Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/908

* ELEPHANT. 790 ELEPHANT BEETLE. 'liowdali,' vliile the driver (mahout) sits on the flepluHil's lU'L'k, directing it by liis voice and by a small goad. Elephants have always a con- spicuous place in the great processions and state disiilays of Eastern princes, and while elephants — albinos — are peculiarly valued. Kle|)liants are also employed in many kinds of labor, and dis- )ilay great "sagacity in comprehending the nature of their task and adapting themselves to it. Fossil Elephants. The ancestry of the ele- phants, or I'roboscidea, is not well known. They are the least specialized of the modern ungulates, for during their known history they have pro- gressed only in respect of the develoi)ment of the trunk or proboscis, the substitution of tusks for the riicisor tectli, and the acquirement of an abnormal molar dentition. In Uic early .Miocene time they appeared with their proboscidean char- acters quite well developed, and the chief genera, Uinotherium. .Mastodon, and Elephas, which suc- ceed each other in geologic time, present a pro- gressive evolutional series. In the earlier forms the bony structure of the facial region of the skull is less thickened than it is in later forms, indicating a lesser muscular attachment for a smaller proboscis. The tusks augment in size in the successive genera, and the teeth increase in complexity as to their crowns. The molar teeth of Uinotherium have only two or three transverse ridges, Mastodon has 2 to 5, Stegodon has 13, and Elephas has 27. This complexity is due to folding of the enamel into transverse ridges, the number of folds advancing in the successive genera. The size of the molars also increases, and in the latest genus, Elephas, they have become so large that only two or three can be in position in the jaw at one time. The brunt of the chewing falls upon the anterior molar, and as thin is worn out it is pushed forward out of the front of the jaw, and the space behind is filled by a new molar that rises from a socket at the back of the jaw. Fossil Proboscidea ap- pear in the Miocene and Pliocene of North Amer- ica and Europe and in the Pliocene of South America, but at the end of the Pleistocene they disappeared from those countries, having emi- grated to .sia and Africa, where their descen- dants are now living. Consult: Woodward, Out- lines of 'cr1cbra1e Paleontology (Cambridge, 1898) ; Bernard. Elements de patcontoloyie (Paris, 1895) ; Nicholson and Lydekker. Manual of Paleontolop!/. vol. ii. (Edinburgh and London, 1889). See Dinotiiekiuji : ilAMMOTii; Masto- don. Bibliography. Of the older sources of in- formation, the best are the article in .Jardine's 'Saturalists' Library (London. lS:).'i-4.'!) and Andersson's book. The Lion and the FAvphant (London, 1873). For the iisiatic elei)hant, con- sult: Tenneiit, The ^^'ild Elephant in Ceylon (London, 1807) : Hornaday, Two Years in the Jungle (New Vork, 1885) ; Sanderson, Wild Beasts of India (London, 1893), the last-named of which is, on the whole, the best authority on the subject; also Kipling, /{casts and Man in India (London, 1891); Mury. Lrs elephants en ,S'iom el en Cambodge (Taris. 1900); Pollok, Sport in British Burma (London. 1879), and the writings of sportsmen - tnivclers, especially D'Ewes, Forsyth. Shakespeare, Baldwin, and Barras. For the African elephant, consult: Neu- mann, Elephant Hunting in East Equatorial Africa (London, 1808) ; GordonCuinniing, Five Years of a Hunter's Life in South Africa (New Vork, 1850) ; Harris, Uunte and ild Animals of Southern Africa (London, 1840) ; Baker, Wild Beasts and Their Ways (London, 1890), and other books by the same writer; Ilolub, Seven Years in South Africa, translated by Frewen (London, 1881) ; Scions. .1 Hunter's Wanderings in Africa (London, 1890), and other books by Selous; Arinandi, Uistoirc niilitaire des elephants (Paris, 1843) ; Balan, Ver Elephant in Krieg und Frieden, und seine Verucndung in unscrn ofriianischen Kolonien (Hamburg. 1887). ELEPHANT, Order of the. A Danish Order of uncertain origin. It dates back, aeording to some aulhorities, to Canute Vl. in the twelfth century, and according to others to Christian 1. in the second half of the fifteenth. The decora- tion is highly valued, because rarely conferred. The badge is a white enameled elephant, caparisoned in blue, with a red tower on its back and a negro driver. The collar consists of al- ternate towers and elephants. The ribbon is blue. ELEPHAN'TA (locally. Gharapuri). An island four miles in circuit, in the harbor of Bombav, East India, about si. miles to the east of that city (Map: India, E 6). It took its European name from the huge figure of an elephant, cut out of a detached rock, near its principal landingplace, which, however, has gradually crumbled away. Close by are three temples dug out of the mountain, the roofs sup- ported by curiously wrought pillars of various forms and magnitudes, and the walls thickly sculptured into all the forms of Hindu niythol- ogA'. The largest of the three excavations is nearly square, measuring 133 feet by 130o feet; immediately fronting its main entrance stands a bust, or third-length of a three-headed deity, with a height of 18 feet and a breadth of 23, repre- senting the Siva trinity of creation, preservation, and destruction. The great temjde is used by the Baniya caste for the Sivaite festivals. Con- sult: Burgess, The Rock 7'emplcs of Elcphanta (Bombay, 1871), and Ferguson and Burgess, The Cave Temples of India (London. 1880). ELEPHANT BEETLE. A gigantic lamelli- corn beetle i ilegasonia elephas) of Central America. Its total length is about live inches, two- fifths of which belongs to a strong, upturned forked THE ELEPHANT BEETLE. horn projecting from the head. The ground color of the whole insect is black ; but. with the excep- tion of the front horn, the entire surface is thickly covered with dense, .soft, upright, yellow- ish fur. As this fur is easily rubbed oft, most