HOW KARI SAVED OUR LIVES IN THE JUNGLE
When Kari grew to be five years old, he was almost as high as the
ceiling. He was never trained for hunting. We never thought of
killing anything except snakes and tigers, and these we killed
when they came toward the village and injured men. So Kari never
had the training of a hunting elephant. Just the same, he was
very alert and steady in the face of danger, so when it was a
question of going into the jungle on the back of an elephant, we
generally took Kari with us. During such trips we did not put a
cloth of gold on his back or silver bells on his sides. These
bells are made in certain parts of India where silversmiths know
how to melt and mix silver so that when the clapper strikes the
sides of the bell there will be a sound like rushing water. The
two bells are tied by a silver chain and slung over the
elephant's back, one dangling on each side of him. We never put a
_howdah_ on the back of Kari. Very few Hindus put _howdahs_ on
elephants.
Do you know what a _howdah_ is? It is a box with high sides
inside of which there are chairs for travelers. The _howdahs_ are
generally for people who are not accustomed to elephants. They
need the high sides so that when the elephant walks they will not
fall from his back. They stay in their seats leaning on the edge
of the box and see very little, especially children who are not
tall enough to see over the sides. That is why Indian children
prefer riding bareback on an elephant to taking a _howdah_.
One evening when my brother and I went out, we put a mattress on
Kari's back and tied it very tightly with cords so that it would
not slip, for it is not pleasant to slip and fall under an
elephant's belly and be stepped on. But Kari was trained so that
he would not have stepped on us even if we had slipped under him.
We tightened the cords to the mattress, however, and lay down for
the night. Though we had bells, we lifted them up and silenced
the clappers, so that in walking through the jungle road they
would not ring and frighten the animals, for the forest is the
dwelling place of silence, and silence being the voice of God, no
man dares to disturb it. We lay on the back of Kari and looked up
at the stars. In India, the stars are so close that you can
almost pluck them with your hands and the velvet blue of the sky
is like a river of stillness running between banks of silver.
As we lay there, unable to go to sleep right away, we heard
jungle sounds. The heavy tread of the elephant was like clouds
brushing the crests of the forest. Once in a while you could see
a tiger come out of the jungle, cross a road and disappear in the
distance, but Kari was so brave he never condescended to notice
the comings and goings of tigers. Once we heard the bark of a
fox very near us and then he came out of the jungle. Kari stopped
and the fox passed across the road, then we moved on again. In
the moonlight which made the road before us look like a river of
silver we saw squirrels leaping from branch to branch.
You know, perhaps, that elephants can sleep as they walk.
Presently Kari's walk slackened into a slow pace, and we felt
quite sure that he was dozing. Then we remembered nothing, for we
too fell asleep. I cannot tell how much time passed before we
were startled out of our sleep by a terrible roar, a ghastly
trumpeting of the elephant and a terrible lunge of his body. We
had to hold on to his back very tightly to avoid being thrown
off. In a few seconds both of us had turned over--I do not know
how--and were lying on our faces, holding on to the cords that
held the mattress to Kari's back, while he broke into a run.
Trees bent and broke, branches fell, and we could hear the
monkeys stampeding from tree to tree, and flocks of birds,
startled out of their sleep, falling upon us, their wings
beating our faces. We shouted to Kari to be calm, but he went on
as if he were mad. We heard boars snorting, and running away, and
strange-looking horned creatures leaping and bounding off in all
directions. Then a tree in front of us fell, and the jungle
throbbed for a moment. It seemed as though a shiver ran through
Kari's body, and he stopped stock still. It was very difficult to
tell exactly what had happened until we got off Kari's back. I
spoke to him and he shook his head, then I spoke again and urged
him to put up his head. He obeyed and I climbed down by his
trunk. I felt it was very wet, however, and he shook me off with
pain.
My brother spoke to me from above and said when I told him how
the trunk felt, "Now I know. You see, this is autumn when bears
eat Mohula in the moonlight under the thick shade of the trees.
As you know, Mohula intoxicates bears, and makes them sleepy.
Some bear had fallen asleep under the trees and Kari, who was
also asleep and consequently did not even smell him with his
trunk, must have come upon him without suspecting his presence.
Although all bears are brought up to respect elephants, this one,
no doubt, was so sleepy that he did not know who was upon him and
so I am sure he must have sprung up in his surprise and scratched
Kari's trunk."
If Kari had been wide awake he would have killed the bear, but
being sleepy, the shock and the surprise of the attack and the
pain in his trunk frightened him so that he ran out into the
jungle mad with terror.
I put my hand on the trunk again. Yes, it was bleeding; I could
see in the moonlight that it was not perspiration because my hand
was dark red. I spoke to Kari again; this time he did not shake
his head so furiously. He was rather willing to listen and I told
him I was very sorry about his trunk but could do nothing here, I
also told him to go back to the road. He shook his head--that
meant "No." Do you know why he did not want to go back to that
road? You shall learn at the end of this story.
I got upon his back again. "Since he won't go back to the road,"
said my brother, "we must give him the master call so that he can
make a road through the jungle" and we gave him the master call.
At this Kari lifted his bleeding trunk and smote down the first
tree, and then he struck down the next tree. He came upon a third
which his trunk could not pull down, so he turned around and
walked away from it. After taking a few steps he stopped and
slowly walked backwards and with one push of his back, knocked
this tree down.
At this we could hear the flocks of birds flying in the air and
feel the stamping feet below as herds of animals ran in every
direction. We heard the vibrant jabber of monkeys from tree-tops,
and each time a new tree fell there was more jabbering and more
leaping away from tree to tree.
We clung to the elephant's back with our nails and teeth.
Soon we found ourselves on the road, three miles ahead of where
Kari had been frightened by the bear.
Do you know why he did not go back to the same spot? Because no
animal ever likes to return to the place where he lost his pride.
For to be frightened is to lose one's pride.