Only The Males Among The Indian Elephants Have
Tusks; But In Ethiopia And Lybia, Both Males And Females Are Provided
With Them.
They are of divers heights, as of 12, 13, or 14 _dodrants_,
the dodrant being a measure of 9 inches; and some say that an elephant
is bigger than three wild oxen or buffaloes.
Those of India are black,
or mouse-coloured; but those of Ethiopia or Guinea are brown. The hide
or skin of them all is very hard, and without hair or bristles. Their
ears are two dodrants, or 18 inches in breadth, and their eyes are very
small. Our men saw one drinking at a river in Guinea as they sailed
along the coast. Those who wish to know more of the properties of the
elephant, as of their wonderful docility, of their use in war, of their
chastity and generation, when they were first seen in the triumphs and
amphitheatres of the Romans, how they are taken and tamed, when they
cast their tusks, and of their use in medicine, and many other
particulars, will find all these things described in the eighth book of
Natural History, as written by Pliny. He also says in his twelfth book,
that the ancients made many goodly works of ivory or elephants teeth;
such as tables, tressels or couches, posts of houses, rails, lattices
for windows, idols of their gods, and many other things of ivory, either
coloured or uncoloured, and intermixed with various kinds of precious
woods; in which manner at this day are made chairs, lutes, virginals,
and the like. They had such plenty of it in ancient times, that one of
the gates of Jerusalem was called the ivory gate, as Josephus reports.
The whiteness of ivory was so much admired, that it was anciently
thought to represent the fairness of the human skin; insomuch that those
who endeavoured to improve, or rather to corrupt, the natural beauty by
painting, were said reproachfully, _ebur atramento candefacere_, to
whiten ivory with ink. Poets also, in describing the fair necks of
beautiful virgins, call them _eburnea colla_, or ivory necks. Thus much
may suffice of elephants and ivory, and I shall now say somewhat of the
people, and their manners, and mode of living, with another brief
description of Africa.
The people who now inhabit the regions of the coast of Guinea and the
middle parts of Africa, as inner Lybia, Nubia, and various other
extensive regions in that quarter, were anciently called Ethiopians and
_Nigritae_, which we now call Moors, Moorens, or Negroes; a beastly
living people, without God, law, religion, or government, and so
scorched by the heat of the sun, that in many places they curse it when
it rises. Of the people about Lybia interior, Gemma Phrysius thus
writes: Libia interior is large and desolate, containing many horrible
wildernesses, replenished with various kinds of monstrous beasts and
serpents. To the south of Mauritania or Barbary is Getulia, a rough and
savage region, inhabited by a wild and wandering people. After these
follow the _Melanogetuli_, or black Getulians, and Phransii, who wander
in the wilderness, carrying with them great gourds filled with water.
Then the Ethiopians, called Nigritae, occupy a great part of Africa,
extending to the western ocean or Atlantic. Southwards also they reach
to the river Nigritis or Niger, which agrees in its nature with the
Nile, as it increases and diminishes like the Nile, and contains
crocodiles. Therefore, I believe this to be the river called the Senegal
by the Portuguese. It is farther said of the Niger, that the inhabitants
on one side were all black and of goodly stature, while on the other
side they were brown or tawny and of low stature, which also is the case
with the Senegal.[215] There are other people of Lybia, called
_Garamantes_, whose women are in common, having no marriages or any
respect to chastity. After these are the nations called _Pyrei,
Sathiodaphintae, Odrangi, Mimaces, Lynxamator, Dolones, Agangince, Leuci
Ethiopes, Xilicei Ethiopes, Calcei Ethiopes_, and _Nubi_. These last
have the same situation in Ptolemy, which is now given to the kingdom of
Nubia, where there are certain Christians under the dominion of the
great emperor of Ethiopia, called Prester John. From these towards the
west was a great nation called _Aphricerones_, inhabiting, as far as we
can conjecture, what is now called the _Regnum Orguene_, bordering on
the eastern or interior parts of Guinea. From hence westwards and
towards the north, are the kingdoms of _Gambra_ and _Budamel_, not far
from the river Senegal; and from thence toward the inland region and
along the coast are the regions of _Ginoia_ or Guinea. On the west side
of this region is Cabo Verde, _caput viride_, Cap Verd, or the Green
Cape, to which the Portuguese first direct their course when they sail
to the land of Brazil in America, on which occasion they turn to the
right hand towards the quarter of the wind called _Garbino_, which is
between the west and south.
[Footnote 215: It may be proper to mention in this place, that the Niger
and the Senegal, though agreeing in these particulars, are totally
different rivers in the same parallel. The Senegal runs into the sea
from the east; while the Niger running to the east, loses itself in an
interior lake, as the Wolga does in the Caspian, having no connection
whatever with the ocean. According to some accounts, this lake only
exists as such during the rainy season, drying up in the other part of
the year, probably however leaving an extensive marsh, called the
_Wangara_. If so, the environs of that lake and marsh must be unhealthy
in the utmost extreme. - E.]
To speak somewhat more of Ethiopia, although there are many nations
called Ethiopians, yet is Ethiopia chiefly divided into two parts, one
of which being a great and rich region, is called _Ethiopia sub Egypto_,
or Ethiopia to the south of Egypt. To this belongs the island of Meroe,
which is environed by the streams of the Nile.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 104 of 226
Words from 105488 to 106502
of 230997
