306 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



10,000 to 12,000 each year. This could not long be kept up, 

 and finally the walrus herds became so thinned out that 

 their pursuit ceased to be profitable. Protective legislation 

 is strongly urged to forestall the threatened extermination 

 of the animals, as not only the quite practicable legitimate 

 pursuit of them is checked, but the many natives of the 

 region who depend on the walrus catch for subsistence have 

 been reduced to serious straits.* 



Narwhal and walrus ivory seem to have come in limited 

 quantity to the Japanese, even before Dutch and Portuguese 

 traders brought it in. A description, and even a sketch of 

 the animal, were given to their countrymen by some Japa- 

 nese sailors who had been shipwrecked on the Aleutian Is- 

 lands.! Now and then, once in a great while, some chance 

 or mishap has caused the appearance of a stray specimen of 

 the species in Japanese waters. Both walrus and narwhal 

 ivory have been used by Japanese carvers for their famous 

 netsuMs. Of the narwhal "horn" similar tales were told in 

 Japan as in medieval Europe- — namely, that it was a "uni- 

 corn's horn" and an infallible antidote to poison; as such it 

 was valued at more than its weight in gold. All these fancies 

 were undoubtedly brought to Japan by the Dutch and Portu- 

 guese traders, who were clever enough to turn to profitable 

 account any "fairy tales" which they heard. 



Walrus ivory {sir mahi) was the material of an elaborately 

 ornamented sword-hilt made in Ulwar, India, in 1861. At 

 the top and ends of the cross-bar are placed golden tigers' 

 and lions' heads, forming a very bold and effective decora- 

 tion. J 



These forms of ivory have been utilized by the Eskimos 



*J. A. Allen, in Amer. Mus. Jour., 1913, p. 42. 



fGiven in A. E. V. Nordenskjold's "Die Umsegelung Asiens und Europas," Vol. I, 

 p. 140, as noted by Laufer, op. cit., p. 38, note. 



JCol. T. H. Hendley, "Indian Animals, True and False, in Art, Religion," etc.; the 

 Journal of Indian Art and Industry, Vol. XVI, No. 126, April, 1914, PI. XIII, Fig. b. 



