The Institutes of Akbar 82.1.2

82.1.2

and some bold and experienced man will have to get on a female elephant, and try to get near him and tie a rope round his foot. Female elephants, when mourning the loss of a young one, will often abstain from food and drink; they sometimes even die from grief. The elephant can be taught various feats. He learns to remember such melodies as can only be remembered by people acquainted with music; he will move his limbs, to keep time, and exhibit his skill in various ways. He will shoot off an arrow from a bow, discharge a matchlock, and will learn to pick up things that have been dropped, and hand them over to the keeper. Sometimes they get grain to eat wrapped up in hay; this they hide in the side of their mouth, and give it back to the keeper, when they are alone with him. The teats of a female elephant, and the womb, resemble those of woman. The tongue is round like that of a parrot. The testicles are not visible. Elephants frequently with their trunks take water out of their stomachs, and sprinkle themselves with it. Such water has no offensive smell. They also take out of their stomach grass on the second day, without its having undergone any change.