The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2 / Page 492 (Color Image)

0492	The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.2

There can indeed be no doubt that elephants from the countries on the west of
the Red Sea were caught and tamed and used for war, systematically and on a great
scale, by the second and third Ptolemies, and the latter (Euergetes) has com-
memorated this, and his own use of Troglodytic and Ethiopic elephants, and the fact
of their encountering the elephants of India, in the Adulitic Inscription recorded by
Cosmas.
This author however, who wrote about A.D. 545, and had been at the Court of
Axum, then in its greatest prosperity, says distinctly : "The Ethiopians do not
understand the art of taming elephants ; but if their King should want one or two for
show they catch them young, and bring them up in captivity." Hence, when we
find a few years later (A.D. 570) that there was one great elephant, and some say
thirteen elephants,* employed in the army which Abraha, the Abyssinian Ruler of
Yemen led against Mecca, an expedition famous in Arabian history as the War of the
Elephant, we are disposed to believe that these must have been elephants imported
from India. There is indeed a notable statement quoted by Ritter, which if trust-
worthy would lead to another conclusion : "Already in the 20th year of the Hijra
(A.D. 641) had the Nubas and Bejas hastened to the help of the Greek Christians of
Oxyrhynchus (Bahnasa of the Arabs) . . . . against the first invasion of the
Mahommedans, and according to the exaggerated representations of the Arabian
Annalists, the army which they brought consisted of 50,000 men and 1300 war-
elephants."† The Nubians certainly must have tamed elephants on some scale down
to a late period in the Middle Ages, for elephants,—in one case three annually,—
formed a frequent part of the tribute paid by Nubia to the Mahomedan sovereigns of
Egypt at least to the end of the 13th century ; but the passage quoted is too isolated
to be accepted without corroboration. The only approach to such a corroboration
that I know of is a statement by Poggio in the matter appended to his account of
Conti's Travels. He there repeats some information derived from the Abyssinian
envoys who visited Pope Eugenius IV. about 1440, and one of his notes is : "They
have elephants very large and in great numbers ; some kept for ostentation or
pleasure, some as useful in war. They are hunted ; the old ones killed, the young
ones taken and tamed." But the facts on which this was founded probably amounted
to no more than what Cosmas had stated. I believe no trustworthy authority since
the Portuguese discoveries confirms the use of the elephant in Abyssinia ;‡ and
Ludolf, whose information was excellent, distinctly says that the Abyssinians did not
tame them. (Cathay, p. clxxxi. ; Quat., Mém., sur l'Égypte, II. 98, 113 ; India in
xvth Century, 37 ; Ludolf, I. 10, 32 ; Armandi, Militaire des Éléphants, p. 548.)

Note 5.—To the 10th century at least the whole coast country of the Red Sea,
from near Berbera probably to Suakin, was still subject to Abyssinia. At this time
we hear only of "Musalman families" residing in Zaila' and the other ports, and
tributary to the Christians (see Mas'udi, III. 34).
According to Bruce's abstract of the Abyssinian chronicles, the royal line was
superseded in the 10th century by Falasha Jews, then by other Christian families,
and three centuries of weakness and disorder succeeded. In 1268, according to
Bruce's chronology, Icon Amlac of the House of Solomon, which had continued to
rule in Shoa, regained the empire, and was followed by seven other princes whose
reigns come down to 1312. The history of this period is very obscure, but Bruce
gathers that it was marked by civil wars, during which the Mahomedan communities

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National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books