A Herd of Elephants

The same person who brought in the African dream beans on Tuesday also brought in this herd of elephants, the largest of which is about 3" high. As with the beans, they brought memories flooding back as my mother had an elephant just like them which was also carved from what is probably ebony with ivory tusks and toenails.

It's difficult to tell from the ears whether they came from East Africa or the Far East but their heads seem to have twin domes which suggest they are Asian while the fact that most have tusks suggest they are African. Since my mother lived in both East Africa and Burma in her time, hers could have come from either.

These donations are very welcome in the shop as they're the sort of thing that sells well but, at the same time, they are very sad as the person who once treasured them, as I treasure so much of this sort of bric-a-brac for their associated memories, has probably no further need of them; and, with them, so many stories they could have told are lost.