Storia do Mogor 263.1.2

263.1.2

These animals, when they desire to approach the female, show it by certain signs. They discharge from holes near the ears a black and very fetid oil. [The author enters into further details which I do not reproduce.] Ordinarily, elephants live in herds, where there are one hundred and fifty, two hundred, and up to three hundred. All accompany the female, while the elephants of other neighbouring herds withdraw on hearing the cries of the female about to bring forth. Should any of them remain, the male elephants belonging to the herd of the said female attack them and kill them. After delivery, they remain in that jungle for some days until the young one can travel ; at its birth it is the size of a calf three months old. The mother runs her trunk over it until it is cleansed and quite dry, then she helps it up with her trunk. It feeds by passing between the legs of its mother to her teats, stretches out its little trunk along the mother's stomach, and sucks the milk with its mouth. In this way it is reared for two years, and the third year the mother becomes pregnant again. The infant elephant grows four inches every year, but it grows no more when it gets to twelve feet (covados, literally ' cubits ' ?) ; and usually they reach one hundred years of age.