Na’t al Fil (Nature of the African Elephant)

Usefulness of the Elephant.

Elephant meat, when cooked in water, salt and asafoetida (1), and then the broth is given to sip to someone with a chronic cough and asthma, it cures him. If it is cooked in vinegar and asafoetida (1) until boiled down to shreds and drunk by a pregnant woman, it causes an abortion. Elephant fat— When used to fumigate someone with a headache it cures him. Elephant liver— When someone with liver pain eats it with sumac juice and aubergine leaves it is beneficial for him. Its gall-bladder—When someone with epilepsy take a qirat (2) of it as a nasal injection together with a like amount of musk, it cures him. Elephant bone, that is, ivory—When a piece is taken and ground or filed and drunk with water it is beneficial against the onset of elephantiasis (3). It must be drunk with the juice of mountain mint, for it then arrests the onset of elephantiasis (3) and prevents it from increasing. When a woman drinks a mithqal  (4) of ivory filings, she conceives. Parings of it reduce pain in the fingernails when left on them. If the same weight of iron filings is added to them and they are dusted onto hemorrhoids (5), it cures them. If fragments of tusk are hung on a black thread around the necks of cattle they will be safe from plague. Elephant dung—It kills lice if smeared onto the body and left until dry. It removes leprosy and if used as a fumigant it drives bugs away. If a woman drinks some she will not conceive.  

(1) Asafoetida: a plant that has a bad smell and tastes bitter. It is sometimes called "devil's dung." People use asafoetida resin, a gum-like material, as medicine.

(2) Qirat: one twelfth of a dirham. This was the minimum wage in those days.

(3) Elephantiasis: is a condition characterized by gross enlargement of an area of the body, especially the limbs.

(4) mithqal: 4-5 gr of gold

(5) hemorrhoids: swellings containing enlarged blood vessels that are found inside or around the bottom (the rectum and anus).