The earliest mention of war elephants is made by Ctesias, where he describes Cyrus as making war against King Amoræus, who placed a large number of elephants in ambush, putting the horses of Cyrus to flight. Ælian quotes Ctesias as saying that the king of the Indians went to war with an army of ten thousand elephants, which was undoubtedly an exaggeration.
In olden times, elephants seemed to be a necessity, and would-be conquerors were often put to some remarkable straits to procure them. Perhaps the most amusing substitution was that adopted by Queen Semiramis, who made mock elephants out of hides, and put camels within them, with what laughable results Diodorus Siculus shall tell us. The story is so quaint, and replete with curious situations, that I give it complete in the language of the old historian:—
“Semiramis, having settled her affairs in Egypt and Ethiopia, returned with her army into Asia to Bactria; and now having a great army, and enjoying a long peace, she had a longing desire to perform some notable exploit by her arms. Hearing, therefore, that the Indians were the greatest nation in the whole world, and had the largest and richest tract of land of all others, she resolved to make war upon them.
“Stabrobates was at that time king, who had innumerable forces, and many elephants, bravely accoutred, and fitted to strike terror into the hearts of his enemies. For India, for the pleasantness of the country, excelled all others; being watered in every place with many rivers, so that the land yielded every year a double crop; and by that means was so rich, and so abounded with plenty of all things necessary for the sustenance of man’s life, that it supplied the inhabitants continually with such things as made them excessively rich, insomuch that it was never known that there was ever any famine amongst them, the climate being so happy and favorable; and upon that account, likewise, there is an incredible number of elephants, which for courage, and strength of body, far excel those in Africa. Moreover, this country abounds in gold, silver, brass, iron, and precious stones of all sorts, both for profit and pleasure. All of which being noised abroad, so stirred up the spirit of Semiramis, that (though she had no provocation given her) yet she was resolved upon the war against the Indians. But knowing that she had need of great forces, she sent despatches to all the provinces, with command to the governors to list the choicest young men they could find; ordering the proportion of soldiers every province and country should send forth, according to the largeness of it; and commanded that all should furnish themselves with new armor and arms, and all appear in three years’ time at a general rendezvous in Bactria, bravely armed and accoutred in all points. And having sent for shipwrights out of Phoenicia, Syria, Cyprus, and other places bordering upon the seacoasts, she prepared timber for them fit for the purpose, and ordered them to build vessels, that might be taken asunder, and conveyed from place to place whenever she pleased. For the river Indus bordering upon that kingdom, being the greatest in those parts, she stood in need of many river-boats to pass it, in order to repress the Indians. But being there was no timber near that river, she was necessitated to convey the boats thither by land from Bactria. She further considered, that she was much inferior to the Indians in elephants (which were absolutely necessary for her to make use of): she therefore contrived to have beasts that should resemble them, hoping by this means to strike a terror into the Indians, who believed that there were no elephants in any place but in India. To this end, she provided three hundred thousand black oxen, and distributed the flesh amongst a company of ordinary mechanics, and such fellows as she had to play the cobblers for her, and ordered them, by stitching the skins together, and stuffing them with straw, to imitate the shape of an elephant; and in every one of them she put a man to govern them, and a camel to carry them, so that at a distance they appeared to all that saw them, as if they were really such beasts.
“They that were employed in this work, wrought at it night and day, in a place which was walled round for the purpose, and guards set at every gate, that none might be admitted either to go in or out, to the end that none might see what they were doing, lest it should be noised abroad, and come to the ears of the Indians.
“Having therefore provided shipping and elephants in the space of two years, in the third she rendezvoused all her forces in Bactria. Her army consisted (as Ctesias says) of three millions of foot, two hundred thousand horse, a hundred thousand chariots, and a hundred thousand men, mounted upon camels, with swords four cubits long. The boats that might be taken asunder, were two thousand; which the camels carried by land as they did the mock-elephants, as we have before declared. The soldiers made their horses familiar with these feigned beasts, by bringing them often to them, lest they should be terrified at the sight of them; which Perseus imitated many ages after, when he was to fight with the Romans, who had elephants in their army out of Africa. However, this contrivance proved to be of no advantage, either to him or her, as will appear in issue herein a little after related.
“When Stabrobates, the Indian king, heard of these great armies, and the mighty preparations made against him, he did all he could to excel Semiramis in every thing. And first, he built of great canes four thousand river-boats, for abundance of these canes grow in India about the rivers; and ferns, so thick as a man can scarce fathom; and vessels made of these reeds (they say) are exceeding useful, because they will never rot or be worm-eaten.
“He was very diligent, likewise, in preparing of arms, and going from place to place throughout all India, and so raised a far greater army than that of Semiramis. To his former number of elephants he added more, which he took by hunting, and furnished them all with every thing that might make them look terrible in the face of their enemies; so that, by their multitude and the completeness of their armor in all points, it seemed above the strength and power of man to bear up against the violent shock of these creatures.
PLATE XXI.