The Elephant’s Well

Ten kilometers west of Cordoba lies Medinat Al-Zahra, the Shining City, built as the most beautiful city of the world by Abdurrahman III in 929, on the occasion of declaring himself the caliph of Andalusia, as a sign of his independence from the Sunni caliph of Baghdad and the Shiʿa caliph of Cairo. Today, only the central part of the city is standing, deprived of all its ornaments, carvings and noble wall coverings, but even in it ruins, it clearly testifies to its former beauty and richness.

Directly above the city rises the Sierra Morena range, a national park whose springs once supplied the city with water. One of these springs is a few kilometers above the town, in the main square of the present-day town of Santa María de la Trassierra. The spring is today surrounded by a regular granite well, with a large animal carved from pink limestone on it. Its shape, ears and legs are of an elephant, only its nose is too short, as if the sculptor found impossible to accept the existence of an animal carrying its tail on its face.

Although the statue looks old, it is just the copy of a really old one. Its original stood in the woods a kilometer away for a thousand years, until 1988, when it was transferred to the courtyard of the Archbishop’s Palace in Cordoba. Since then, a copy stand in the original place, too, but in order to boast with it not only to hikers, but also to all other visitors of the town – for example to those who come to the excellent Candil restaurant across the street –, the municipality also erected a copy here, in the main square. None of the three has any information board.

According to radiocarbon dating, the original sculpture may have been created sometime between 982 and 1193, that is, during the heyday of the Shining City. We also know its cause and function. It stood next to the Valdepuentes aqueduct, known by the Latins as Aqua Vetus or Aqua Augusta, which had supplied water to the expanding city of Corduba since the time of Emperor Augustus. The architect of the Shining City, Maslama ben Abdallah renovated this aqueduct in the 930s to provide the caliphal city with water. And not long after, Caliph Abdurrahman, or one of his high-ranking courtiers, had a pleasure garden built here, in the Valley of the Roses, which was also irrigatd by the water of the Aqua Vetus. As evidenced by the opening on its forehead and the bed of a tube carved in its temple, the elephant was the well statue of this water somewhere at a prominent point in the garden, just like the lion statues in the garden of the Alhambra.

The origins of the elephant, like most relics of al-Andalus, are enveloped in a legend that Manuel Pimentel has included in his book of legends of Medina Azahara. The legend, like the tales of the Thousand and One Nights, has a swirling structure: leaning over it, we see another legend. According to it, Maslama ben Abdallah roamed in the Sierra Morena in search of building materials for the new city of the caliph, and everywhere talked to the locals in hope for information about the materials on the site. This is how he met a hermit in the woods, a connoisseur of the traditions of the Christian world of two centuries earlier, who told him the following legend:

The Romans conquering southern Hispania, had to wage war with the Carthaginians, who regarded the region as part of their own colonial empire. To fight them with weapons equivalent to theirs, a large group of combat elephants were brought over from North Africa, and with their help they could oust the Carthaginians. Thereafter, the elephants were stationed at the headquarters of the legion at the foot of the Sierra Morena, but their feeding during in the dry and barren years put the camp’s logistical capacity to test. Eventually, the centurion in charge of the camp decided that since the Carthaginian threat was over, the elephants would have to be killed. However, their caretaker, who felt sorry for them, preferred to release them. The herd set out for the green mountains, where the head elephant stopped at a point in the valley, and turned a large rock out of the ground. From under the rock, abundant water flowed and gathered in the form of a large lake at the foot of the rocks.

Combat elephant. AD 5th-century Roman mosaic in the town of Huqoq, Galilee

The centurion was informed of the fountain, and hurried to the spot. However, he slipped at the shore of the newly formed lake, and fell into the water. His armor would have pulled him to the bottom of it, but the elephant with its snout reached after him and lifted him ashore. The centurion then ordered the elephants to receive ample provision until their deaths. An aqueduct wa built from the lake to supply the center of the province, Corduba. And in the decades that followed, the two aging males, the centurion and the elephant, were often seen walking together in the mountains above the city.

Pilate and his dog walking with Ha-Nocri until the end of times in Vladimir Bortko’s movie The Master and Margarita

On hearing the legend, Maslama ben Abdallah renovated the Roman aqueduct and led the water of the Elephant’s Well to the new city of the caliph. And when the hermit died, he had an elephant statue carved on the shores of the lake in memory of him and his story.

The original statue next to the Aqua Vetus in the 1930s

So far the legend. Its core is certainly an attempt to explain the origin of the lake accumulated near the ruins of the aqueduct. And the elephant is an Arab well statue erected after its restoration, a unique work in Muslim art which otherwise rejects sculptures and modeling living beings. However, in al-Andalus, existing in close contact with European culture, this ban softened in many cases, as we shall see later.

