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August, 1877.]
THE INDIKA OF MEGASTHENES.
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the care of markets, barbours, and temples 10 Next to the city magistrates there is a third governing body, which directs military affairs. This also consists of six divisions, with five members to each. One division is appointed to cooperate with the admiral of the fleet, another with the superintendent of the bullocktrains which are used for transporting en- gines of war, food for the soldiers, provender for the cattle, and other military requisites. They supply servants who beat the drum, and others who carry gongs; grooms also for the
grooms also for the horses, and mechanists and their assistants. To the sound of the gong they send out foragers to bring in grass, and by a system of rewards and punishments ensure the work being done with despatch and safety. The third division has charge of the foot-soldiers, the fourth of the horses, the fifth of the war-chariots, and the sixth of the elephants. There are royal stables for the horses and elephants, and also #royal magazine for the arms, because the soldier has to return his arms to the magazine, and his horse and his elephant to the stables. They use the elephants without bridles. The chariots are drawn on the march by oxen, but the horses are led along by a halter, that their legs may not be galled and inflamed, nor their spirits damped by drawing chariots. In addition to the charioteer, there are two fighting men who sit up in the chariot beside him. The war-elephant carries four men-three who shoot arrows, and the driver. (Fragm. XXVII. follows.)
FRAGM. XXXV. Ælian, Hist. Anim. XIII. 10. Of the use of Horses and Elephants.
Cf. Fragm. XXXIV. 13-15. When it is said that an Indian by springing forward in front of a horse can check his speed
and hold him back, this is not true of all Indians, but only of such as have been trained from boyhood to manage horses; for it is a practice with them to control their horses with bit and bridle, and to make them move at a measured pace and in a straight course. They neither, however, gall their tongue by the use of spiked muzzles, nor torture the root of their mouth. The pro fessional trainers break them in by forcing them to gallop round and round in a ring, especially when they see them refractory. Such as undertake this work require to have a strong hand as well as & thorough knowledge of horses. The greatest proficients test their skill by driving a chariot round and round in a ring; and in. truth it would be no trifling feat to control with ease a team of four highmettled steeds when whirling round in a circle The chariot carries two men who sit beside the charioteer. The war-elephant cither in what is called the tower, or, actually on his bare hack, carries three fighting men, of whom two shoot from the side, while one shoots from behind. There is also a fourth man, who carries in his hand the goad wherewith he guides the animal, much in the same way as the pilot and captain of the ship direct its course with the helm.
Fragm. XXXVI. Strab. XV. 1. 41-43, pp. 704-705.
Of Elephants.
Conf. Epit. 54-56. (Fragm. XXXIII. 6 has preceded this.) A private person is not allowed to keep either a horse or an elephant. These animals are held to be the special property of the king, and persons are appointed to take care of them. * The manner of hunting the elephant is this. Round a bare, patch of ground is dug a deep trench about five or six stadia in extent, and over this is thrown a very narrow bridge which
FRAGM. XXXVII.
Arr. Ind. ch. 13-14. (Fragm. XXXII. comes before this.)
Of Elephants. XIII. The Indians hunt all wild animals in the same way as the Greeks, except the elephant, which is hunted in a mode altogether peculiar, since these animals are not like any other animals. • The mode may be thus described :-The hunters having selected a level tract of arid ground, dig a
trench all round it, enclosing as much space as would suffice to encamp a large army. They make the trench with a breadth of five fathoms and a depth of four. But the earth which they throw out in the process of digging they heap up in mounds on both edges of the trench, and use it as a wall. Then they make huts for thomselves by excavating the wall on the outer edge of the trench, and in these they leave loopholes, both to admit light, and to enable thom to see when their
$" The fourfold division of the army (horse, foot, chariota, and elephants) was the same as that of Menu; but Strabo
makes a sextuple division, by adding the commissariat and naval department."
