" "Pas loin du Rivage de la Mer, et en pleine Campagne, on voit encore un Elephant d'une pierre dure et noiratre.... La Statue ... porte quelque chose sur le dos, mais que le tems a rendu entièrement meconnoissable.... Quant au Cheval dont Ovington et Hamilton font mention je ne l'ai pas vu."—Ibid. 33.
1780.—"That which has principally attracted the attention of travellers is the small island of Elephanta, situated in the east side of the harbour of Bombay.... Near the south end is the figure of an elephant rudely cut in stone, from which the island has its name.... On the back are the remains of something that is said to have formerly represented a young elephant, though no traces of such a resemblance are now to be found."—Account, &c. By Mr. William Hunter, Surgeon in the E. Indies, Archaeologia, vii. 286.
1783.—In vol. viii. of the Archaeologia, p. 251, is another account in a letter from Hector Macneil, Esq. He mentions "the elephant cut out of stone," but not the small elephant, nor the horse.
1795.—"Some Account of the Caves in the Island of Elephanta. By J. Goldingham, Esq." (No date of paper). In As. Researches, iv. 409 seqq.
1813.—Account of the Cave Temple of Elephanta ... by Wm. Erskine, Trans. Bombay Lit. Soc. i. 198 seqq. Mr. Erskine says in regard to the figure on the back of the large elephant: "The remains of its paws, and also the junction of its belly with the larger animal, were perfectly distinct; and the appearance it offered is represented on the annexed drawing made by Captain Hall (Pl. II.),[[133]] who from its appearance conjectured that it must have been a tiger rather than an elephant; an idea in which I feel disposed to agree."—Ibid. 208.
b. s. A name given, originally by the Portuguese, to violent storms occurring at the termination, though some travellers describe it as at the setting-in, of the Monsoon. [The Portuguese, however, took the name from the H. hathiyā, Skt. hastā, the 13th lunar Asterism, connected with hastin, an elephant, and hence sometimes called 'the sign of the elephant.' The hathiyā is at the close of the Rains.]
1554.—"The Damani, that is to say a violent storm arose; the kind of storm is known under the name of the Elephant; it blows from the west."—Sidi 'Ali, p. 75.
[1611.—"The storm of Ofante doth begin."—Danvers, Letters, i. 126.]
c. 1616.—"The 20th day (August), the night past fell a storme of raine called the Oliphant, vsuall at going out of the raines."—Sir T. Roe, in Purchas, i. 549; [Hak. Soc. i. 247].
1659.—"The boldest among us became dismayed; and the more when the whole culminated in such a terrific storm that we were compelled to believe that it must be that yearly raging tempest which is called the Elephant. This storm, annually, in September and October, makes itself heard in a frightful manner, in the Sea of Bengal."—Walter Schulze, 67.