166 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



The idea that the hfe of each individual is bound up with 

 that of some particular animal is quite prevalent among 

 certain natives of the African continent. Thus, in the Cross 

 River valley, a port of the German Cameroons, the natives 

 identify themselves so absolutely with animals such as the 

 hippopotamus or the elephant, and even with gazelles, fish, 

 or serpents, that the death of the animal twin brother or 

 twin sister entails the decease of the human subject, and 

 should the animal be wounded the human being is supposed 

 to fall ill in consequence. There also exists a belief that the 

 animal double will take up the quarrels of its human associ- 

 ate, and will avenge the latter upon his enemies. As a 

 general rule the natives are very chary of hunting or killing 

 animals of a class with some of whose members they them- 

 selves or their friends may stand in such an exceedingly 

 intimate relation, but in the case of the elephant hunters 

 the temptation of gain overcomes or at least minimizes the 

 effects of this curious superstition, and they excuse them- 

 selves by the assertion that they are able to distinguish those 

 elephants whose life is bound up with that of some human 

 being from those who are purely and simply animals. In- 

 deed, according to some native tales, the elephant itself gives 

 warning to the hunter of its special character by holding up 

 one of its feet in a deprecatory attitude.* 



The tenacious memory of elephants for injuries done 

 them has often been proved, but there is also evidence that 

 they are not forgetful of benefits they may have received. 

 As an example we give the anecdote of a happening at Aji- 

 meer in 1616, related on the authority of an English merchant 

 of good repute, who had first-hand knowledge of the fact. 

 The details are as follows if 



*J. G. Frazer, "Balder the Beautiful," London, 1913, Vol. II, pp. 202, 203. 

 fEdward Terry, "Relation of a Voyage in India in 1616," in Kerr's Collection of Voy- 

 ages and Travels, Edinburgh, 1824, Vol. IX, p. 395. 



