The Ivory King: A popular history of the elephant and its allies

by Charles Frederick Holder

From this brief review of the early proboscidians, it will be seen that the elephant, as we popularly term all proboscidians, had originally as wide a range as man, appearing in almost every country; and it is even described by Pliny as being very plentiful in the forests of the so-called Atlantis.

Equally as interesting as the huge mastodon was the pygmy elephant, two species of which formerly existed. These were remarkably diminutive creatures, about the size of ordinary sheep; while their baby elephants must have been about that of ordinary cats. We can imagine a herd of these wonderful little creatures roaming about, and the strange appearance they must have presented. Their names are Elephas melittensis and E. falconeri; their bones are found in Malta and various parts of Italy. Living small or pygmy elephants are frequently referred to in old works. Bles, a correspondent of Buffon, states that he saw one in the Kandyan kingdom not larger than a heifer, and covered with hair. Bishop Heber says, that, in his journey from Bareilly to the Himalayas, he saw the Rájah Gourman Sing mounted on an elephant hardly bigger than a Durham ox, and almost as shaggy as a poodle.

It would seem that at one time a pygmy elephant existed in the Philippines, perhaps when they were connected to the Indian continent; as Professor Semper found the tooth of a fossil species at Mindanao, on the upper course of the Agusan, the most southerly of the group. The tooth, which this eminent scientist considers to have belonged to a dwarf species of the Indian elephant, was used in a remarkable ceremonial. It was worn by the Baganis, or chiefs of a cannibal race, on important occasions, strung about the neck with various objects, as images of gods, crocodile-teeth, etc. When the wearer in battle killed a foe, his breast was opened with a sacred sword, and the tooth and associated objects were dipped in the blood; and after the god of war, to which these objects are sacred, was supposed to have slaked his thirst, the Bagani indulged themselves in the human feast.

In the second book of the Æneid, Virgil refers to a tradition that at one time Sicily was a part of the main-land; and Malta was probably connected in a similar manner. Geologists even claim that Italy was united to Africa by a bridge of land, over which various animals passed.

It would be extremely interesting to trace back the early history of elephants, to follow their ancestry into the past, as we can the horse; but the present state of knowledge renders this difficult if not impossible. The present elephants stand alone and distinct, without any living allies. They are hoofed animals, in this related to the cows, etc.; and in their structure they show some affinities with the gnawing animals, or rodents; but here nearly all resemblances cease. We may follow them back to ancient elephants of the tertiary time, and to the era when mastodons reigned, but we cannot show that they are descended from the mastodons: in short, their history is shrouded in mystery.

One of the earliest proboscidians was the dinotherium, a remarkable animal larger than living elephants, with a trunk, and an enormous head, the lower jaw of which was armed with two powerful tusks which pointed downward, and tended toward the body. This strange elephantine creature lived in the upper miocene time, and has been found only in Europe. It is supposed to have been a water-loving animal, and to have uprooted trees and roots with the powerful tusks. In the accompanying picture ([Plate VI.]), I have attempted a restoration of the animal, which gives an idea of its general appearance. The dinotherium ranged, as far as known, from France to India, its southern limit in Europe being Greece (Pikermi).

Some authors express the opinion that the singular group of extinct animals known as dinocerata are ancestral forms of the elephant. The various species of dinoceros were animals of elephantine stature, but with shorter limbs; and their heads could reach the ground, so that there was no evident need of a proboscis. Indeed, certain animals may have possessed trunks, and not been elephants, if we may accept the restoration of Burmeister, who shows a pliocene, horse-like animal,—Macrauchenia patagonia,—with a proboscis.

The head of the dinoceros must have presented a remarkable appearance, being provided with two long, sharp, canine teeth, and places for four horns. Whether the latter were present, or not, is not known. All the species that are known come from the Wyoming tertiary. In fact, the question is involved in darkness. Professor Cope considers that they all branched from some primitive stock in eocene times, and at one time stated that the coryphodon, an animal as large as an ox, with a wide elephantine pelvis, was a possible ancestor; but now I believe he looks still farther back, to a group he has termed Taxepoda.

Professor Schmidt of the University of Strasburg says, “In entering upon a discussion of the elephants as a class, it was our wish to do away with what mystery seemed to encompass the existence of the present animal; and we have done so by pointing out their undoubted descent from the miocene mastodons.” The latter forms he considers to “have originated from ancestors of the dinotherium species;” but as to the ancestor of the dinotherium, the learned professor leaves us in the dark as much as ever. It is only within a few years that the genealogy of the horse has been regarded as worked out; and it may be only a matter of time before Cope, Marsh, Leidy, or others will present the world with the original elephant.