ELEMENTS 



2005 



.ELEPHANT 



ASIATIC EPHAN" 



(a) Decoy (tame) elephant coaxing wild one into position in stockade so it can be tied. (5) 

 Wild animal securely fastened prior to undergoing the ordeal of taming, (c, d) Tamed elephants at 

 work. 



zas of two lines each, in which lines of five 

 feet and six feet alternated (see METER). The 

 Romans applied the term elegy to. love poems 

 of the type written by the great lyric poet 

 Catullus. 



ELEMENTS. See CHEMISTRY, subhead Ele- 

 ments. 



ELEPHANT, el' e font, a huge, clumsy-look- 

 ing animal with long, flexible trunk, large 

 flapping ears, and rough, wrinkled hide of 

 dark gray. It is the children's favorite in cir- 

 cuses and zoological gardens. The elephant 

 is the largest land animal of the world to-day. 

 There are two existing species, the African and 

 the Indian. 



General Characteristics. The body of an 

 elephant is very bulky. The legs are thick 

 and almost straight, and covering the toes are 

 hooflike nails. Set on a short, thick neck is 

 a very large head from which extends that 

 source of wonder, the long tapering trunk, or 

 proboscis. This trunk, six to eight feet long, 

 is an extension of the nose and upper lip, and 

 the nostrils run all the way through it to the 

 tip, which is extremely sensitive. As the trunk 



is provided with nearly 40,000 very strong 

 muscles, it can be turned and twisted in every 

 direction and can be used as a weapon of 

 defense or offense. Its chief use, however, is 

 to obtain food and to carry it to the mouth 

 of the animal. An object as small as a peanut 

 can be picked up by the sensitive tip, or a 

 large bunch of hay can be hooked up to be 

 eaten. The trunk is also used to draw up 

 water, which is poured into the mouth, and 

 it likewise sounds the animal's loud trumpet 

 call of anger or alarm. Valves in the trunk 

 prevent food and water from going in farther 

 than necessary to hold them on the journey 

 to the mouth. As it is the seat of the keenest 

 sense, that of smell, the trunk may be carried 

 high in the air or close under the body in 

 times of danger, as a means of protecting the 

 organs. 



The eyes of elephants are small and their 

 sight is poor, but the sense of hearing is very 

 acute, the ears, which hang downward, being 

 large. The tail is short, slender and somewhat 

 hairy. Covering the body is a thick, coarse 

 hide, with only here and there a few hairs. 



