Storia do Mogor 63.2.6

63.2.6

I will recount here some ridiculous instances, and I am telling the truth without the least exaggeration. If a Mogul king or prince sees an elephant or a horse not of very much account, and should say that it is a fine elephant or a powerful horse, then the courtiers begin to praise the elephant, saying that there is not in the world another as large or its equal in strength and staunchness ; that once it fought against five or six other elephants clad in armour while it was unprotected, yet it routed them all ; that, being present in such and such a war, it threw the enemy's army into confusion and disarray ; that its trunk could carry more than would go on the backs of five or six other elephants, and other things like this, which, if I were to state, the reader would think me fooling him. In the case of a horse, they would at once say that it is of such mettle that it would pass through hills of fire. If they discharged a whole battery of artillery at once in front of it, it would not, owing to its high courage and temper, stir more than if it were made of brass; of such cleverness that you need only move the rein a little to get it to carry out the order that the rider had in his head ; and that on the occasion of a battle it could jump at one leap a river as wide as the length of a musket-shot.