ELEPHANT TUSKS 425 



in 1852. The Jewel Hall has on exhibition twenty-five 

 examples of European ivory carving.* 



Japanese ivories are well represented in the fine collec- 

 tions illustrating Oriental art formed by Alfred O. Deshong, 

 and to be placed in the new museum in course of erection 

 in Deshong Park, Chester, Pennsylvania. There are here 

 from fifty to sixty large examples of Japanese ivory carv- 

 ing, comprising groups, single figures, carved tusks, scab- 

 bards, sword hilts, etc., many exhibiting considerable artistic 

 power. Notable among them are several carved tusks, one 

 of which offers the image of Amida, the "Buddha of Endless 

 Life," seated on a lofty throne and attended by temple guards 

 armed with long spears. Another tusk shows a figure of 

 the Boddhisattva Kwan-non, the divinity in greatest favour 

 in Japan and China. Both of these tusks have seal marks, 

 and inscriptions signifying "Great Empire of Japan," and 

 also the carver's name, Sekine Harumichi.f 



Although elephants have on occasion made use of their 

 tusks as weapons of offence or defence, the latter use finding 

 expression in the French word for a tusk, defense, still their 

 downward trend makes it difficult for the elephant to thrust 

 with them. Neither, in spite of the elasticity and relative 

 strength of ivory, are the tusks as strong as we might sup- 

 pose. One who had an intimate acquaintance with the 

 condition of the Cinghalese elephants relates that when 

 one of the rare tuskers of the island attacked another ele- 

 phant, which was unprovided with these weapons, the latter 

 wound its trunk around one of its adversaries' tusks and 

 snapped off a piece nearly 5 in. in diameter, about 2 ft. 

 long, and weighing from 20 to 30 lbs.| 



*Communicated by George H. Barron, Curator of the Memorial Museum, Golden 

 Gate Park. 



fCommunicated by Mr. John Getz, 



|Sir J. Emerson Tennent, *' Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon," London, 1861, 

 pp. 80, 81, 86. 



