404 EASTERN ETHIOPIA xxxi 



other booty he secured 1,950 frasilas of ivory. Tusks 

 at that time were worth 7 per frasila (35 pounds). In 

 some of the villages deep in the interior of Africa ;i 

 pair of large tusks could be bought for a few yards of 

 cotton sheeting or some beads. Mr. F. J. Jackson 

 traversed the slopes of Elgon in 1891, and found 

 elephant-tusks cheap and plentiful ; the natives had 

 no use for them except to make armlets, etc. ; a 

 tusk weighing sixteen pounds could be purchased for six 

 strings of beads. Many tusks are obtained from 

 elephants which die a natural death, especially in the 

 localities described by natives as " places where the 

 elephants go to die " (see p. 190). 



The difficulty is not so much in obtaining ivory, but 

 in conveying it to the coast, especially when carried by 

 men ; .often one tusk makes a load for a porter. 



The hunt for ivory in Africa has had some of the 

 romance, and been attended with as much misery, as 

 the search for gold entailed on the natives of South 

 America. Mary H. Kingsley's observations on the 

 West Coast of Africa led her to express the opinion 

 that " Ivory is everywhere an evil thing, before which 

 the quest for gold sinks into a parlour game." In days 

 gone by, every elephant-tusk brought to the coast by 

 Arab caravans might be regarded as a silent record of 

 human misery and woe. 



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dug up in Siberia," Philosophical Trans- 

 actions, 1737. 



Erode, H Tippoo Tib. London, 1907. (Translated 



by H. Havelock.) 



Potten, J. H " Carving," Encyclopaedia Britannica. 9th 



Edition. 1876. Vol. V. 



Stanley, Sir H. M. ... In Darkest Africa. Vol. I. 



Stevenson, H. W. ... "Billiard Balls," Evening News, Feb. 26, 



1910. 



Tomes, C. S "Ivory," Encyclopaedia Britannica. 9th 



Edition. 1876. Vol. XIIT. 



