Ἰνδική 14.3

14.3

οἳ δὲ ὑπὸ ἀθυμίης οὐκ ἐθέλουσιν οὐδὲν σιτέεσθαι, τοὺς δὲ περιιστάμενοι οἱ Ἰνδοὶ ᾠδῇσί τε καὶ τυμπάνοισι καὶ κυμβάλοισιν κρούοντές τε καὶ ἐπᾴδοντες κατευνάζουσι.

XIV. But such as are too young, or through the weakness of their constitution not worth keeping, their captors allow to escape to their old haunts; while those which are retained they lead to the villages, where at first they give them green stalks of corn and grass to eat. The creatures, however, having lost all spirit, have no wish to eat; but the Indians, standing round them in a circle, soothe and cheer them by chanting songs to the accompaniment of the music of drums and cymbals, for the elephant is of all brutes the most intelligent. Some of them, for instance, have taken up their riders when slain in battle and carried them away for burial; others have covered them, when lying on the ground, with a
shield ; and others have borne the brunt of battle in their defence when fallen. There was one even that died of remorse and despair because it had killed its rider in a fit of rage. I have myself actually seen an elephant playing on cymbals, while other elephants were dancing to his strains: a cymbal had been attached to each foreleg of the performer, and a third to what is called his trunk, and while he beat in turn the cymbal on his trunk he beat in proper time those on his two legs. The dancing elephants all the while kept dancing in a circle, and as they raised and curved their forelegs in turn they too moved in proper time, following as the musician led.
The elephant, like the bull and the horse, engenders in spring, when the females emit breath through the spiracles beside their temples, which open at that season. The period of gestation is at shortest sixteen months, and never exceeds eighteen. The birth is single, as in the case of the mare, and is suckled till it reaches its eighth year. The elephants that live longest attain an age of two hundred years, but many of them die prematurely of disease. If they die of sheer old age, however, the term of life is what has been stated. Diseases of their eyes are cured by pouring cows' milk into them, and other distempers by administering draughts of black wine ; while their wounds are cured by the application of roasted pork. Such are the remedies used by the Indians.