410 IVORY AND THE ELEPHANT 



This I would have ground if I were ill, and if I took some of 

 the powder it would surely cure me. In Siam we look upon 

 such an object as a priceless amulet, one that protects its 

 owner from disease and misfortune." 



As ecclesiastical decorations elephants' tusks have occa- 

 sionally been employed, and we are told that in 1848, when 

 General De Lima was about to return from the Portuguese 

 settlements in Mozambique, where he had held the oflBce of 

 governor, to Goa, in Portuguese India, he was commissioned 

 to select and bring over with him to India the finest, and 

 above all the straightest, pair of tusks he could find that they 

 might be used in forming a cross for the adornment of the 

 Cathedral of Goa. He was able to carry out this commission 

 successfully and brought with him two tusks, one of which 

 weighed 180 pounds and the other 170 pounds, the curve in 

 both being very slight.* 



While the weight of African bull-elephant tusks averages 

 less than 50 pounds, exceptionally large animals have 

 furnished tusks weighing many times as much. For ex- 

 ample, one given to George V, then Duke of York, in 1893, 

 weighed 165 pounds and measured 8 ft. 7J in. in length. 

 The Journal of the Society of Arts is responsible for the state- 

 ment that in or just before 1864 an American house owned 

 a tusk 9 ft. 8 in. in length. f Professor Owen notes the 

 existence of an Indian tusk 9 ft. in length, with a basal diam- 

 eter of 8 in., and weighing 150 pounds. J 



The effect of our dry climate upon the weight of a tusk 

 is strikingly illustrated in the case of two splendid speci- 

 mens from an African elephant. After they ha 1 been brought 

 to New York they were kept here for two years and then sent 

 back to London. On re weighing them it was found that the 



*Tennant, "Sketch of the Natural History of Ceylon," London, 1861, pp. 79, 80, note. 



\ Journal of the Society of Arts, Vol. XII, p. 190; 1864. 



tSee Jour, of the Soc. of Arts, Vol. V, pp. 65-70, December 19, 1856. 



