the poet through Temple-bar, is fuppofed to is certain, that, though the ablative are not faid to tranfmit any thing but dreams; of the latter, one tranfmits dreams, and the other real ghafts or pades. For thus, though all the commentators are against me, I muft understand the words umbris veris; because in Virgil umbra often fignifies a ghoff, but never in him, nor in any other good writer, (fo far as I know) a dream. If it be asked, what ghofts they were that ufed to pass this way; the anfwer is eafy: they were thofe who,after having been a thousand years in Elyfium, and taken a draught of Lethe, were fent back to the upper world to animate new bodies. If fo well fuited to mere mortals. This again it were afked, whether fuch beings might not be of fo fubtile a nature as to work their way into the upper world without paffing through a gate; I fhould anfwer, that vifible fubltances, which might be purified by fire, or washed in water, and could not get over the river Styx but in a boat, must be fo far material at least, as to be capable of confinement, and confequently of being fet at liberty. The falfa infomnia that go out by the ivory gate may mean, either deceitful dreams, or dreams in general, that is, unfubftantial things, as oppofed to realities; which laft I take to be the preferable fignification. Be this, however, as it will, Eneas and the Sybil were neither ghofts nor dreams, but human flesh and blood; and could no more be fuppofed to partake of the qualities alluded to in the name of the gate by which Anchifes difmiffed them, than a man is fuppofed to be lame for having paffed through Cripplegate, or than the Lord Mayor of London, by entering in proceffion As to the analogy that fome critics have fancied between horn and truth, and between fallehood and ivory, it is fo whimfical, and so abfurd, that I need not mention it. And now, by removing the mist of allegory from Virgil's gates, I flatter myfelf, that I have made thefe verfes fomewhat more intelligible than they have been generally fuppofed to be; that I have proved the latter part of this epifode to be confiftent with the reft of it; and that I have vindicated a favourite author from the heavy char ges of impiety and ill manners, whereof, however repugnant to his general character, it would not be eafy for thofe to clear him who follow the common, though lefs obvious, interpretations. Defcription of an Elephant Hunt in Abyffinia: By Mr Bruce. T could not reft; he was come to boot the elephant, and hunt him he would. All thofe that understood any thing of 3°༣ with a fharp weapon. More properly it means, indeed, the cutting the tendon of the heel, and is a characteri ftic of the manner in which they kill the elephant, which is fhortly as fol lows:-Two men, abfolutely naked, without any rag or covering at all a bout them, get on horfeback; this precaution is from fear of being laid hold of by the trees or bushes, in ma king their efcape from a very watch upon the back of the horse, fomeful enemy. One of thefe riders fits times with a faddle and fometimes without one, with only a fwitch or fhort ftick in one hand, carefully ma hind him fits his companion, who has naging the bridle with the other; be no other arms but a broad-fword, fuch this exercife had affembled from a great diftance to meet Ayto Confu at Tcherkin. He and Engedan, from the moment they arrived, had been overlooking, from the precipice, their fervants training and managing their horfes in the market-place below. Great bunches of the finest canes had been brought from Kuara for javelins; and the whole houfe was employed in fitting heads to them in the most advantageous manner. though I fhould have been very well For my part, contented to have remained where I was, yet the preparations for fport of fo noble a kind roufed my fpirits, and made me defirous to join in it. the other hand, the ladies all decla. On red, that they thought, by leaving them, we were devoting them to death as is ufed by the Sclavonians, and or flavery, as they did not doubt, if the Shangalla miffed us, they would come forward to the mountain and flay them all. But a fufficient garrifon was left under Azage Cyrillos, and Billetana Gueta Ammonios; and we were well affured that the Shangalla, being informed we were out, and armed, and knowing our numbers, would take care to keep clofe in their thickets far out of our way. On the 6th, an hour before day, after a hearty breakfaft, we mounted on horfeback, to the number of about thirty, belonging to Ayto Confu. But there was another body, both of horfe and foot, which made hunting the elephant their particular bufinefs. These men dwell conftantly in the woods, and know very little the ufe of bread, living entirely upon the fleth of the beafts they kill, chiefly that of the elephant or rhinoceros. They are exceedingly thin, light, and agile, both on horfeback and foot; are very fwarthy, though few of them black; none of them woolly-headed, and all of them have European features. They are called Agageer, a name of their profeflion, not of their nation, which comes from the word Agar, and fignifies to hough or ham-firing which is brought from Triefte. His left hand is employed grafping the fword by the handle, and about fourteen inches of the blade is covered with whip-cord. This part he takes in his right hand, without any danger of being hurt by it; and, though the edges of the lower part of the fword are as fharp as a razor, he carries it without a fcabbard. feeding, the horfeman rides before As foon as the elephant is found him as near his face as poffible; or, if he flies, croffes him in all directions, crying out, "I am fuch a man and