ELEPHANT TUSKS 423 



its end. The interior has been scraped down until the walls 

 are as thin as those of a fine violin, thus making the trumpet 

 so resonant that it must emit a fearful and ear-piercing sound 

 if an energetic blast is blown through it. 



A queer native African name, or we should perhaps rather 

 say designation of ivory, is reported by an English officer 

 in the Sudan. When a native comes to the barracks with 

 ivory articles for sale, and is asked "Is this ivory .^" he first 

 points to his teeth, then puts his hands together at the side 

 of his face and says "Dead elephant," this term being in 

 general use among these natives for ivory. The material 

 is worked in Omdurman on a turning lathe, the workman 

 sitting cross-legged on the ground; the lathes used are 

 quite similar to those employed in England. The Bahr-el- 

 Ghazal province, with an area of about five times that of 

 England, is plentifully supplied with elephants. Before the 

 great war, the best ivory here commanded a price of 5,000 

 piastres ($220) a kantar (99.05 lbs.), but at present the 

 price is commonly 4,000 piastres ($176) for this quantity. 

 The merchants send it to Europe, excepting the broken or 

 small pieces which are utilized by the turners of Omdurman, 

 the very best of the inferior material bringing but ten shil- 

 lings a pound. A native stated that for an elephant tusk 

 weighing 2 lbs. 10 oz. he had paid but 60 piastres ($2.64).* 



The two longest tusks preserved of the present Indian 

 elephant constitute a pair in the Royal Siamese Museum in 

 Bangkok, Siam. Of these the one of greater length meas- 

 ures on the outside curve 9 ft. 10| in., with a circumference 

 of 15 J in; the shorter one is 9 ft. long, its circumference 

 being nearly as great, namely, 15f in; the weight is not 

 given. Another fine pair came from Assam and was owned 

 by the late Lord Bulwer Lytton. The right tusk had a 

 length of 8 ft. 9 in. and a circumference of 17j in., with a 



*Conununicated by F. W. Feavearyear, of the British Army. 



