138 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



King-chou consisted of vermilion (cinnabar), ivory, and 

 skins. The word used here for ivory, ch't, Hterally means 

 "a front tooth"; the commentaries, however, give it the 

 sense of "elephant's tooth." That elephants existed in this 

 part of China in ancient times is vouched for by many local 

 traditions, one of which tells of an elephant seen here as late 

 as the seventh century A. D., but these animals have long 

 been extinct in this region.* Probably the earliest Chinese 

 notice of ivory is in an ode attributed to the twelfth century 

 B. C. and contained in the Shi-King, or "Book of Poetry," 

 considered by sinologists the most ancient literary authority 

 as to the ancient civilizations of China. Here ivory is said 

 to have been used for decorating the bows of the chiefs. 

 In this instance the word siang, elephant, is used to denote 

 ivory; combs made of ivory are also mentioned. We are not 

 told whence this ivory was derived, but in view of the proba- 

 ble existence of elephants in the south of China, it need not 

 necessarily have been brought from without, although one 

 of the earliest Tonkinese embassies to the Court of China is 

 said to have brought an elephant's tusk as tribute to the 

 Emperor Ch'ong-wang (1115-1059 B. C.).t 



A Buddhist legend states that aeons ago Bodhisattva was 

 incarnated as the Chhadanta, or six-tusked elephant, and was 

 once pursued by a wily hunter, who had assumed the dis- 

 guise of a religious ascetic. Such was Bodhisattva's rever- 

 ence for the sacred robe that, although he was well aware of 

 the deception, he still broke off his tusks and gave them to 

 the hunter. { The earliest sculptured figures of the elephant 

 in India are said to be in the cave of Lomas Rishi in Behar, 

 and are believed to date from 250 B. C, the time of King 



*Friedrich Hirth, "The Ancient History of China to the end of the Chou DjTiasty," 

 New York, 1908, pp. 121, 214; Hu-nan-fang-wu-chi, Ch. viii, p. 9. 



fHirth, op cit. 



{Andrews, "The Elephant in Art and Industry," in the Journal of Indian Art and In- 

 dustry, Vol. X, p. 63. 



