A History of Agriculture in India v2.c69.s2.9

v2.c69.s2.9

'The elephant, which Hindustanis call *hāt(h)i*, is one of the wild animals peculiar to Hindustan. It inhabits the (western?) borders of the Kālpi country, and becomes more numerous in its wild state the farther east one goes (in Kālpi?). From this tract it is that captured elephants are brought; in Kārrah and Mānikpūr elephant-catching is the work of 30 or 40 villages. People answer for them direct to the exchequer. The elephant is an immense animal and very sagacious. If people speak to it, it understands; if they command anything from it, it does it. Its value is according to its size; it is sold by measure, the larger it is, the higher its price. People rumour that it is heard of in some islands as 10 *qārī* high, but in this tract it is not seen above 4 or 5. It eats and drinks entirely with its trunk; if it lose the trunk, it cannot live. It has two great teeth (tusks) in its upper jaw, one on each side of its trunk; by setting these against walls and trees, it brings them down, with these it fights and does whatever hard tasks fall to it. People call these ivory; they are highly valued by Hindustanis. The elephant has no hair. It is much relied on by Hindustanis, accompanying every troop of their armies. It has some useful qualities:—it crosses great rivers with ease, carrying a mass of baggage, and three or four have gone dragging without trouble the cart of the mortar it takes four or five hundred men to haul. But its stomach is large; one elephant eats the corn of two strings of camel.