THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
the popular ideas of elephant nature. Around it has gathered 
a great mass of history, tradition, and fable; and it figures in 
the mythology and folk-lore of the East to an almost unlimited 
degree. Personified in one of the most ancient, 
respectable, and popular of Hindoo The Ele- 
divinities, Ganésha, the wise and PBant God. 
humorous god who is invoked at 
the beginning of all enterprises, 
whose auspicious 
image is placed 
over most Hindoo 
doorways, and whose mystic sign [the swastika], familiarly | 
spoken of as the ‘‘ganesh,” stands on the first page of Hindoo 
ledgers and day books, the elephant has an immense hold on 
the affections of the people. “The traveller and the pilgrim 
look to Ganésha for protection, the merchant for fortune, the 
student for advancement, and the housewife for luck... . 
Although at first sight merely monstrous to Western eyes, this 
quaint personage grows in interest as one learns his attributes 
and becomes familiar with his character and person. He 
seems, as he sits meditatively poising his heavy head, to be 
the Nick Bottom of the Hindu Pantheon.” The literature of 
the East abounds in allusion to its mystic sacredness, which 
culminates in the veneration paid to the albinos of Burma and 
Siam. 
This series shows 
the progressive 
shortening of 
the lower jaws, 
elevation of the cranium, recession 
(“bull-dogging’) of the bones of 
the face, disappearance of lower- 
jaw tusks, and lengthening of 3 
upper-jaw tusks, which was accom- 
panied by a corresponding devel- 
opment of the trunk. 1, Eocene Meeritherium; 2, Eocene 
Palzeomastodon; 3, Miocene Trilophodon; 4, American Mas- 
todon; 5, Living Indian Elephant. (After Lankester.) 
DEVELOPMENT OF SKULL-FORM AND TUSKS IN ELEPHANTS. 
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