Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

RENCONTRE WITH AN ELETHANT.257

have an object in conciliating the friendship of the Emperor of Russia, and that with this view, building his expectations upon bulky presents, he should send to the Czar one of the most enormous black elephants of Asia ; it was also needful that this walking tower should be clothed with superb hangings, serving as a caparison for the colossus, and that he should be escorted by a cortege of horsemen, resembling a cloud of grasshoppers; that the whole should be followed by a file of camels, who appeared no larger than donkeys by the side of this elephant, the most enormous that I have ever beheld; it was yet further necessary, that at the summit of the living monument, should be seen a man with olive complexion and oriental costume, carrying a parasol, and sitting crosslegged upon the back of the monster; and finally, it was necessary, that whilst this potentate of the desert was thus forced to journey on foot towards Petersburg, where the climate will soon transfer him to the collection of the mammoths and the mastodons, I should be travelling post by the same route ; and that my departure from Vladimir should so coincide with that of the Persians, that, at a certain point of the deserted road, the gallop of my Russian horses should bring me behind them, and make it necessary to pass by the side of the giant; — it required nothing less, I say, than all these combined circumstances to explain the danger caused by the terror that seized my four horses, on seeing before them an animated pyramid, moving as if by magic in the midst of a crowd of strange-looking men and beasts.

Their astonishment as they approached the colossus