Elephant

ELEPHANT, the largest of all four-footed beasts. They who have studied the nature of the Elephant with most accuracy, tell us many very extraordinary things of the sagacity, faithfulness, prudence, and even understanding of this creature¹. It has been often observed to do such things, as are much above the capacity of other beasts. The Hebrews seem generally to have described it under the name of Behemoth, which signifies in general beasts of service. The Greeks and Latins often denote Elephants by the general name of beasts, which is much the same in signification with the Hebrew, Behemoth. The word Elephas may be derived from aleph, which signifies to instruct, by reason of the docility of this animal; or from Eleph, which signifies a head, or captain, because the Elephant is as it were the head of all other terrestrial animals.

You have here an account of the Elephant or Behemoth from God’s discourse to Job: He eateth grass like an ox; which agrees admirably with what Historians relate of him. The Elephant does not feed upon carrion, and is not at all wild; hay, herbs, and legumes are his nourishment, as they are of our tame beasts.

His strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly. The natural parts of an Elephant are under his belly, like those of an horse, but his testicles lie concealed in his loins. The virtue of begetting is often expressed in Scripture by terms very like these. See Gen. xlix. 3. Deut. xxi. 17. Psal. lxxxii. 51. civ. 36, &c.

His tail, as is continued in Job, ver. 12. is like a cedar; the nerves of that part of the Elephant which serves for generation are interwoven together. The female Elephant receives the male lying upon her back, contrary to the nature of other beasts, and he never covers the female as long as any one appears in fight. Ver. 13. His bones are as strong pieces of brass, and his small bones like bars of iron. These hyperbolical expressions shew the extraordinary strength of the Elephant; with one stroke of his trunk he kills a camel or an horse. An Elephant has been seen to draw two cast canons five hundred paces with his teeth; they were fastned together with cables, and weighed each three thousand pounds. We read in the 1 Macc. vi. 37.Maccabees of an Hieronym. in Ezek. i. חשמלElephant in Antiochus’s army, which carried two and thirty armed men. They were all in a tower made of very solid wood, upon the Elephant’s back, and the tower was bound with a very strong chain under the Elephant’s belly.

He is the chief of the ways of God; he that made him, will make his sword approach unto him. This animal is, as it were, the master-piece of God among four-footed beasts. He exceeds all others in size, strength, docility, address, modesty, fidelity, pudicity, agility, and long life.

If we consider his industry, sagacity, and gratitude, no animal comes nearer man: he understands the language of his guide. Lastly, so many things are related of his docility, and aptness to learn, as would seem fabulous, were they not attested by many serious and grave Authors.

The Scripture adds, that God hath put his sword into his hands, hath trusted him with his arms; the Elephant is terrible when provoked: nothing can stand against him, he oversets trees, houses, and walls: he tramples under foot all that comes before him; he overthrows whole squadrons: his arms are his trunk, and his teeth, or horns, for so some of the Ancients call them. His trunk is a long hollow cartilage, like a large trumpet; it hangs between his teeth, and serves him for hands: by one blow with his trunk he will kill an horse; and will raise a prodigious weight with it. His teeth are the ivory, which is so well known to us, and is what people work upon in Europe: it is of the nature of horn, and may be softned. There have been Elephant’s teeth seen as large as one’s thigh, and a fathom in length. When they fight one against the other, they strike one another with their teeth, as bulls do with their horns.

Ver. 15. Surely the mountains bring him forth grass, where all the beasts of the field play. Elephants are the gentlest animals that we know; they never use their strength but when they are compelled to it. These are not of that sort of animals which create terror in others: if he is obliged to pass through a herd of other beasts, he puts them gently out of his way with his trunk to make room for him: he feeds in the fields and meadows, and the weakest and tamest animals play with impunity before him.

