puts his mouth with the proboscis under the big one, and
lifts him up. This little elephant has, moreover, the property
that nothing evil can come near his hairs and bones when
they have been reduced to ashes, not even a Dragon.

  Now the Elephant and his wife represent Adam and
Eve. For when they were pleasing to God, before their
provocation in the flesh, they knew nothing about copula-
tion nor had they knowledge of sin. When, however, the
wife ate of the Tree of Knowledge, which is what the
Mandragora means, and gave one of the fruits to her
man, she was immediately made a wanderer and they had
to clear out of Paradise on account of it. For, all the time
that they were in Paradise, Adam did not know her. But
then, the Scriptures say: 'Adam went in to his wife and
she conceived and bore Cain, upon the waters of tribula-
tion'. Of which waters the Psalmist cries: 'Save me, 0
God, for the waters have entered in even unto my soul'.
And immediately the dragon subverted them and made
them strangers to God's refuge. That is what comes of
not pleasing God.
  When the Big Elephant arrives, i.e. the Hebrew Law,
and fails to lift up the fallen, it is the same as when the
Pharisee failed with the fellow who had fallen among
thieves. Nor could the Twelve Elephants, i.e. the Band
of the Prophets, lift him up, just as the Levite did not lift
the man we mentioned.  But it means that Our Lord
Jesus Christ, although he was the greatest, was made the
most Insignificant of All the Elephants. He humiliated
himself, and was made obedient even unto death, in order
that he might raise men up.
  The little elephant also symbolizes the Samaritan who
put the man on his mare. For he himself, wounded, took
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