When Bishop Heber was at the court of Baroda, “The Rájah,” he says, “was anxious to know whether I had observed his rhinoceros and his hunting-tigers, and offered to show me a day’s sport with the last, or to bait an elephant for me,—a cruel amusement which is here not uncommon.... I do not think he understood my motive for declining to be present.” “At the palace of Jyepoor,” says the same writer, “we were shown five or six elephants in training for a fight. Each was separately kept in a small, paved court, with a little litter, but very dirty. They were all what is called ‘must;’ that is, fed on stimulating substances, to make them furious: and all showed in their eyes, their gaping mouths, and the constant motion of their trunks, signs of fever and restlessness. Their mahouts seemed to approach them with great caution; and, on hearing a step, they turned round as far as their chains would allow, and lashed fiercely with their trunks.” Mr. Crawford states that elephant combats were common in his day; but, as a rule, the animals, directed by mahouts, fought across a stout railing, the method of attack being to butt each other, and cut with the tusks. Father Tachard, a French Jesuit, witnessed an elephant-fight in Siam, in 1685, before the king. The animals were matched against each other, but were securely tied by the hind-legs, so they could not severely injure each other. They fenced with their tusks, striking such powerful blows that one of the combatants lost its tusks. Elephant-fights have been a favorite amusement in India from the very earliest times. At Agra, according to the “Ayeen Akbery,” the emperor built a large amphitheatre especially for these performances; and Robert Covert, who travelled in Hindostan in 1609, in referring to Agra, tells of elephants fighting before the Mogul, parted with rockets of wild-fire, made round, like hoops, which they thrust in their faces. The finest account extant of one of these combats is given by Bernier:— “The festivals generally conclude with an amusement unknown in Europe,—a combat between two elephants, which takes place in the presence of all the people, on the sandy space near the river; the king, the principal ladies of the court, and the omrahs, viewing the spectacle from different apartments in the fortress.