274 THE ELEPHANT. 



tained from Africa were found insufficient. With 

 the decline, however, of those countries, the demand 

 for this beautiful and durable article became 

 gradually less, and ultimately it fell quite into dis- 

 use. Indeed, the ivory trade seems to have been 

 suspended for upwards of a thousand years, a cir- 

 cumstance which allowed the poor elephants again 

 to increase and multiply. At this day, however, 

 the demand for ivory has revived; and now promises 

 fair, not only to rival the consumption of the 

 ancients, but to effect the destruction of the whole 

 species from which the commodity is obtained. 



In closing these remarks, I may mention that 

 when the Portuguese arrived at Angola, in the be- 

 ginning of the seventeenth century, they found 

 ivory so abundant (having accumulated for ages) 

 that, according to the testimony of Andrew Battell, 

 the natives " had their idols of wood in most of 

 their towns fashioned like a negro, and at^the foot 

 thereof was a great heap of elephants' teeth, con- 

 taining three or four tons of them ; these were 

 piled in the earth, and upon them were set the 

 skulls of dead men, which they had slain in wars, 

 in commemoration of their victory." 



Polybius tells us, " that some centuries before 

 his time, ivory was so abundant in Africa 

 ths.it some of the native tribes used tusks for pali- 

 sadings and door-posts." And this statement 

 is in no wise to bo discredited, as authentic 

 accounts have lately reached us, " that, up to a 

 very recent period, the people of Manyema (;i 

 country in the interior of Eastern Africa), btin^ 



