Elephant

The elephant (Elephas) is a very strong mammal that lives in warm regions.

History[]

In the mid-1st century BCE, elephants were used by wealthy Egyptians as transportation means, showing off their wealth, and as animals of war. The Medjay Bayek of Siwa encountered and killed several war elephants used by bandits and Romans across Egypt; Jumbe in the Herakleion Nome, Surus in the Green Mountains, Qetesh and Resheph in the Uab Nome, and Herwennefer in the White Desert Oasis.^[1]

Bayek also faced down and killed two other war elephants during the Battle of the Nile in 48 BCE, first while riding in a chariot with Julius Caesar to the Roman fleet, and the other as Pothinus, Ptolemy XIII's regent and a member of the Order of the Ancients, rode one named Yugr Tn during his fight against Bayek some days after the attack on Alexandria.^[2]

In 754 CE, a troupe of elephants and acrobatic dancers made up part of a parade in celebration of the annual Flower Banquet held in the market place of Chang'an, China.^[3]

In 1841, elephants were adorned and kept in the gardens of Ranjit Singh's summer palace in Amritsar, India. Infiltrating the palace, the Assassin Arbaaz Mir took advantage of the elephants' size in order to hide from the guards.^[4] They were also used by soldiers in the British army under the employ of the East India Company, but were prone to easily spooking and wrecking havoc due to the army carelessly firing mortars around the creatures in failed attempts to kill Arbaaz.^[5]