ELEPHANT HUNTING, ETC.
The record
of a great elephant hunt of the Egyptian King Thothmes III (c.
1501-1447 B. C.) is inscribed upon the walls of the tomb of his scribe
Amen-em-heb, in the Theban Necropolis. The various translations differ
in some minor points but agree essentially. The following is the
rendering of a recent German version:*
"
Again I saw another glorious deed accomplished by the Lord of the Two
Lands, in Niy. He hunted one hundred and twenty elephants because of
their tusks. I encountered the largest of them, when he was charging
against His Majesty. I lopped off his trunk [lit. "his hand"] while he
still lived, before the King, while I stood in the water between the
rocks. Upon this my Lord rewarded me with gold . . . and with three
changes of raiment."
That
Assyrian monarchs also hunted the elephant is shown in an inscription
of Tiglath Pileserl (c. 1100 B. C), which was found at the ruins of
Kalat Sherkat, on the right bank of the Tigris and is now in the
British Museum. The king says: "I brought down ten immense bull
elephants in the region of Harran, and on the banks of the Haber. I
took four elephants alive. The skins and tusks, as well as the live
elephants, I sent to my city Asshur."f
*"
Altorientalische Texte," ed. by Dr. Hugo Grossman, Tübingen, 1909, p.
242. See also W. Max Müller, "Asien und Europa," Leipsic, 1893, p. 263,
and James Henry Breasted, "Ancient Records of Egypt," Chicago, 1906,
Vol. II, p. 232.
fKeilinschriftliche Bibliothek, ed. by Eberhard Schrader, Vol. I, Berlin, 1889, p. 89. German trans, by Hugo Winckler.
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