One of Aesop's fables tells about a man and a lion that were travelling through the forest together. Each boasted about how superior his own species was. When they came upon a statue representing Hercules tearing the jaws of the Nemean Lion the man said, "See how strong we are! The King of Beasts is like wax in our hands!" "Ho!" laughed the lion, "a man made that statue. It would have been quite a different scene had a lion made it!" We each see things a little differently. We also each remember events differently. If someone heard my sister and me recalling an event from our childhood he might think we were talking about different events as we argue about the way something really happened!
Another parable in a similar vein is told in several Eastern religions is about six blind men and an elephant. John Godfrey Saxe in the 19th century wrote a poem about it:
It was six men of Indostan, to learning much inclined
who went to see the elephant (Though all of them were blind),
that each by observation, might satisfy his mind.
The first approached the elephant, and happening to fall
against his broad and sturdy side, at once began to bawl:
'God bless me! but the elephant, is nothing but a wall!
The second feeling of the tusk, cried: 'Ho! what have we here,
so very round and smooth and sharp? to me 'tis mighty clear,
this wonder of an elephant, is very like a spear!'
The third approached the animal, and, happening to take,
the squirming trunk within his hands, 'I see,' quoth he,
the elephant is very like a snake!'
The fourth reached out his eager hand, and felt about the knee:
'What most this wondrous beast is like, is mighty plain,' quoth he;
'Tis clear enough the elephant is very like a tree.'
The fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said: 'E'en the blindest man
can tell what this resembles most; Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an elephant, is very like a fan!'
The sixth no sooner had begun, about the beast to grope,
than seizing on the swinging tail, that fell within his scope,
'I see,' quoth he, 'the elephant is very like a rope!'
And so these men of Indostan, disputed loud and long,
each in his own opinion, exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right, and all were in the wrong!
So, oft in theologic wars, the disputants, I ween,
tread on in utter ignorance, of what each other mean,
and prate about the elephant, not one of them has seen!
I wonder if elephants share the same recollections. It doesn't really matter since they don't talk about it with each other. Whatever the reality of recollections a person who has the ability to remember things for a long time is said to have the memory of an elephant. Since an elephant is intelligent, seems to have a good memory (especially about a person who has caused it harm) and lives up to sixty years, we often praise its memory.
The African and Asian elephants are members of different species. The scientific name of the African bush elephant is Loxodonta africana, which means African slanting (Greek loxos) tooth (Greek dontos). The African forest elephant, Loxodonta cyclotis (cyclotis might come from the Greek kyklon which means revolving and otikos which means ear, so it might mean "round-eared", or it might not; this is my own speculation), a slightly smaller animal, was considered a subspecies until 2001. DNA analysis in 2010 proved it to be a separate species. The Asian elephant is Elephas maximus, which means ivory or elephant (Elephas) largest (maximus), which isn't true because the African elephant is larger.
The Asian elephant was first domesticated in India about 3000 B.C. It was used for hauling timber, hunting tigers, and in battle. Some effort was made by Ptolemy to domesticate the African elephant in Egypt in 300 A.D. In the battle of Raphia for control of what is now Syria the Asian elephants of Antiochus III the Great were pitted against the African elephants of Ptolemy IV. In an account of the battle by the contemporary historian, Polybius, the elephants from India were larger and stronger. It was speculated the African elephants were the smaller species of forest elephants but DNA evidence refutes this idea. Another guess is that they came from a smaller subspecies that is now extinct. I think they could have just been juvenile individuals that hadn't attained their full growth (they aren't fully adult size until they are 15 to 20 years old). Whatever the case the Indian elephants routed the African ones. In the end it didn't matter because Ptolemy won the battle. The African elephant as a species has never successfully been domesticated although individuals have been tamed.
Both sexes of African elephants sport tusks (elongated incisors) but only the male Asian elephant has them. The Asian females have stubby incisors called tushes.
Elephantiasis is a disease that causes gross enlargement of various body parts, most commonly the legs, due to the blockage of lymph ducts often caused by a parasitic nematode worm that is spread by mosquitoes. It can be treated with antiparasitic drugs. The Elephant Man was a movie about a man who was thus afflicted.
A white elephant is a gift that is not particularly useful but costs too much to throw away. In Thailand a white elephant (actually a light reddish-brown with fair eyelashes and toenails) is a rarity and considered by some to be sacred and a symbol of royal power. It is interesting that they are also known there as pink elephants. The king is still called "Lord of the White Elephant". In days past if a king wanted to ruin a noble he could give him a white elephant. Because of its status it could not be used for work but would have to be cared for as the law prescribed including provision of expensive ceremonial trappings. This could easily bankrupt a person.
If you see pink elephants and are not in Thailand, watch out! Before 1890 the idiom was "seeing snakes" but later writers added all sorts of animals and colors to the list. "Pink elephants" became the favorite after about 1905. In 1913 Jack London described a type of drunk in John Barleycorn as a man "who walks generously with wide-spread, tentative legs, falls frequently in the gutter, and who sees, in the extremity of his ecstasy, blue mice and pink elephants."
You might say a friend's drinking habit is the elephant in the room, which means an embarrassing fact is being ignored. This idiom could have originated in the 1814 story by Ivan Andreevich Krylov entitled "The Inquisitive Man". This is a fable about a man who goes into a museum of natural history and notices all of the exquisite little creatures. Then his friend asks him, "And of course you saw the elephant?" He responds, "Elephant? Are you quite sure they have an elephant?" When his friend assures him that it is there he is much chagrined that he didn't see it. Mark Twain also liked using the example of an elephant as something obvious.
A German idiom is "Ein Elefant im Porzellanladen" or "An elephant in a china shop". We ideate a bit smaller and talk about the bull in a china shop. Germans also say "Aus einer Műcke eine Elefanten machen" or "An elephant made out of a fly". We would probably say to make a mountain out of a molehill. An Indonesian idiom is "Semut diseberang lautan tampak, gajah dipelupukmata tak tampak", which translates to "An ant across the sea is visible, an elephant on the eyelid is invisible." It means that you can easily see the flaws in others, but it is harder to see your own. A Thai idiom is "Kèe cháang jàp dták-gá-dtaen" which is "Ride an elephant to catch a grasshopper". We might say to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
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| Thomas Nast: "Third Term Panic" |
In an earlier blog I mentioned how the symbol for the Democratic Party came to be a donkey. Thomas Nast, a political cartoonist for Harper's Weekly associated the Republican Party with the elephant in 1874 and other political cartoonists have been using it ever since.
You've probably heard of a gaggle of geese or perhaps an exaltation of larks, but did you know the collective noun for pachyderms (from the Greek pakhús, thick, and dermus, skin) is a memory of elephants?
