Note 24 — Chapter I · STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS.

In the Third Book of Maccabees, which is not printed in our Apocrypha, but appears in the series in the Greek Septuagint, the author, in describing the persecution of the Jews by Ptolemy Philopater, B.C. 210, states that the king swore vehemently that he would send them into the other world, “foully trampled to death by the knees and feet of elephants” (πέμψειν εἰς ᾅδην ἐν γόνασι καὶ ποσὶ θηρίων ᾑκισμένους. 3 Mac. v. 42). Ælian makes the remark, that elephants on such occasions use their knees as well as their feet to crush their victim. (Hist. Anim. viii. 10.)