Dear Peter Preskar,
I am from India. In my early childhood I had seen a toy known as Thirsty Elephant (in our language Hindi pronounced as ‘pyasa hathi’.
It comprised of an elephant embedded in a bowl, the bowl itself kept on another much deeper bowl having rim size such that the smaller bowl can rest on rim of the deeper bowl.
When water was poured in the smaller cup in with the elephant, upon filling to a certain level water was sucked in by the trunk of elephant and through a symphonic in one of its rear leg would then activated and start emptying the bowl, water being drained in the deeper bowl.
Smaller bowl could be lifted and water from the deeper bowl could be drained.