The Four-Tusked Elephant

                                                                                            Armand Denis, Belgium (1896 – 1971)

Summary in English

"The Four-Tusked Elephant" is a research based essay that sheds light on the procedure of scientific discovery, high adventure and single minded pursuit of truth. It really starts from the educated guess. The writer describes his interesting and challenging experience in Ituri forest of Congo. He tries to resolve the mysteries about the existence of four-tusked elephant. Curiosity and determination are required for such hard work.

Denis as the narrator was making a Safari with his friends Putman and Texan. They have hard about the four tusked elephant that lived in the forest. They pygmies and other people believed that the four-tusked elephant was the king all the elephants and it was very dangerous. According to them, it used to talk in human language. The four tusked elephant could see the things the other elephants could not see. The elephant had come and spoiled their hunt many times in the forest. It had killed many people. Therefore, they kept well away from it. They could not kill with their spears an elephant with four tusked.

One day, the narrator asked his friend Putnam about it since he was talking to the pygmies about several animals they had hunted. But Putnam told the narrator that he should believe in it only after he himself had seen it. Then, Denis asked every pygmy but those they were living in Ituri Forest believed that the elephant existed and they were scared of it. Thus, the narrator collected a lot of information about the elephant, for that he also made hypothesis. Then, he decided to venture the place. He went to the place with the help of three pygmies.

After few days, they found a large elephant in the bushes. It was with a group of elephants eating tree branches. As he observed it, the writer got hopeless and thought that the king was mere a myth because it had only two tasks. After six months, the writer again heard some Belgian sellers talking about four tasked elephant in a hotel. According to them Mombeli was a man who found it. So, the writer became more curious to know about the matter. Then, he met Mombeli where he told that he really found the elephant with four tasks near a stream. The narrator promised to give Mombeli some objects like lantern like flashlight, wrist watch if he brought the head of the elephant. However, he captured tusks of elephant sold by Mombeli.

Finally, the narrator realized the truth. The narrator went to New York with the skull. In the Museum, he tired to fit all the four tusks in to the sockets of the skull one by one. The first three tusks fitted perfectly well, but the last one did fit. It was not like normally shaped tusks i.e. unlike others, it pointed inwards. He had finally solved the mystery of the elephant king of the Ituri forest.