THE MAMMOTH, 259 



horns with which it dug its way through clay and mud. 

 The Chinese knew it in very early times as the " Tien-shu," 

 or "giant rat," "a stupid, inert animal, which," they said, 

 u avoids the light and lives in dark holes ; " and some of 

 their learned men thought these " earth rats " might be the 

 cause of earthquakes, which they could not otherwise satis- 

 factorily account for. 



Even late in the seventeenth century, Father Avril, when 

 travelling in Russia, was told that the ivory he saw was 

 procured by men who ventured their lives in attacking the 

 creature which produced it, which was as big and as dan- 

 gerous as a crocodile. 



The Arabs seem to have been the first to develop the 

 trade in fossil ivory, and from the corruption of their word 

 " behemoth " we get " mammoth." 



Immense quantities of the bones and horns of the fossil 

 rhinoceros are also thrown up on the shores of the Polar 

 Sea, and the inhabitants of the Siberian tundras, pr 

 swamps, believe them to be parts of a colossal bird with 

 which they declare that sundry persons have had terrific 

 fights.* 



The " claw of a griffon " was presented to Charlemagne, 

 and the Russian merchants to this day never call the sword- 

 shaped horns of the rhinoceros anything but " grip-claws." 

 As gold sand is found in some places where these " claws " 

 are buried, it is probable that the expression " taking gold 

 from under the griffons," had its origin in this notion of the 



* The vast region of the tundras extends from 64 N. lat. northwards to 

 the coast. For nine months of the year it is covered with ice ; in the 

 summer it is a swamp, producing nothing but moss. 