The wise rabbit and the Elephant King at the Moon’s Well. From the Arab animal tale collection Kalila wa Dimna, 16th century, MET

Even more Fascist elephants

Do you still remember the German elephant, which in 1945 came to Moscow, to the Ugolok Durova as booty together with its caretaker, and which was recognized by the local street children as the last Fascist? Now, by courtesy of a Russian reader, two hundred and fifty new photos of it have been added to EtoRetro, the Russian social site for collecting old photos. These pictures show well, just like the story, how much the caretaker loved the animals entrusted to him, and how near he was to them. And, in this quantity, they also show how quickly common iconographic types are developed, even for such an unusual theme: an elephant with the curious crowd, a big elephant with a little child, and, of course, the archetype, the mahout on the animal’s neck, as was well known to everyone from the lithographic illustrations of the books on the marvels of the East.

The Nazi elephant

Whoever yesterday morning arrived along the Múzeum street to the Little Boulevard, had a special experience. Due to the unbearable tension in style and quality between the 19th-century neoclassical building of the National Museum and the recent glass-and-steel mammoth of the nearby Calvin Center, the space-time continuum was ruptured, and the vortex threw to the surface an Indian elephant in full dress, complete with a throne and a maharaja.


Such phenomenon is absolutely common in Budapest, whose streets since time immemorial are unexpectedly flooded by elephants which then just as suddenly disappear in the nothing. A proof is this photo by Endre Friedmann from 1958 showing a whole herd of elephants marching along the Theresa (at that time Lenin) Boulevard towards the Andrássy (at that time People’s Republic, some months earlier Hungarian Youth and even earlier Stalin) Boulevard: maybe it was the accelerated rhythm of name changes to cause such space-time fluctuation.


That the unexpected appearance of elephants on the streets of big cities is a concomitant of great political earthquakes is proved with many examples by twentieth-century Russian history. Beginning with the elephant, which appeared in 1916 at the imperial residence of Saint Petersburg’s Tsarskoe Selo and disappeared within a short time together with Nicholas II and his family feeding it on this picture. But on this we will write another time: the elephants of St. Petersburg have their own secret history.



And ending with the one that appeared in Chernobyl at the end of the 1980s. In this case, however, it was the socialist reality that proved more virtual: the Soviet Union disappeared and the elephant was left.



Thus it is just natural that the third, most shocking event of 20th-century Russian history, the Great Patriotic War was also accompanied by the emergence of an elephant, which, similarly to the war, came from Germany.


The elephant named Punch arrived together with the circus captured in Berlin as a trophy by Marshal Zhukov. In Moscow it was accommodated in the famous Ugolok Durova Animal Theatre founded in 1912 by animal trainer and clown Vladimir Durov. Its caretaker, Karl Stvora, who also came as part of the trophy, led it to a walk every day to the nearby Suvorov Square, either alone or with the camel of the circus, to the great pleasure of the people of Moscow.

The theater’s founder Vladimir Leonidovich Durov and his piglet, ca. 1910

The building marked is the Ugolok Durova Animal Theater. The oblong square to the left is Suvorov Square (before 1917, Catherine Square) with the Catherine Garden along its northern side and the characteristic five-pointed star-shaped building of the Theater of the Soviet Army which can be seen on the photos below. Click for full map



Krilov: The elephant and the pug-dog (1809)

По улицам Слона водили,          Как видно напоказ - Известно, что Слоны в диковинку у нас -     Так за Слоном толпы зевак ходили. Отколе ни возьмись, навстречу Моська им. Увидевши Слона, ну на него метаться,        И лаять, и визжать, и рваться,        Ну, так и лезет в драку с ним.        “Соседка, перестань срамиться,- Ей шавка говорит,- тебе ль с Слоном возиться? Смотри, уж ты хрипишь, а он себе идет                  Вперед И лаю твоего совсем не примечает”.- “Эх, эх! - ей Моська отвечает,- Вот то-то мне и духу придает,     Что я, совсем без драки, Могу попасть в большие забияки. Пускай же говорят собаки:    “Ай, Моська! знать она сильна,        Что лает на Слона!”

An elephant was led along the streets,           so people would see it: as you know, elephant is a rarity at us,      so the crowd flocked after it. A pug fell among them, from nowhere, and as soon as he saw the elephant,        started barking and screaming at it,        showing that he would fight with it. “Come on”, a spitz says, “with the elephant        you’d like to tinker? Stop it! You see: you are barking at it, and it just goes                  ahead, not even hearing your noise.” “Eh!” the pug answers. “It’s a sign     of my greatness of spirit, that I     absolutely without a fight     can put to flight so big bullies! Just let the dogs all say in an awe:     “Well, the pug! he’s a real macho!        he has even barked at the elephant!”

