Order of the Elephant current form on 1 December 1693 by King Christian V as having only one class consisting of only 30 noble knights in addition to the Grand Master (i.e., the king) and his sons. The statutes of the order were amended in 1958 by a Royal Ordinance so that both men and women could be members of the order. The elephant and castle design derives from an elephant carrying a howdah, the familiar castle replacing the unfamiliar howdah, and finds use elsewhere in European iconography, as discussed at howdah. The Danish monarch is the head of the order. The members of
Seeing the elephant discussed the elephant in terms of their excitement for the outcome of their upcoming journey. They had their eyes on the destination and not always the 2,000 miles that lay between them and their dreamland. The elephant is in many ways a pachyderm of psychological proportions. How the pioneers described him was directly related to how they were feeling. The elephant phrase was early on meant as a good thing, but because it was used in conjunction with an experience that did not turn out as most hoped, the term evolved into a slightly more negative connotation after the Overland