348 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



not claim the highest artistic merit, its fidelity to nature lends 

 it a particular charm.* 



The molar of an elephant has been found in the island 

 of Luzon, Philippines. This was probably brought thither 

 from India. On the island of Mindanao a tooth of Stegodon 

 trigonocephalus mindanaoensis was discovered. This genus 

 stands between the mastodon and the modern elephant, 

 although more nearly resembling the latter. This is the 

 only instance on record of the finding of such remains in 

 the Philippine Islands. The tooth was found in the north- 

 western part of the island, and is at present in the Ethno- 

 logical Museum at Dresden (No. 2679). The discovery 

 was made by Semper, who described it as "a tooth of the 

 war god Tagbusu of the Manobos, only to be worn by a 

 Bagani (a priest or a prince); it was used as a talisman." 

 The tooth is bound with varicoloured strings, so attached 

 that it could be worn suspended. f 



The fact that the mammoth remains so far found in 

 Alaska are in a much inferior state of preservation than those 

 discovered in Siberia has been very reasonably adduced 

 as a proof that these animals became extinct at a much 

 earlier date in Alaska than in Siberia. There seems also 

 to be little doubt that most of the Alaskan mammoth re- 

 mains are not in their original place, but have been carried 

 by water or ice drift for a long distance from the spot where 

 the animals perished. K\\ these Alaskan remains of the 

 Pleistocene age have been determined to be those of Ele- 

 phas primigenius. These remains are not confined to the 

 mainland, as a few have been found on islands of the Pri- 

 bilov group in Bering Sea. Whether their existence can be 



*Commumcated by Prof. G. Onesime Clerc of Ekaterinburg. For further details re- 

 garding mammoth tusks see pp. 234-240, 387 sqq. 



fDr. Edmund Naumann, "Fossile Elephantenreste von Mindanao, Sumatra, und IMalak- 

 ka," in Abhandl. u. Berichte d. Kbnig. Zoolog. u. Anthrop.-Ethnolog. Museum zu Dres- 

 den, 188r>-7; No. 6, pp. 5-8, Berlin. 1887. 



