p. lxxvi.]

* * * * *

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VII.

* * * * *

As AElian's work on the _Nature of Animals_ has never, I believe, been
republished in any English version, and the passage in relation to the
training and performance of elephants is so pertinent to the present
inquiry, I venture to subjoin a translation of the 11th Chapter of his
2nd Book.

"Of the cleverness of the elephant I have spoken elsewhere, and likewise
of the manner of hunting. I have mentioned these things, a few out of
the many which others have stated; but for the present I purpose to
speak of their musical feeling, their tractability, and facility in
learning what it is difficult for even a human being to acquire, much
less a beast, hitherto so wild:--such as to dance, as is done on the
stage; to walk with a measured gait; to listen to the melody of the
flute and to perceive the difference of sounds, that, being pitched low
lead to a slow movement, or high to a quick one: all this the elephant
learns and understands, and is accurate withal, and makes no mistake.