“There is a mystery behind that masked gray visage, an ancient life force, delicate and mighty, awesome an enchanted, commanding the silence ordinarily reserved for mountain peaks, great fires, and the sea.”
-- Peter Matthiessen on elephants from “The Tree Where Man Was Born”
![elephant-mouth](http://awf.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/elephant-mouth-300x200.jpg)