Those who think that the parts of the elephant that project from the mouth are teeth and not horns, should consider the case of Celtic elks and Ethiopian bulls. For male elks have horns on their foreheads, but the female elk has none whatever. And Ethiopian bulls have horns growing in their nostrils. Who would therefore think it very wonderful after these examples that a beast should have horns growing out of its mouth? One may also get further light from the following particulars. Horns in animals take a certain definite period to grow and grow more than once: and this is the case with stags and antelopes as well as elephants. But no animal after full growth has second sets of teeth. If they are teeth therefore and not horns that project from elephants’ mouths, how could they grow a second time? Moreover teeth are not acted upon by fire, but horns both of oxen and elephants can by the action of fire be made straight from round, and can in fact be turned into any shape. [But in hippopotamuses and boars the lower jaw has projecting teeth: and we do not see horns growing out of their jaws.] Let anybody be certain therefore that they are horns in the elephant that project and grow out from the temples. I don’t make this assertion as mere hearsay, for I have seen the skull of an elephant in the temple of Artemis in Campania. The temple I refer to is about 30 stades from Capua, which is the chief town of Campania. And the elephant is not only different from other animals in the growth of its horns, but also in its size and appearance. And the Greeks seem to me to have shewn great munificence and an absence of parsimoniousness in respect to their worship of the gods, seeing that they procured ivory both from India and Ethiopia for their statues.