178 ANIMALS OF THE PAST 
belonging to what the 'Tartars called “‘ Mam- 
antu ”; later on, Blumenbach pressed the com- 
mon name into scientific use as “ Mammut,” 
and Cuvier gallicized this into “ Mammouth,” 
whence by an easy transition we get our fam- 
iliar mammoth. We are so accustomed to 
use the word to describe anything of remark- 
able size that it would be only natural to sup- 
pose that the name Mammoth was given to 
the extinct elephant because of its extraordi- 
nary bulk. Exactly the reverse of this is true, 
however, for the word came to have its present 
meaning because the original possessor of the 
name was a huge animal. ‘The Siberian peas- — 
ants called the creature “ Mamantu,” or — 
“ ground-dweller,” because they believed it to 
be a gigantic mole, passing its life beneath the — 
ground and perishing when by any accident it — 
saw the light. ‘The reasoning that led to this 
belief was very simple and the logic very good; 
no one had ever seen a live Mamantu, but © 
there were plenty of its bones lying at or near — 
the surface; consequently if the animal did not 
live above the ground, it must dwell below. 
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