Page:Ancient India as described by Megasthenês and Arrian.djvu/111

 92 coaxing words, and ofcliers by songs and the music of the drnm. ^* Few of them are found difficult to tame, for they are naturally so mild and gentle in their disposition that they approx- imate to rational creatures. Some of them take up their drivers when fallen in battle, and carry them off in safety from the field. Others, when their masters have sought refuge between their forelegs, have fought in their defence and saved their lives. If in a fit of anger they kill either the man who feeds or the man who trains them, they pine so much for their ^ loss that they refuse to take food, and sometimes die of hunger. casts her calf chiefly in spring. It is the season for the male, when he is in heat and becomes ferocious. At this time ho discharges a fatty snbstance through an orifice near the temples. It is also the season for the females, when the corresponding passage opens. ** They go with young for a period which varies from sixteen to eighteen months. The dam suckles her calf for six years. ** Most of them live as long as men who attain extreme longevity, and some live over two hundred years. They are liable to many distempers, and are not easily cured. ^' The remedy for diseases of the eye is to wash it with cows' milk. For most of their other diseases draughts of black wine are administered to them. For the cure of their wounds they are made to Digitized by Google
 * • They copulate like horses, and the female