If by chance they get loose in their
state of phrenzy, they run at everything they see in motion; and, in
this case, the only possible means of stopping them is by lighting a
kind of artificial fire-works called wild-fire, the sparkling and
cracking of which make them stand still and tremble.
The king allows four females to each of his great elephants, which are
called their wives. The testes of the males are said to lie about his
forehead, and the teats of the female are between her fore-legs. She
goes twelve months with young. The elephant is thirty years old before
he attains his full growth, and they live to seventy or eighty years of
age. Although very numerous, elephants are yet so highly prized in
India, that some of the best are valued at a thousand pounds or more.
Sec.3. Of the People of Hindoostan, and their Manners and Customs.
The whole inhabitants of Hindoostan were anciently Gentiles, or
notorious idolaters, generally denominated Hindoos, hot ever since the
time of Tamerlane they have been mixed with Mahometans.[235] There are,
besides, many Persians, Tartars, Abyssinians, and Arminians, and some
few of almost every nation in Asia, if not in Europe, that reside here.
Among these are some Jews, but not esteemed, for their very name is
proverbial, as a term of reproach.
