932 AH. OCT. 18th 1525 to OCT. 8th 1526 AD. 489
rumour that it is heard of in some islands as 10 qdri1 high, but in this tract it2 is not seen above 4 or 5. It eats and drinks entirely with its trunk ; if it lose the trunk, it cannot live. It has two great teeth (tusks) in its upper jaw, one on each side of its trunk ; by setting these against walls and trees, it brings them down ; with these it fights and does whatever hard tasks fall to it. People call these ivory {'dj, var.gMJ) ; they are highly valued by Hindustanis. The elephant has no hair.3 It is much relied on by Hindustanis, accompanying every troop of their armies. It has some useful qualities : it crosses great rivers with ease, carrying a mass of baggage, and three or four have gone dragging without trouble the cart of the mortar (qazdn) it takes four or five hundred men to haul.4 But its stomach is large ; one elephant eats the corn (biigkuz) of two strings {qitdr) of camels.5
The rhinoceros is another. This also is a large animal, equal in bulk to perhaps three buffaloes. The opinion current in those countries (Tramontana) that it can lift an elephant on its horn, seems mistaken. It has a single horn on its nose, more than nine inches {qdrish) long ; one of two qdrish is not seen.6 Out of one large horn were made a drinking-vessel 7 and a dice-box, leaving over [the thickness of] 3 or 4 hands.8 The rhinoceros'
1 Fers. trs. gas = 24 inches. // est bon de rappeler que le mot turk qan, que la version persane rend par gaz, disigne propremcnt I'espace compris entre le haul de Vipaule fusqu'au bout des doigts (de Courteille, ii, 189 note). The qan like one of its equivalents, the ell (Zenker), is a variable measure : it seems to approach more nearly to a yard than to a gas of 24 inches. See Memoirs of Jahangir (R. & B. pp. 18, 141 and notes) for the heights of elephants, and for discussion of some measures.
* khiid, itself.
3 i.e. pelt ; as Erskine notes, its skin is scattered with small hairs. Details such as this one stir the question, for whom was Babur writing? Not for Hindustan where what he writes is patent; hardly for Kabul; perhaps for Transoxania.
4 Shaikh Zain's wording shows this reference to be to a special piece of artillery, perhaps that of f. 302.
5 A string of camels contains from five to seven, or, in poetry, even more (Vullers, ii, J28, sermone poetico series decern camelorum). The item of food compared is corn only (bughiiz) and takes no account therefore of the elephant's green food
6 The Ency. Br. states tnat the horn seldom exceeds a foot in length ; there is one in the B. M. measuring 18 inches.
1 ab-kkwura kishti, water-drinker's boat, in which name kishti may be used with reference to shape as boat is in sauce-boat. Erskine notes that rhinoceros-horn is -supposed to sweat on approach of poison.
8 ailik, Pers. trs. angusht, finger, each seemingly representing about one inch, a hand's thickness, a finger's breadth.
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