Footnote 1001: [(return)]
DENHAM'S Travels, &c., 4to p. 220. The fossil remains of the Indian elephant have been discovered at Jabalpur, showing a height of fifteen feet.—Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng. vi. Professor ANSTED in his Ancient World, p. 197, says he was informed by Dr. Falconer "that out of eleven hundred elephants from which the tallest were selected and measured with care, on one occasion in India, there was not one whose height equalled eleven feet."
Footnote 1002: [(return)]
Vulgar Errors, book iii. chap. 1.
Footnote 1011: [(return)]
Machlis (said to be derived from a, priv., and [Greek: klinô], cubo, quod non cubat). "Moreover in the island of Scandinavia there is a beast called Machlis, that hath neither ioynt in the hough, nor pasternes in his hind legs, and therefore he never lieth down, but sleepeth leaning to a tree, wherefore the hunters that lie in wait for these beasts cut downe the trees while they are asleepe, and so take them; otherwise they should never be taken, they are so swift of foot that it is wonderful."—PLINY, Natur. Hist. Transl. Philemon Holland, book viii. ch. xv. p. 200.
Footnote 1012: [(return)]
"Sunt item quæ appellantur Alces. Harum est consimilis capreis figura, et varietas pellium; sed magnitudine paulo antecedunt, mutilæque sunt cornibus, et crura sine nodis articulisque habent; neque quietis causa procumbunt; neque, si quo afflictæ casu considerunt, erigere sese aut sublevare possunt. His sunt arbores pro cubilibus; ad eas sese applicant, atque ita, paulum modo reclinatæ, quietem capiunt, quarum ex vestigiis cum est animadversum a venatoribus, quo se recipere consueverint, omnes eo loco, aut a radicibus subruunt aut accidunt arbores tantum, ut summa species earum stantium relinquatur. Huc cum se consuetudine reclinaverint, infirmas arbores pondere affligunt, atque una ipsæ concidunt."—CÆSAR, De Bello Gall. lib. vi. ch. xxvii.
The same fiction was extended by the early Arabian travellers to the rhinoceros, and in the MS. of the voyages of the "Two Mahometans" it is stated that the rhinoceros of Sumatra "n'a point d'articulation au genou ni à la main."—Relations des Voyages, &c., Paris, 1845, vol. i. p. 29.
Footnote 1021: [(return)]
When an animal moves progressively an hypothenuse is produced, which is equal in power to the magnitude that is quiescent, and to that which is intermediate. But since the members are equal, it is necessary that the member which is quiescent should be inflected either in the knee or in the incurvation, if the animal that walks is without knees. It is possible, however, for the leg to be moved, when not inflected, in the same manner as infants creep; and there is an ancient report of this kind about elephants, which is not true, for such animals as these, are moved in consequence of an inflection taking place either in their shoulders or hips."—ARISTOTLE, De Ingressu Anim., ch. ix. Taylor's Transl.
Footnote 1022: [(return)]
ARISTOTLE, De Animal., lib. ii. ch. i. It is curious that Taylor, in his translation of this passage, was so strongly imbued with the "grey-headed errour," that in order to elucidate the somewhat obscure meaning of Aristotle, he has actually interpolated the text with the exploded fallacy of Ctesias, and after the word reclining to sleep, has inserted the words "leaning against some wall or tree," which are not to be found in the original.
Footnote 1023: [(return)]
[Greek: "Zpson de anarthron sunienai kai rhuthmou kai melous, kai phylattein schêma physeôs dôra tauta hama kai idiotês kath' ekaston ekplêktikê]."—ÆLIAN, De Nat. Anim., lib. ii. cap. xi.
Footnote 1031: [(return)]
Eginhard, Vita Karoli, c. xvi. and Annales Francorum, A.D. 810.
Footnote 1032: [(return)]
"Sed idem Julius, unum de elephantibus mentions, falso loquitur; dicens elephantem nunquam jacere; dum ille sicut bos certissime jacet, ut populi communiter regni Francorum elephantem, in tempore Imperatoris Karoli viderunt. Sed, forsitan, ideo hoc de elephante ficte æstimando scriptum est, eo quod genua et suffragines sui nisi quando jacet, non palam apparent."—DICUILUS, De Mensura Orbis Terræ, c. vii.
Footnote 1041: [(return)]
Cotton MSS. NERO. D. 1. fol. 168, b.