The Saturn
Presentation of this planet and its moons, including ring and creatures
- Chapter 24 -
The Saturnian elephant, Sisterkihi. Its structure and habits. Hunting this animal and its purpose of creation.
The animal which we shall now describe is called the sisterkihi. To what order does it belong on Saturn? This animal is the actual elephant of this celestial body; despite this, it is far behind the mud in every respect. In size the mud is more than a hundred times larger than the sisterkihi; it also does not resemble the mud at all. The sisterkihi greatly resembles the elephant of earth, but not as much as many of the other animals which we shall hear about.
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What does this animal look like? It has four extremely strong feet, similar to those of the earthly elephant, but in proportion to its size. The legs are not structured like those of an elephant, but more like those of a bear, with strong claws. Its body is extraordinarily voluminous, to the extent that when the sisterkihi is fully grown it measures 420 to 480 feet from the abdominal area to the spinal column. Its tail is proportionately as long as the tail of a lion. At the end of the tail is an extremely strong bushy tuft of which the length of the hair is anywhere from 36 to 60 feet. This animal has a proportionately very long but massive neck, with a comb that extends to the area of the front feet consisting of a very strong hirsute mane.
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The head is similar to that of a horse; in proportion its forehead is much wider. Above the forehead, between the two ears, there is a large flexible trunk which expands to 240 feet, whereas on the other hand it retracts to one-third of its full length. The trunk has a tremendous lifting power; it can uproot trees of a large size.
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By means of this trunk this animal tears branches off the trees and devours them fruit and all, especially when it is very hungry. The color of the sisterkihi is light gray while its trunk is dark gray. Its neck-mane scintillates into a blue and the tuft is light gray. Its eyes are of a very dark brown color. This animal has an abyss of a mouth with extremely strong white fangs. In the back of its mouth it also has extremely strong bones that are used for crushing its food; they are not teeth, but are actual bones of the upper and lower jaw protruding prominently. With these protruding bones this animal can even crush very hard stones as well as big branches with ease, to the point that they turn to mush in its mouth.
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This animal is actually a herbivore; however, when it is very hungry it will devour animals, and not even human beings are safe. This is one of the reasons why the Saturnites are not very fond of this animal. But wherever the Saturnites may find this animal, they have the ability to deal with it, even though it might present some great and dangerous obstacles to them.
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How do the Saturnites hunt the sisterkihi? They cannot hunt it with mere strength, because this animal has as much strength in its trunk alone as a thousand of the strongest Saturnites. That is why the Saturnites choose shrewdness as their ally. This animal's habitat is usually the large forests of the well-known pyramid trees, and it causes great harm to these trees by tearing off the branches as far as its trunk can reach.
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When the Saturnites notice in any of these countries that these giant trees are without any branches (and, by the way, these trees are native to almost every country on Saturn), it means that one or more of these animals are present in the forest. What will the Saturnites do in such a situation? Equipped with torches, they completely surround the forest and ignite it all around. Since this animal fears nothing more than fire and smoke, it soon flees from the forest and searches all over for an exit where the fire has not spread yet; but wherever they find such an exit, the Saturnites make certain that it will lead to a wide river, a lake or even the ocean itself. When the sisterkihi finds such an exit, it will soon enter the water.
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As soon as it enters the water it becomes awkward and clumsy and holds its otherwise active trunk straight up in the air. The Saturnites now force the animal to go deeper and deeper into the water by pursuing it with their boats and torches attached to long poles. Once the animal has reached a depth where only its head is above the surface of the water, they make haste and hack off the formidable trunk with large sharp axes. As soon as this animal loses its trunk, it loses its life. It drowns and begins to rot, and its flesh becomes nourishment for many hungry animals in the water.
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What happens, if for one reason or another, such a forest does not border any water of the required depth? Then an operation like this becomes somewhat more dangerous and precarious. Should the fire spread properly from all sides so that this animal or several of them are surprised in the center of a burning forest and cannot find an exit anywhere, they will suffocate in a raving frenzy. If the fire is very severe they will also burn. However, should the fire not have taken proper root, they will break through with great ferocity towards an area where there is less fire.
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Beware to those who encounter this animal under those circumstances! It will pick up any human being or animal with its trunk and hurl it with such vehemence into the air or onto the ground that nothing remains. The force of such a frenzied thrust surpasses the force of a cannon ball. If this animal would carry out such a throw on earth, it could easily throw an 11,000 pound stone over a distance of 20 geographic miles, but with such force that the stone would travel this distance in just a few seconds. Should this animal hurl it into the ground, then you can be assured that the stone would be driven over 600 feet into ground.
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From this brief description of these' circumstances you can easily surmise the respect the Saturnites have regarding this animal and the concern it causes on entire continents when one or several of these animals have escaped such a fire hunt. That is why such a forest is at all times subject to severe scrutiny; it does not matter if it is located near a body of water or not. Should the forest not border on any body of water, then there will be many deliberations on the subject of if and when it would be most favorable to burn the forest.
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Should the forest be in a good burnable condition and if at the same time it is large enough, then it will be burned. Should this not be the case, then the forest is for the time being relinquished to the animal, but in the meantime dry wood is placed around the entire forest, literally forming a wall around it, which is ignited when the trees become more burnable. This usually occurs when an area comes under the shadow of the ring for extended periods of time, which in accordance with the chronology on earth extends over several years. During this time the trees stand just as on earth in the winter, without sap. During this time the Saturnites ignite this wall of dry wood from all sides at the same time, then leave as quickly as possible.
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This concludes the chapter on this memorable animal. The sisterkihi inhabits approximately ten continents on Saturn, but in small numbers.
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This animal, as well as all the others, also has another natural purpose. And none of these animals have been placed upon this planet as an indispensable prerequisite for the maintenance of other entities, as these transitions can pass just as well through other levels. For this reason no country is at a loss when such large, strong animals which are dangerous to human beings become extinct.