194 COMxAION BRITISH ANIMALS 



Gorberton Churchy Lincolnshire. Whether this is a 

 traditional memory of elephants^ or whether the 

 elephant is here used, as the ancients used it, as a 

 symbol of eternity, is difficult to say. The trunk of 

 the elephant in the above figure is spiral. 



Mr. Watkins derives the word '^ mammoth " from 

 Behemoth. The Behemoth of Job '' eateth grass as 

 an ox . . . He moveth his tail like a cedar.^^ 

 '^ Behold he drinketh up a river and hasteth not.^^ 

 All this sounds very much like the habits of the 

 elephant, but Mr. Millais considers " mammoth '^ to be 

 a corruption of the Siberian word " Mamantu,^^ 

 which means '^ ground-dweller,^^ since the people of 

 that country regarded it as a huge subterranean 

 mole. 



The figure of an African elephant is found on 

 some Carthaginian coins, as an emblem of eternity, and 

 the same idea is expressed in the East by the 

 figure of the Indian elephant resting on a gigantic 

 tortoise, supporting the world. On a medal of the 

 Emperor Philip we find engraved an elephant with 

 a child on his back carr3dng arrows. It is possible 

 this figure may represent the idea of the eternity of 

 love. 



The " cornes de lecorne,^^ given by Haroun al 

 Raschid to King Charlemagne, are considered to 

 have been mammoth tusks. 



Kipling, in the *^ Jungle Book,^ gives one of the 

 most vivid pictures of elephant character. The story 

 tells how the great elephant, Kala Nag, carried his 

 small mahout, Taomai, unhurt, not only to the great 

 elephant drive or capture of elephants, but to the 



