Only his trunk had been taken off--part of which was cooked for supper.
Although all the flesh of the elephant is eatable, the trunk is esteemed one of the delicate bits.

It tastes not unlike ox-tongue; and all of them liked it exceedingly.

To Swartboy, who had made many a meal upon "de ole klow," it was a highly-relished feast.
They had plenty of fine milk, too.

The cow, now upon the best of pasture, doubled her yield; and the quantity of this, the most delicious of all drinks, was sufficient to give every one a large allowance.
While enjoying their new-fashioned dish of roast elephant-trunk, the conversation naturally turned upon these animals.
Everybody knows the appearance of the elephant, therefore a description of him is quite superfluous.

But everybody does not know that there are two distinct kinds of this gigantic quadruped--the _African_ and _Asiatic_.
Until a late period they were thought to be of the same species.