THE STORY OF THE ELEPHANTS 271 



imagination, like the dragon, for he has actually been seen in the 

 flesh, and not only seen, but eaten, both by men and animals ! 

 But, for all that, men's minds have been busy for centuries past 

 making up tales, often of the wildest description, about him ; and 

 it is little wonder that a creature whose bones are found in the 

 soils and gravels, etc., over more than half the world, and whose 

 body has been seen frozen in Siberian ice, should have given rise 

 to many tales and superstitions. To students of folk-lore these 

 legends are of considerable interest, and to some extent also to 

 men of science. To the latter, however, one of its many points 

 of interest is that palaeontology may be said to have been founded 

 on the Mammoth. Cuvier, the illustrious founder of the science 

 of organic remains, was enabled, by his accurate and minute 

 knowledge of the structures of living animals, to prove to his 

 astonished contemporaries that the Mammoth bones and teeth, 

 so plentifully discovered in Europe, were not such as could have 

 belonged to any living elephant, and consequently that there 

 must have existed, at some previous period in the world's history, 

 an elephant of a different kind, and quite unknown to naturalists. 

 This was a new idea, and accordingly one that met with opposition 

 as well as incredulity. 



It was thought in those days that whatever animals lived in the 

 past must have resembled those now inhabiting the world, and 

 the idea of extinct types unknown to man, and unknown to the 

 regions where their bones were found embedded below the soil, 

 was of so novel and startling a character as to appear incredible. 

 Besides, the Mosaic account of Creation made no direct reference to 

 extinct animals, and therefore the notion was not to be entertained ! 



of Job signifies an unknown animal. In an ancient Chinese work, of the fifth 

 century before Christ, it is spoken of under the name tien-schu, that is to say, 

 " the mouse which hides itself." 