fuch a man; this is my horse, that has fuch a name; I killed your father in fuch a place, and your graud. father in fuch another place; and I am now come to kill you; you are but an afs in comparifon of them." This nonfenfe he verily believes thé elephant underftands, who, chafed and angry at hearing the noife immediate ly before him, feeks to feize him with his trunk or probofcis, and, intent upon this, follows the horfe every where, turning and turning round with him, neglectful of making his efcape by running ftraight forward, in which confifts his only fafety. Af ter having made him turn once or trees, being of a fucculent quality, they bend without breaking, and return quickly to their former pofition, when they strike both horse and man fo violently, that they often beat them to pieces, and fcatter them upon the plain. Dextrous, too, as the riders are, the elephant fometimes reaches them with his truuk, with which he dashes the horse against the ground, and then fets his feet upon him, till he tears him limb from limb with his probofcis; a great many hunters die this way. Befides this, the soil, at this time of the year, is fplit into deep chafms or cavities, by the heat of the fun, fo that nothing can be more dangerous than riding. twice in purfuit of the horfe, the But the greatest number of these horfeman rides clofe up along fide of him, and drops his companion just behind on the off fide; and while he engages the elephant's attention upon the horse, the footman behind gives him a drawn ftroke juft above the heel, or what in man is called the tendon of Achilles. This is the critical moment; the horfeman immediately wheels round, and takes his companion up behind him, and rides off full speed after the rest of the herd, if they have started more than one; and fometimes an expert Agagcer will kill three out of one herd. If the fword is good, and the man not a fraid, the tendon is commonly entire ly feparated; and if it is not cut through, it is generally fo far divided, that the animal, with the ftrefs he puts upon it, breaks the remain ing part alunder. In either cafe, he remains incapable of advancing a step, till the horseman returning, or his companions coming up, pierce him through with javelins and lances; he then falls to the ground, and expires with the lofs of blood. The Agageer nearest me prefently lamed his elephant, and left him ftanding. Ayto Engedan, Ayto Confu, Guebra Mariam, and feveral others, fixed their fpears in the other, before the Agageer bad cut his tendons. My Agagcer, however, having wounded the firit elephant, failed in the pursuit of the fecond, and, being clote upon him at entering the wood, be received a violent blow from a branch of a tree which the elephant had bent by his weight, and, after paffing, allowed it to replace itfelf, when it knocked down both the riders, and very much hurt the horfe. This, indeed, is the great danger in elephant-hunting; for fome of the trees, that are dry and fhort, break, by the violent preffure of fo immenfe a body moving fo rapidly, and fall apon the purfuers, or across the roads. The elephant once flain, they cut the whole flesh off his bones into thongs, like the reins of a bridle, and hang theie, like feftoons, upon the branches of trees, till they become perfectly dry, without falt, and they then lay them by for their provifion in the feafon of the rains. I need fay nothing of the figure of the elephant; his form is known, and anecdotes of his life and character are to be found every where. But his defcription, at length, is given, with his ufual accuracy and elegance, by that great mafter of natural history, the Count de Buffon, my most venerable, learned, and amiable friend, the Pliny of Europe, and the true portrait of what a man of learning and fashion fhould be. I fhall only take upon me to refolve a difficulty which he feems to have had, for what use the teeth of the elephant and the horns of the rhinoceros were intended. He, with reafon, explodes the vulgar prejudice, that thefe arms were given them by Nature to fight with each other. He afks very properly, What can be the ground of that animofity? neither of them are carnivorous; they do not couple together, therefore are not rivals in ové, and, as for food, the vaft forefts they inhabit furnith them with an abundant and everlasting store. But neither the elephant nor rhi noceros eat grass. The sheep, goats, horfes, cattle, and all the beats of the country, live upon branches of trees. There are, in every part of thefe immenfe forests, trees of a foft, fucculent fubitance, full of pith. Thefe are the principal food of the elephant and rhinoceros. They firt eat the tops of thefe leaves and branches; they then, with their horns or teeth, begin as near to the oot as they can, and rip, or cut the more woody part, or trunks of thefe, up to where they were eaten before, till they fall in fo many pliable pieces of the fize of laths. After this, they take all thefe in their monitrous mouths, and twill them round as we could do the leaves of a lettuce, The weitiges of this procefs, in its different tages, we faw every day throughout the foreft; and the hotas of the rhinoceros, and teeth of the elephant, are often found broken, when their gluttony leads them to attempt too large or firm a tree. There now remained but two ele. phants of those that had been difco vered, which were a fhe one with a calf. The Agageer would willingly have let these alone, as the teeth of the female are very fmall, and the young one is of no fort of value, even for food, its flefh fhrinking much up on drying. But the hunters would not be limited in their fport. The people having