Embassy to Tamerlane, 1403-1406 / translated from the Spanish by Guy Le Strange with an introduction.
- Ruy González de Clavijo
- Date:
- [1928]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Embassy to Tamerlane, 1403-1406 / translated from the Spanish by Guy Le Strange with an introduction. Source: Wellcome Collection.
295/420 page 263
![in with silk facings, and the caálle [or howdah] had fout green and yellow ¿landards at the corners and in each were five or six men. Further there was a man seated on the neck of the elephant who carried a goad in his hand whereby to guide the beaál and make him do his bidding. These elephants were very black and their skins had no hair except indeed at the tail which is hairy as is that of the camel, where the hairs are of silky texture. These elephants were huge in size, each being of the weight of four or five big bulls. Their bodies are clumsily built: they have no grace of form, and it is as though each were a great sack that had been ¿luffed out full. At the ankle-joint the leg comes down quite ¿Iraight, as is the case with the buffalo, but with the elephant the legs, both the pair before and the pair behind, are equally huge of size. The foot is round and plump, with the five toes, each with its black nail not unlike a human toe nail. The elephant has no neck to speak of, and the upper rib bones here are of great size in the fore part, so that his head is attached direólly on the body, and he cannot put his mouth to the ground for the purpose of eating. The ears are very large, round in shape and the rim is as it were notched. The elephant’s eyes are extremely small. Sitting behind the neck his keeper rides aálride, and he carries a goad in his hand with which he urges the beaál forward making him to go whither he will. The elephant’s head is very large, indeed not unlike the pack saddle of an ass in shape, but smaller. In front in the face is a hollow from which the trunk ¿tarts and this comes down where the nose would be otherwise. The trunk is formed broad above and tapering below, somewhat in shape like a sleeve, and it reaches right down to the ground. The trunk is perforated through¬ out and by means of it he drinks at his need, for he puts the end into the water sucking it up into his mouth, as may be said, through his nose.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31354932_0295.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