Dedushkin’s blog also quotes a contemporary recollection:

“Nowadays probably very few people remember the elephant which used to live at the Ugolok Durova. For us it was like a prisoner of war, as it was brought from Germany for war reparation, together with a German to take care of it. We children, whose fathers were killed or came home as invalids, even fifteen years after the end of the war hated all Germans. To us “German” and “Nazi” was one and the same, and we spent our revenge on the elephant and its caretaker. We climbed over a hole in the fence (all holes in all fences were ours) and started throwing stones on the elephant and its caretaker. The guard caught us, and we were sincerely wondering: how’s that he’s standing up for the Nazis – does not know that these all Germans, therefore Nazis? We hit the caretaker with the stones on the head so much that he had to be taken to the hospital. This is how we revenged ourselves for our fathers and relatives, and we did not run away even when it was clear that we cannot avoid being caught. But then some strange thing happened. We were not punished, and we started to realize that things are not exactly as we thought… A few weeks later our fathers – whoever had one – collected us, they bought vodka, sausage, and certainly some more things as well, and we set off somewhere: as it turned out, to the Ugolok Durova, to the German. He lived in the elephant’s house, because the only stove was there, such a little iron stove, because without that there would have been terribly cold all over winter. They spoke to him in German as much as they could, because he spoke very bad Russian. All his head was bandaged. But then somehow they managed to discuss with them what they wanted, then they all drank, he gave us hand, and told something that we did not understand, and then we children were sent home. My father came home late, drunk. The next day we learned that all the relatives of the German died in a bomb attack, and he had nobody in this world besides the elephant, and that he spent all his poor earnings to buy cabbage and beets to it, while he drags on from one day to another. If you knew how ashamed we felt! If we were punished, then we would have thought we were right, but like this… We collected all our money (we were collecting it for soccer buttons, it was the dream of every child to have HIS OWN team), and we went to the central market hall to buy some boxes of vegetables. We spent all the money on this, we wanted to mend what we had done. We took it to the elephant. The caretaker came to meet us, but I will never forget: the elephant did not let him to come to us, it blocked his path, and when he kept trying to come, it wrapped its trunk around it and lifted him in the air. This is how it defended him. We gave over the vegetables and left. At home we told everything, and my mother began to cry. And the next evening my dad brought me a soccer button team.”

The elephant with Gagarin and his family

Druth

That’s how my eldest daughter named Ruth Mehl, mother of her adopted aunt Ximena. She couldn’t manage the pronunciation of “R” until she was over five. But did she get annoyed when we imitated her. “You mustn’t say ‘Druth’ she said. You must say “Druth” producing an imperceptible change of sound which was more like a change of tone.

She had known Ruth since she was in my belly, because, luckily, I had run into her daughter at the University many years before. Although, to tell the truth, the one I knew first – at least by name – was Ruth. I made friends with Ximena only because I discovered that she was Ruth Mehl´s daughter… We had always read with pleasure her columns about shows for children in the newspaper La Nación, although there were no Trinis or Candes yet in anyone´s minds. (Had it not been for that “no way would this be me” being a friend of Ximena’s. Not a chance!)

Ruth’s columns were complex, as she was. Full of subtle perceptions, with severe opinions about the quality that must be demanded from artists and of what children deserve, but full, as well, of charm, warmth and humour. Thanks to Ruth, at first only by reading her and then, much more so when we mutually adopted each other as family, we discovered so many valuable things: musicians, puppeteers, actors, illustrators, books for children, science fiction writers, movies, series.

We couldn’t now tell of the many discoveries made through her, so many shared tastes, so many teachings about tastes… Maybe we’ll be able to do it little by little, but we’re still too moved by the fact that she’s no longer here with us. Ruth Mehl died on May 18 after a heart operation. She kept her good humour until just before the operation and then she did not awake again. So, even to the end, she left us an example of life with that enviable presence of mind.

That is why, maybe, what we can do is to imitate her spirit of diffusion. In a minimum scale of what she did for us and shared with us, we can show you one of the books that she gave to Trini when she was about two. It had been sent to her as a juror in the prestigious Hans Christian Andersen Contest of children’s literature, and she assured us that it was beautiful.

She was not wrong, of course. Since then it has been our favourite book. And so now, hoping I will not fall in odds with anyone because of copyright issues, I share it with you.

Elephants never jump

Badger the Grocer was adding up Mrs. Lamb’s bill.

Three and three are six and two are… BOOOO! He screamed BOOO so loudly that poor Mrs. Lamb nearly died of fright. Mrs. Goose, who was waiting for her turn, jumped almost to the ceiling, and Badger the Grocer could not stop laughing.

“It’s the third time I made you jump this week,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Pig was merrily hanging clothes to dry and her husband was reading the paper sitting by her. Suddenly, from behind some bushes, Benjamin Leopard appeared with a jump. He was wearing a mask and he roared loudly: “BOOO!”

