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, etc. Paris, 1845, vol. i. p. 29.)
[51] Evelyn, who was a contemporary and friend of Sir Thomas Browne, observes in his diary, August 13, 1641, on arriving at Rotterdam, “here I first saw an elephant: it was a beast of a monstrous size, yet as flexible and nimble in the joints, contrary to the vulgar tradition, as could be imagined from so prodigious a bulk and strange fabric.” (Vol. i. p. 20.)
[52] In his Natural History, Aristotle speaks of Ctesias as οὐκ ὣν ἀξιόπιστος. (L. viii. c. 27.)
[53] “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.)
[54] 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.
[55] Ζῷον δὲ ἄναρθρον συνιέναι καὶ ῥυθμοῦ καὶ μέλους, καὶ φυλάττειν σχῆμα φύσεως δῶρα ταῦτα ἅμα καὶ ἰδιότης καθ’ ἕκαστον ἐκπληκτική. (Ælian, De Nat. Anim. lib. ii. cap. xi.)
[56] Eginhard, Vita Karoli, c. xvi. and Annales Francorum, A. D. 810.
[57] “Sed idem Julius, unum de elephantibus mentiens, 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.)
[58] Cotton MSS. Nero. D. i. fol. 168, b.
[59] Arundel MSS. No. 292, fol. 4, &c. It has been printed in the Reliquiæ Antiquæ, vol. i. p. 208, by Mr. Wright, to whom I am indebted for the following rendering of the passage referred to:—