The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1874-12-14
The Elephant Country.
SOMETHING TO CONFIRM TIE TRUTHFUL STATE
MENTs OF THE MARINER SlNBAD.
rEroYn fhe Toudnn Telppraph.l

SOMETHING TO CONFIRM TIE TRUTHFUL STATE
MENTs OF THE MARINER slNBAD.
from the London Telegraph
Somewhere in the marvellous yarns which
Sinbad the sailor contriyed to spin for the
| benefit of the al-puissant Haroun Alraschid,
and Giafir, bis vizier, is an account Of the
burial.pIace of the elephants. Sinbad, sur
rounded by the monslrous brutes, has scaled
tree, in which he is besieged for seven days
and seven nights. On the eighth day, an old
bull, the "rogue" of the herd, rends the tree
up by the roots, and Sin bad, falling headlong
to the ground, judges it is the safest course
to feign death. The elephant, disdaining to
wreak its rage upon a lifeiess enemy, picks
the old sailor up and quietly carries him to
the great burial-place Of the tribe "a high
bill some miles in circuit, surrounded by i'm
penetrable forests and thickly covered with
the bones and tusks of generation after gene
ration of !" the brute which bears between
its eyes the serpent for hand" Sinbad,
with commendable prudence, continues to
counterfeit death till not an elephant is in
sight; and then, with an alacrity equally
commendable, loads raft with picked tusks,
makes his way with them to Bagdad, and so
finds himself rich man. Modern research
has gone far to rehabiliate the credit of
Sinbad the sailor. We know that the long
narrative of his seven voyages is no idle
fairy tale, but that it embodies the genu.
inc tradition Of old nayigators, such
as Hanno, and that its main facts
are substantially accurate. The valley Of
the diamonds actually exists in Ceylon. The
great rukh once built its nest in Madagascar,
and tapped its monstrous wings to and fro
between the island and the mainland; and
there is good ground to believe that their tale
of the great burial.pIace of the elephant
race is no mere fable, but that high upon the
table-land OF Central Africa, on the farthest
side Of Nanganyika, ivory is as plentiful as
the fossil-bedS Of Siberia, whence are dug I'D
the huge mammoth tusks that furnish nine
tenths of the raw material operated upon by
our London ivory-turners. Indeed. it would
almost seem ssif the energy of the Zanzibar
merchant had at length found way to Sim
bads charmed hill, for within the last year
the Importation Of ivory has doubled or
does each pair Of tusks that finds its way to
England represent slaughtered elephant,
| and is War Of extSmination being waSed
the ultimate effect OF which must be to rem.
der the huge brute rs extinct as the dinorpis
itself2
The latter, we fear, Is the true answer.
The elephant, like the whale, is dying out.
In India he is becoming almost as rare as is
the red deer ia England. The hunters have
driven him farther and farther. inland. I'm.
less something be done to protect him he
will before long become upon tie main con.
tinent, at any rate,) altogether extinct, and
Sahio will have to import his elephants from
Blrmah and Ceylon, much as we in lngland
import our horses from Ireland, AID our
foxes from any country that will send them
TO us III sufflcient number, and of sutflcie ut
size aHd strength. In Africa, it Is true, the
evil is not yet past remedy. Over the
vast tsble-iands of that unknown CONT. |
uent the elephant still royes in countless
droyes, and still holds in undisputed
possession vast tracts to which rum
apd glass beads, cast-igoa mpskets and !