The Persians have, according to Chardin, a festival in honor of the inspiration of an elephant, when Abraha, a prince of Yemen, marched an army to destroy the Kaaba of Mecca, the sacred oratory which Abraham built in that city. Prior to the birth of Mohammed, the Arabians reckoned from this epoch, which they called the year of the coming of the elephants. The tradition is thus told in Sale’s Koran: “The Meccans, at the approach of so considerable a host, retired to the neighboring mountains, being unable to defend their city or temple. But God himself undertook the defence of both. For when Abraha drew near to Mecca, and would have entered it, the elephant on which he rode, which was a very large one, and named Mahmud, refused to advance any nigher to the town, but knelt down whenever they endeavored to force him that way, though he would rise and march briskly enough if they turned him towards any other quarter: and while matters were in this posture, on a sudden, a large flock of birds, like swallows, came flying from the sea-coast, every one of which carried three stones, one in each foot, and one in its bill; and these stones they threw down upon the heads of Abraha’s men, certainly killing every one they struck.” In many old works, reference is made to the fact that the elephant was a religious animal. Kircher, in his description of China, gives a plate showing a white elephant worshipping the sun and moon, which was copied from the Chinese. It was supposed that all elephants worshipped the sun. Pliny says, “We find in him qualities which are rare enough amongst men,—honesty, prudence, equity, religion also, in his worship of the sun and moon. Authors say, that, in the forests of Mauritania, the elephants, at the sight of the new moon, descend in troops to a certain river called Anelo, where they solemnly wash themselves, and, having rendered their homage to the star, return to the woods, supporting the young ones that are fatigued.” According to Vincent, in Pali Scriptures it is duly set forth “that the form under which Buddha will descend to the earth for the last time, will be that of a beautiful young white elephant, open-jawed, with a head the color of cochineal, with tusks shining like silver sparkling with gems, covered with a splendid netting of gold, perfect in organs and limbs, and majestic in appearance.”