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1 The word employed is vestigiun; it is explained by Ælian to refer to the herbage, which has received both the visible impression as well as the odour of the foot.—B.
2 In the case of a footstep, this must mean the ground with which the foot has come in contact.
3 It is a general opinion, and one founded upon observations of daily occurrence, that animals have an instinctive dread of man. We have, however, facts stated by travellers of undoubted veracity, which would lead to an opposite conclusion. One of the most remarkable is the account which Denham gives of the tameness of the birds in Lake Tchad. —B.
4 Cuvier observes, that this is correct; see Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 408, and Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 338.—B.
5 "Novere ea." It is doubtful whether these words do not mean something more than merely "knew their names," as Hardouin explains it, for that would be nothing wonderful in an elephant. On the other hand, to say that they were aware of the honour which had been conferred on them, in giving the names of famous men, would be to make a statement which exceeds belief; for how could the elephants show that they appreciated this honour, even supposing that they did appreciate it? Pliny's elliptical style repeatedly gives rise to doubts of this nature.
6 "Phaleris." See Notes to B. vii. c. 29, p. 170.
7 Pliny informs us, in B. xxii. c. 4, that this was done by those conquered in battle.—B.
8 We may conclude, from the account given by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 2, and by Ælian, B. viii. c. 17, that this opinion was generally adopted by the ancients.—B. We learn from Cuvier, who mentions the results of M. Corse's observations, that there is no such modesty in the elephant, and that the two at the Museum of Natural History at Paris gave proof of the fact.
9 This is erroneous; the males do not arrive at puberty before the females, which takes place about the fourteenth or fifteenth year. In the elephant which was under the inspection of M. Corse, the period of gestation was between twenty and twenty-one months, so that there may be some foundation for the biennial period, but the term of five days is entirely imaginary. Aristotle makes the interval three years.—B.
10 There is a passage in Suetonius, in his Life of Augustus, and one in Macrobius, where the custom of offering pieces of money to elephants, which they took up with the proboscis, is referred to.—B.
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- Cross-references to this page
(5):
- Harper's, Funambŭlus
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), FUNA´MBULUS
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), PY´RRHICA
- Smith's Bio, M. Po'rcius Cato or Cato the Censor
- Smith's Bio, Juba
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(5):
- Lewis & Short, āvŏcāmentum
- Lewis & Short, pyrrhĭcha
- Lewis & Short, rĕvĕrentĭa
- Lewis & Short, suspendo
- Lewis & Short, vulgāris