Elephants in ancient China Elephants in ancient China The existence of elephants in ancient China is attested both by archaeological evidence and by depictions in Chinese artwork. Long thought to belong to an extinct subspecies of Asian elephants, named "Elephas maximus rubridens", they lived in Central and Southern China before the 14th century BC. They once occurred as far north as Anyang, Henan in northern China. The elephant is mentioned in the earliest received texts, including the "Shijing", "Liji", and "Zuozhuan." The oracle bone script and bronzeware script glyphs for elephant are pictographic depictions of an animal with a long trunk. Their modern descendant
Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels Haverly's United Mastodon Minstrels was a blackface minstrel troupe created in 1877, when J. H. Haverly merged four of the companies he owned and managed. Borrowing techniques from showmen like P. T. Barnum, Haverly advertised the Mastodons in broadsides, newspapers, and playbills: "FORTY—COUNT 'EM—40—FORTY—HAVERLY'S UNITED MASTODON MINSTRELS". Another ad read, "Forty is a magical and historical number. In the time of Noah it rained forty days and forty nights. The Children of Israel wandered forty years in the wilderness. Haverly's famous forty are just as important." The Mastodons entered every new town in two columns, spread