Lex Talionis is its Latin name;
But if an English term we wanted,
Give your next neighbour but a pat,
He’ll give you back as good, and tell you—tit for tat.
This tit for tat, it seems, not men alone,
But elephants, for legal justice own;
In proof of this a story I shall tell ye,
Imported from the famous town of Delhi.
A mighty elephant that swell’d the state
Of Aurengzebe the Great,