Storia do Mogor 344.3.3

344.3.3

[Folios 17 and 18. I omit here a story about an elephant's reluctance to crush to death a Ceylon prince whose voice it recognized. This has already appeared in Part III., folios 150, 151. The only additional particular is that the king's name is given as Orilha, but no such ruler is known, Mr. Ferguson says.] [18] It did not happen thus in the city of Goa when it was ruled over by Dom Phelipe Masquarenha. There was an elephant which worked on the river bank, and its driver often made it pass through the city, taking it to the shops for fruit and other eatables. All the shopkeepers gave it something, as for example, yams, figs (bananas), dried grapes, sugar-cane, mangoes, Jack-fruit, rose-apples, cashews, guavas, et cetera. Among the shopkeepers was one who gave the elephant a coco-nut, and, stretching out its trunk, he handed it to the driver who was astride on him. The man thought he would like to eat the coco-nut, and though he could have split it open with the driving-iron which he had in his hand, he broke it in two upon the elephant's head; one piece he kept for himself, the other he gave to the animal.