Hannibal was breaking out into loud admiration of the life and gaiety of the place, when Hanno drew his attention to a row of heads that, by order of the sacred suffect, had been ranged along the battlements above the gate of the Bozrah. Hannibal paid but little heed to the ghastly sight, scarcely turning his eyes to look, but proceeded to rhapsodise over the difficulty of scaling such fortifications, and to expatiate upon the impregnability of the position, until he was recalled by an exclamation of surprise made simultaneously by Bichri, Chamai, and the two women. A huge elephant was being led past by some Libyans.
To face [page 191].
"What monster have we here?" cried Hannibal, equally astonished.
"Heavens!" exclaimed Bichri; "how many arrows would it take to slay such a brute as that?"
"It must be the Behemoth, of which we have heard so much," said Chamai, gazing in amazement.
I explained to them that the animal which had so much excited their wonder was an elephant; that the great teeth projecting from its jaws were ivory; and that the rope-like appendage to its head, which it wielded so adroitly, was its trunk.
"What a line a herd of those creatures would make on a field of battle!" said Hannibal, his thoughts turning as usual to military tactics; "I cannot imagine how any infantry could hold their ground against them; the only thing would be to open their ranks, let the brutes pass through, and then attack them from behind."
"You are not the first soldier, Hannibal," I answered, "who has had the same idea. Some of these animals have already been tamed, and trained to carry on their backs a tower full of archers. They are brought from the banks of the Upper Bagradas, and from the forests in the borders of Tritonis, a lake in the interior of Libya."