Every myth has a purpose, whether it is to explain a natural phenomena or the unknown. In the case of “Nama and the Elephant”, the purpose is to show why an elephant’s tusks are made of ivory. Nama, a stunning African girl, caught the eye of an elephant. Determined to marry the girl, he followed her home and began bargaining with her father for her hand in marriage. Persuaded by the significant sum of money the creature offered in exchange for his daughter, Nama’s father handed her over to him. She was trapped inside the elephant’s palace and the relationship, unable to leave him until she repaid the dowry. She wrote to her father pleading for him to undo his bargain, but he explained how he had lost the money, and their family was now poorer than poor. Seeing how unhappy she was married to the elephant, the creature 's mother asked if Nama’s magical powers where something that could be used to repay the debt. At first she thought that her powers could do nothing of the sort, but she then concocted a plan which could resolve her dilemma. By mixing, boiling, and manipulating …show more content…
Everyone in Nama’s family rushed outside to see what all the commotion was about. The text reads, “He went into the jungle, picked some beautiful flowers and returned to Nama’s house. He stood outside and trumpeted as loud as he could. Nama and her parents and her brothers and sisters rushed out of the house to see what all the noise was about,” (251). They saw the elephant standing on their doorstep, and were shocked to see what they saw. The elephant asked Nama’s father to marry his daughter, but he could never see his beautiful Nama marry such a creature. When the elephant offered to pay the family money to marry Nama, her father began to listen. After the elephant agreed to give Nama’s family an absurd amount of money, Nama and the elephant went off to live