arving.[3] It is,
however, at a period subsequent to the return of the crusaders that we
must date the commencement of a general revival of the taste in
Europe. It would be interesting to trace the steps by which ivory
regained its place in the arts and commerce of nations; but on this
point we must not linger. From the low countries it spread to the far
North. Its relations with art and beauty soon became widely
recognised; the growing luxury of the Roman pontificate encouraged its
applications; and towards the end of the fifteenth century it was
extensively employed as an article of ornament and decoration in every
country and court of Europe. The Portuguese were the first to revive a
traffic with Africa which had been dormant for upwards of 1000 years.
It was originally confined to the immense stores of ivory which the
natives had accumulated for the purposes of their superstition; but
these soon became exhausted, and the inexorable demands of European
commerce once more prompted the destruction of the mighty and docile
inhabitant of the wilderness. Elephant-hunting became a trade; and a
terrible havoc was commenced, which has been unremittingly pursued
down to the present time.

The term ivory, originally derived from a Greek word signifying heavy,
is indiscriminately applied to the following varieties of osseous
matter:--

1. _The tusks and teeth of the elephant_.--Naturalists recognise two
species of elephants--the Asiatic (_Elephas Indicus_) and the African
(_Elephas Africanus_.) The former of these species is indigenous to
the whole of Southern India and the Eastern Archipelago; but the
largest and most valuable Indian elephant is that of Ceylon. The
second species is found throughout the whole of Africa; and on the
banks of the great rivers and lakes of the unexplored regions of the
interior, hordes of the finest African elephants are supposed to
wander in security. It was until very recently believed that the
Asiatic elephant yielded the largest teeth, and those imported from
Pegu, Cochin-China, and Ceylon, sometimes weighed 150 lbs. Specimens,
however, have been obtained from the interior of Africa of much
greater weight and dimensions. Mr Gordon Cumming has in his collection
a pair of teeth taken from an old bull elephant in the vicinity of the
equator, of which the larger of the two measures 10 feet 9 inches
long, and weighs 173 lbs.; and Mr Cawood, who resided thirty years at
the Cape, has another pair