How the elephant got his tusks

(South-African Folk-Tales, by James A. Honeÿ)

There was a time, long, long ago, when warthog had long, curved ivory tusks, whereas the elephant only had some short, curling ones. Elephant was extremely jealous of his friend’s tusks and wanted them for himself.

One day, Elephant saw Warthog out walking, and had an idea.

“Oh, Warthog,” said Elephant, “I have such a problem.  I have been invited to a ball this evening, and I am worried that my little tusks will not be grand enough.  Can I borrow your wonderful tusks just for tonight, and I will return them to you tomorrow morning?”

Of course, the trusting warthog agreed to this, and the two swapped tusks. 

However, when the next morning came, there was no sight of elephant. He waited from sunrise to sunset and finally he realised that he had been tricked. He went to elephant and wanted his tusks back. But elephant was enjoying his new tusks and refused to return them. “I like these ones better and our exchange has become a permanent arrangement.”, said the elephant. And with this, he left warthog with the small ones.

Warthog was angry, sad and embarrased and rushed to find his other friend, the aardvark. “Aardvark,” he said, “see what elephant has done. He left me with these small tusks. Now all the other animals will make fun of me, I cannot go out like this. I must hide but with those small tusks I cannot even dig a burrow.”. Don’t worry,” said the aardvark, “I will dig the burrows for you at night and you can live in those and can always feel safe.  And Elephant will be hunted for those tusks and will never find a safe home to hide in again.”

And to this day, Warthogs still live safely hidden in burrows away from predators, and the Elephant is still being hunted for his magnificent ivory tusks.