Gargantua is the hero of Rabelais' satire, so named from his father exclaiming 'Que grand tu as!' 'How large (a gullet) thou hast!' on hearing him cry out, immediately on his birth, ' Drink, drink!' so lustily as to be heard over several districts. It required 900 ells of linen for the body of his shirt, and 200 more for the gussets, 1100 cow-hides for the soles of his shoes, and he picked his teeth with an elephant's tusk. Research Gargantua
Ivory is an opaque, creamy white, hard, fine-grained, modified dentin that composes the upper incisor teeth of an elephant. Ivory is composed of curved layers of dentine alternating in shade, that intersect one another; the resulting lozenge-shaped structure is elastic and finely grained. The layers of a tusk are deposited from the central pulp, so that the innermost layer is the newest. Most commercial elephant ivory is obtained from the tusks of the African elephant, mainly from eastern and central Africa. (Most of the ivory of the western half of Africa is hard, whereas that from the eastern half is soft. Hard ivory is glassier in texture, harder to cut and more likely to crack than soft ivory.)
Fossil ivory, called odontolite, is a blue variety that is found in small quantities in the frozen soil of northern Siberia. Odontolite was produced by the mammoths of the Pleistocene geological epoch; its blue colour results from saturation by metallic salts. Carved ivory has been used for decorative purposes since the time of the ancient Egyptians. Small pieces of ivory are used for high-quality furniture inlays, chess pieces, and small jewellery. Larger pieces of ivory sometimes have been used in the manufacture of billiard balls, piano keys, and toilet articles.
During the late 1980s, as Africa's elephant herds declined, environmentalists led a world-wide effort to shut down the ivory trade; in 1989 the USA and the European Union banned all ivory imports. Tusks of several other animals such as hippopotamuses, narwhals, sperm whales, and walruses are commonly called ivory and have similar physical properties, and many plastic substitutes for ivory have been developed. Several ivory-like vegetable parts are also used in imitation of ivory; the ivory palm, for example, produces large, white, hard seeds, called ivory nuts, the endosperm of which is commonly known as vegetable ivory. In painting, ivory is a delicate colour deeper in tone than off-white, but not so deep as cream. Research Ivory
Dentalium is a genus of gasteropodous molluscs, the shell of which consists of a tubular arcuated cone open at both ends, and resembling the tusk of an elephant in miniature. There are many species, known by the common name of tooth-shells. Research Dentalium
The narwhal or narwhale (Monodon monoceros) is a whale of the sub-family Monodontinae found only in the arctic. The male has a long spiralling tusk which is not normally possessed by the female. The tusk which grows to a length of between 1.5 and 3 metres is actually a modified tooth and looks like a twisted and gnarled walking stick. During the 17th century the
Narwhal tusk was thought to have been the horn of the legendary unicorn. Studies suggest that males engage in aggressive behaviour when competing for females. Scars attributed to tusk action have been found on the heads of adult males which are more likely to have broken tusks. The Narwhal is similar in appearance to the Beluga. They are similar in shape and size, they have short beaks, rounded heads, lack dorsal fins and have a thick layer of blubber. An adult Narwhal will grow to a length of five metres and weigh up to one and a half tonnes. The head being proportionately small with a bulbous forehead. While almost all males develop a single tusk from the tooth on the left-hand side of upper jaw, only a few females grow a tusk, and this is then thin. All narwhals have a very slight beak, short flippers and flukes which appear to be on 'backwards'. Research Narwhal
The torsk or tusk (Brosmius brosme) is a food fish of the cod family found in both sides of the AtlanticOcean. The body is cylindrical; there is one very long dorsal, and one long ventral fin; the scales are minute and the colouring is grey. The fish grows to a length of one meter. Research Torsk
USS Tusk was an American Balao Class submarine of 1525 tons displacement launched in 1945 which saw action during the Second World War. USS Tusk was powered by diesel engines providing a top speed of 21 knots, carried a complement of 75 and was armed with one 4-inch gun, two 20 mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft guns; six 21 inch bow torpedo tubes and four 21 inch sterntorpedo tubes. Research Tusk
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Gargantua