obferved the place of her retreat, thither we eagerly follow ed. She was very foon found, and as foon lamed by the Agageers; but when they came to wound her with the darts, as every one did in their turn, to our very great furprife, the young one, which had been fuffered to efcape unheeded and unpurfued, camé out from the thicket apparently in great anger, running upon the hories and men with all the violence it was ૦૧ Vou. XII. No. 71 matter of. I was amazed; and as much as ever I was, upon fuch an occafion, affisted, at feeing the great affection of the little animal defending its wounded mother, heedlefs of its own life or fafety. I therefore cried to them, for God's fake to fpare the mother, though it was then too late; and the calf had made feveral rude attacks upon me, which I avoided without difficulty but, I am happy to this day, in the reflection that I did not strike it. At laft, making one of its attacks upon Ayto Enge dán, it hurt him a little on the leg; upon which he thrust it through with his lance, as others did after, and it then fell dead before its wounded mother, whom it had so affectionately defended. It was about the fize of an afs, but round, big-bellied, and heavily made; and was fo futious, and unruly, that it would easily have broken the leg either of man or horfe, could it have overtaken them, and joftled against them properly. Here is an example of a beaft (a young one too), poffeffing abstracted fentiments to a very high degree. By its flight on the first appearance of the hunters, it is plain it apprehends ed danger to itself; it alfo reflected upon that of its mother, which was the caufe of its return to her affistance. This affection or duty, or let us call it any thing we pleafe, except instinct, was ftronger than the fear of danger; and it must have conquered that fear by reflection before it returned, when it refolved to make its beft and laft efforts, for it never at tempted to fly afterwards: forgive that part of my readers, who know me and themselves fo little, as to think I believe it worth my while to play the monntebank, for the great honour of diverting them; an honour far from being of the first rate in my efteem. If they fhould fhew, in this place, a degree of doubt, that, for once, I am making ufe of the privi lege of travellers, and dealing a little' freely in the marvellous, it would be much more to the credit of their difcernment, than their prodigious fcruples about the reality or poffibility of eating raw flesh; a thing that has been recorded by the united teftimony of all that ever vifited Abyffinia for thefe two hundred years; has nothing unfeasonable in itself, though contrary to our practice in other cafes; and can only be called in queftion now, through weaknefs, ignorance, or an intemperate defire to find fault, by thofe that believed that a man could get into a quart bottle. What I relate of the young elephant contains difficulties of another kind; though I am very well perfuaded fome will fwallow it eafily, who cannot digeft the raw flesh. In both inftances I adhere ftrictly to the truth; and I beg leave to affure thofe ferupulous readers, that if they knew their author, they would think that his having in vented a lie, folely for the pleafare of diverting them, was much more im probable than either of the two fore. going facts. He places his merit in having accomplished these travels in general, not in being prefent at any one mcident during the courfe of them; the believing of which can reflect no particular honour upon himfelf, nor the difbelieving it any fort of difgrace in the minds of liberal and unprejudiced men. It is for these only he would wish to write, and these are the only perfons who can profit from his narrative. The Agageers having procured as moch meat as would maintain them a long time, could not be perfuaded to continue the hunting any longer. Part of them remained with the fhe-elephant, which feemed to be the fatteft; though the one they killed firft was much the most valuable, on account of its long teeth. It was ftill alive, nor did it feem an eafy operation to kill it, without the affiftance of our Agageers, even though it was totally helpless, except with its trunk. Mr Bruce's Converfation with the King of Sennaar, on Eis return from W lan's fervant to a very Abyffinia. E were conducted by Ade- ftorey, built of clay, and the floors fpa- of earth. The chambers through which we paffed were all unfurnished, and feemed as if a great many of them had formerly been deftined as barracks for foldiers, of whom I did not fee above fifty on guard. The king was in a small room, not twenty feet fquare, to which we afcended by two fhort flights of narrow fteps. The floor of the room was covered with broad fquare tiles; over it was laid a Perfian carpet, and the walls hung with tapestry of the fame coun try; the whole very well kept, and in good order. cious good houfe, belonging to the Shekh himself, having two ftoreys, a long quarter of a mile from the king's palace. He left a meffage for us to repose ourselves, and in a day or two to wait upon the king, and that he fhould fend to tell us when we were to come to him. This we refolved to have complied with most exactly; but the very next morning, the 30th of April, there came a fervant from the palace to fummon us to wait upon the king, which we immediately obeyed. I took with me three fer vants, black Soliman, Ifmael the Turk, and my Greek fervant Mi chael. The palace covers a prodigious deal of ground. It is all of one The king was fitting upon a mattrefs, laid on the ground, which was likewife covered with a Perfian carpet, and sound him was a number of cushions |
