The Elephant: Its Mercy, Its Fears, and Its Habits
Bestiary entry on the elephant — sparing small creatures, dread of squealing pigs, love of rivers, hatred of rats
A full page of Leonardo's bestiary, written in mirror-script in pen, continuing an entry on the elephant from the previous folios. The text tells how the elephant sets small creatures aside with its trunk so as not to trample them and never harms unless provoked, how a fallen elephant is rescued by its companions who fill the pit with branches and stones, and how it dreads the squealing of pigs. It closes with the elephant's love of rivers, its inability to swim because of its weight, its diet of stones and tree-trunks, its hatred of rats, and how it crushes flies in the folds of its skin. A large ink blot sits in the middle of the page.
On this page
The elephant's gentleness and its fear of swine
With its trunk the elephant sets small living things aside so as not to crush them underfoot, and never does harm unless provoked. When one has fallen into a pit, the others fill the pit with branches, earth and stones until the raised floor lets it climb free. Yet it greatly fears the squealing of pigs, and fleeing backwards it does no less damage with its feet to its own kind than to enemies.
Diet and habits of the elephant
The elephant delights in rivers and always goes wandering about them, but because of its great weight it cannot swim. It devours stones, and the trunks of trees are its most welcome food. It hates rats; and flies, delighting in its smell and alighting on it, are seized in the skin and killed in its tight folds.