monarch, and a procession of twelve rhinoceroses and one hundred and twenty captive elephants were paraded before him; and afterwards sent as presents to the Persian provinces; while the unfortunate people were slaughtered by his soldiers. Elephants were not always demoralized in these wars; and in another battle this same conqueror had the front of his army protected by a line of elephants, their towers filled with archers and Greek fire-flingers. At the word of command they started forward, their drivers ordering them to coil their trunks so that the sabres of the Mamelukes could not reach them. The Syrians fled before them, and were crushed under foot; others were hurled forty or fifty feet into the air; the defeat being complete, and chiefly due to the elephants. Timour’s curious experiment of adopting elephants in warfare, after he had witnessed their demoralization, was not without precedent, as Kublai Khan and Alexander did the same. Marco Polo gives a clear idea of the way elephants were used in battle:— “It happened, that, in the year 1272, the Grand Khan sent an army into the countries of Vochang and Karazan, for their protection and defence against any attack that foreigners might attempt to make.... When the King of Mien and Bangala in India, who was powerful in the number of his subjects, in extent of territory, and in wealth, heard that an army of Tartars had arrived at Vochang, he took the resolution of advancing immediately to attack it, in order that by its destruction the Grand Khan should be deterred from again attempting to station a force upon the borders of his dominions. For this purpose he assembled a very large army, including a multitude of elephants (an animal with which his country abounds), upon whose backs were placed battlements, or castles, of wood, capable of containing the number of from twelve to sixteen in each. With these, and a numerous army of horse and foot, he took the road to Vochang, where the Grand Khan’s army lay, and, encamping at no great distance from it, intended to give his troops a few days of rest. The King of Mien, learning that the Tartars had descended into the plain, immediately put his army in motion, took up his ground at the distance of about a mile from the enemy, and made a disposition of his force, placing the elephants in the front, and the cavalry and infantry in two extended wings in their rear, but leaving between them a considerable interval. Here he took his own station, and proceeded to animate his men, and encouraging them to fight valiantly, assuring them of victory, as well from the superiority of their numbers, being four to one, as from their formidable body of armed elephants, whose shock the enemy, who had never before been engaged with such combatants, could by no means resist. Then, giving orders for sounding a prodigious number of warlike instruments, he advanced boldly with his whole army towards that