Mrs. Pig jumped and fell on top of the clothes. Mr. Pig leaped from his rocking chair and spilt his tea, while Benjamin Leopard laughed even louder than Badger the Grocer.

That same day the Elephant arrived in town. While the animals were welcoming the new neighbour, the cow yelled “BOOO” making the lion leap, while all the others bust out laughing.

“You must have meant moooo, said the elephant, wrinkling his forehead.

“No… its’s a game of ours” explained Mrs. Pig with a little laugh, “It’s called ‘Making the other one jump’”.

“Oh”, said the elephant “Well, elephants never jump”

“They never jump?” cried all the animals with amazement.

“Never!” said the Elephant. “There are two things that elephants never do. They never jump and they never forget.”

These words made all the animals very excited. And as soon as the elephant left, they decided to organize a contest to see who was able to make the elephant jump.

On the next day, the elephant was going for a walk when, the lion sprang out from behind a rock with a mighty roar.

The roar made Carmen Goat jump out from where she was hiding, waiting for her turn to shout BOOO!

“Is anything the matter? Are you all right?” the elephant asked the lion.

“Yes, yes, thank you”, answered the lion, somewhat baffled., “Actually, I was trying to make you jump”

“I already told you”, continued the elephant, “elephants never jump.”

All through the next days, all the animals tried to make the elephant jump.

“Please”, said Badger the Grocer “Don’t you try it inside the store. If he starts to jump here, it will be a disaster!

But he himself forgot, and shouted strongly “BOOO!” when the elephant came in to buy some peanuts…

Fortunately, it didn’t work.

The animals stopped scaring each other. It had to be with the elephant and with no one else; and they didn’t try it only in the daytime.

One night when the elephant was about to turn off the light to go to sleep, two hens appeared in his window. They shrieked and moved about as if they were horrible ghosts.

“Elephants never jump”, yawned the elephant, “and even less when they’re in bed”.

Then he turned off the light and the hens felt very, very silly with their costumes.

As time went by, and as the animals couldn’t think of new tricks, days returned to normal. One day the elephant and the other animals, went for a picnic near the river.

Tea was almost ready when a scream of “HEEEEEELPPP” was heard coming from the water. The Tiger Twins were playing on a boat, but the rope that mas mooring it had come untied. The animals ran to the river and saw how the boat was being rapidly pulled by the current. It was already so near the other side of the river that even the elephant’s long trunk couldn’t reach it.

“They’re going straight toward the falls”, cried Badger the Grocer “Quickly! Let’s go to the bridge. It’s the only way to reach them!”

“They already too far away…we’ll never get there on time!” cried Mrs. Pig while all the animals ran desperately towards the bridge.

The elephant was the only one who did something different.

While all the animals ran towards the bridge, the elephant ran away from the river: he stopped, turned around and ran again towards the water as fast as he could. Then he gave a fantastic leap that took him through the air, and landed him on the other side of the river. There, he stretched his trunk and pulled the boat with the twins to the coast.

When the other animals arrived they saw that the twins were safe and sound beside the elephant.

“How did they get here?” asked Badger the Grocer in surprise.

“He jumped! He jumped!” said the twins with great excitement. “We’ve won the contest! We’ve made him jump!”

“But…” said the lion “you had told us that elephants never jump…”

“I know…” said the elephant shyly “But I forgot”.

“The Little Box” - Teresa Usandivaras - CD ¿Jugamos a cantar? (Shall We Play Singing?)

We want to end this entry with a song that Teresa Usandivaras and Julio Calvo, two of “Los Musiqueros”, sang to bid her goodbye. She always asked them for it, they told us, and we loved singing it with them and for her.

La petaquita (canción tradicional de Chile) Tengo una petaquita para ir guardando las penas y penitas que voy juntando Pero algún día, pero algún día, abro la petaquita y la encuentro vacía Todas las chicas tienen en sus vestidos un letrero que dice “Busco marido”. Pero algún día, pero algún día abro la petaquita y la encuentro vacía. Todos los chicos llevan en sus sombreros un letrero que dice “Casarme quiero”. Pero algún día, pero algún día abro la petaquita y la encuentro vacía.

The Little Box (Traditional song from Chile) I have a little box Where I keep storing All the sorrows and little sorrows That I go about gathering. But some day, But some day I´ll open the box And I´ll find it empty. All the girls have On their dresses A sign that says “I´m looking for a husband.” But some day, But some day I´ll open the box And I´ll find it empty. All the boys wear On their hats A sign that says “I want to marry.” But some day, But some day I´ll open the box And I´ll find it empty.

Ruth has left but she stays and will stay forever in our memory as in the memory of so many people who loved her and admired her. And they are many and this is not too little to feel that a life was complete.