There was a joke I first read in 1978 or so that described three Indian squaws; one gave birth to a boy on an elk hide, one gave birth to a girl on a deer hide, and the third gave birth to a boy and a girl on a hippopotamus hide. Thus, the squaw on the hippopotamus equalled the sum of the squaws on the other two hides.
About ten years later, there was a big CLICK! sound in my head.