Ælian. l. 4. c. 24. & l. 13. c. 8. l. 9. c. 56. & l. 17. c. 7, &c.Ver. 16. He lieth under the trees in the covert of the reed and fens. This agrees all admirably well with the Elephant. Ælian says, that he may be called an animal of the marshes, because he lives along waters, and in moist places. He sometimes plunges himself into rivers in such a manner, that no more of him is to be seen than the end of his trunk: in the summer-time he covers himself with mud, to avoid the heat.

Plin. l. 8. c. 12.Ver. 18. He spoileth the river, and is frighted at nothing: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth. He drinks a great deal, and large draughts, as if he were to swallow up the river, and as if Jordan were scarce sufficient to satisfy his thirst. The literal construction of the Hebrew is, he will drink a river, and make no haste: he will drink leisurely, and take time to disturb the water which he drinketh; as if this were a way to make it more nourishing, or to add a certain taste to it, and take away the sweetness of it, which is not sufficiently pungent to his tongue. It is agreed that the Elephant drinks much, and Aristot. l. 8. Hist. Animal. c. 9.Aristotle assures us, that there have been some who have been seen to drink fourteen Amphora’s of the Macedonian measure. The Amphora, according to Budæus, is about the eighth part of a Paris hogshead, or holds about three bushels. The Scripture adds, He trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth, or he fears nothing, though Jordan were to beat against his mouth. He boldly passes the greatest rivers, provided he may put the end of his trunk only out of the water.

Judith x. 17.Ver. 19. He is taken by the eyes, as a fish is taken with a hook. Serpents attack Elephants principally in the eyes. Oculos maximè petunt, says Pliny; inde fit ut plerumque cæci, & fame ac mœroris tabe confecti reperiantur (Elephantes.) It is said Idem, ibid.likewise, that there are Serpents in the Ganges sixty yards long, who take them by the trunk as they are drinking, drag them along, and drown them in the waters. But this passage may be understood more simply by keeping close to the Hebrew: he is taken by the eyes in snares, his nose is pierced. Wild Elephants are caught with the help of a female Elephant, which is ready for the male, and put into some narrow place between barricades, where the Elephant engages himself, and is taken. This is what is meant here by taking by the eyes, answerable to what is said of Holofernes, that he was taken by the eyes, while he beheld Judith’s beauty.

They lay snares likewise for Elephants: they are taken in deep ditches dug particularly for this purpose, and covered with a little earth scattered over hurdles, which close the open part of them. I do not read it, that they pierced his nostrils, or trunk, as they do camels, buffalo’s, and even horses in the east: but probably in Job’s time they might have a different method from that used at present.

1 Kings x. 22.In the first book of Kings, there is mention of Ivory, or Elephants teeth. In the שנהביםHebrew it is Schenhabbim; schen we know signifies a tooth, but we have some reason to question whether habbim signifies an Elephant. I should rather chuse to say, that schen signifies ivory, which is not to be disputed, and that habbim, or rather habenim, signifies ebony; and so separate these two words, which are improperly put together, and made one.

There is frequent mention of Elephants in the books of the Maccabees; because after Alexander’s reign, these animals were very much used in the armies, which were set on foot by the Kings of Syria and Egypt; whereas before it does not appear that any such had been seen in Judæa or Syria.

1 Macc. vi. 34.We read in the Maccabees, that the Elephants of Antiochus Eupator’s army had the blood of grapes and mulberries shewn them, that thereby they might be animated to the combat, to accustom them as it were to the sight of blood: for naturally this animal is not sanguinary, nor cruel. 3 Macc. v.In another place we see it was usual to intoxicate them by giving them wine mixt with incense, or with parcels of incense, which parcels were dipt in the wine in order to make the fumes of it the stronger, and consequently more proper to intoxicate the Elephants, with a design to have them crush the Hebrews to death under their feet, who were in Egypt. This is a kind of punishment which the Ancients were unacquainted Vide 1 Macc. xi. 7. Joseph. Antiq. l. 13. c. 8, 9.with.

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