od horse being allowed one man to dress
and feed him. Their provender is a species of grain called _donna_,
somewhat like our pease, which are boiled, and then given cold to the
horses, mixed with coarse sugar; and twice or thrice a week they have
butter given them to scour their bodies. There are likewise in this
country a great number of camels, dromedaries, mules, asses, and some
rhinoceroses. These are huge beasts, bigger than the fattest oxen to be
seen in England, and their skins lie upon their bodies in plaits or
wrinkles.

They have many elephants, the Great Mogul having not fewer than 1400 for
his own use, and all the nobles of the country have more or less, some
having to the number of an hundred. Though the largest of all
terrestrial animals, the elephants are wonderfully tractable, except
that they are mad at times; but at all other times, a little boy is able
to rule the largest of them. I have seen some thirteen feet high; but I
have been often told that some are fifteen feet in height at the least.
Their colour is universally black, their skins very thick and smooth,
and without hair. They take much delight to bathe themselves in water,
and they swim better than any beast I know. They lie down and rise again
at pleasure, as other beasts do. Their pace is not swift, being only
about three miles an hour; but they are the surest footed beasts in the
world, as they never endanger their riders by stumbling. They are the
most docile of all creatures, and of those we account merely possessed
of instinct, they come nearest to reason. Lipsius, _Cent_. 1, _Epist_.
50, in his observations, taken from others, writes more concerning them
than I can confirm, or than any can credit, as I conceive; yet I can
vouch for many things which seem to be acts of reason rather than of
mere brute sense, which we call instinct. For instance, an elephant will
do almost any thing which his keeper commands. If he would have him
terrify a man, he will make towards him as if he meant to tread him in
pieces, yet does him no hurt. If he would have him to abuse a man, he
will take up dirt, or kennel water, in his trunk, and dash it in his
face. Their trunks are long grisly snouts, hanging down betwixt their
tusks, by some called their hand, which they use very dexterously on all
occasions.

An English merchant, of good credit, told me the following story of an
elephant, as having happened to his own knowledge at Ajimeer, the place
where