THE ELEPHANT’S STORY
The next night being Wednesday, the day they had decided to have
their Club meeting, all the animals that had joined the club appeared
promptly at the appointed hour, which was eleven thirty, in the middle
of the circus tent. This tent being rather small and very quiet at
that hour of the night, it was found that all the animals in the cages
surrounding the ring could hear plainly every word the speaker said.
And the night watchman being such a sound sleeper, their conversation
did not awaken him. So without any fear the elephant began his story.
The Elephant’s Story
“Dear friends, I am about to tell you not only the story of my life
which will seem a long one to you, as I am in my two hundred and
fiftieth year, but many things about elephants. As this is to be a Club
not only for amusement, but for education as well, I hope you will bear
with me if I seem tedious. It is astonishing how little any of us know
of the lives and habits of our friends in their free and native state
in the countries where they live so far away from us. All we know of
them is just what we see of them day by day in the circus, so in my
talk to-night I will try to tell you as much as I can about elephants,
leaving out all unnecessary details.
“The first thing of importance in my life I remember distinctly was
walking between my father and mother (two magnificent looking animals)
behind a herd of nine elephants in a wonderful, huge, beautiful forest
in Siam, a country in Southern Asia bordering on the Indian Ocean.
While walking along I was wondering how the big trees five and six
feet in diameter get there with their long limbs and good tasting
leaves. For while I was only a baby elephant three or four months of
age, I distinctly remember admiring the many different colored and
shaped flowers that bloomed on the trailing vines and seemed to festoon
themselves everywhere. But beautiful and sweet smelling as the flowers
on these vines were, my father and mother did not appreciate them for
they tore them rudely aside as the ropelike festoons hindered their
progress through the jungle. I have often heard my father complain to
my mother that these vines and the sharp thorns on the thorn bushes,
with the rotting logs under one’s feet, quite spoiled all the pleasure
of walking in the jungle, and he would greatly prefer walking on the
plains if it were not for the broiling hot sun and no trees to shade
one.
“Just then a loud trumpeting was heard from the leader of the herd away
ahead to warn the herd that there were hunters in sight looking for
them. Quick as a flash my father pointed with his trunk to a thick,
dark clump of trees and told my mother to take me and hide there while
he went to reconnoiter. All elephants are very brave when their young
are attacked and will defend them with their lives. The male elephants
always try to protect the females and young by keeping them in the rear
of the herd when on the move, while they march ahead.
“My mother and I were scarcely concealed behind the big trees, drooping
vines and low bushes when I saw a tall, slender native with only a
breech cloth round his loins push his head through the bushes close
beside the place where we had been standing when the leader trumpeted
his warning. This man held in one hand a long spear with a sharp
arrowhead top, and a coiled rope in the other. And I heard my mother
give a frightened sigh and say to herself: ‘The king’s head elephant
hunter! He has been on our track for days. We surely are lost for
he always gets his prey. He has captured four of our most splendid
elephants recently.’
“At that moment the man happened to cast his eyes down and I saw a
slow, cruel smile of triumph spread over his face as his big red lips
opened and disclosed his sharp, white teeth. He had discovered our
footprints in the soft mud at his feet. Looking around quickly in all
directions and peering into the bushes and dark places in the forest,
I felt he must see us, he looked so straight in our direction. Then he
drew himself to his full height and sniffed the air, and again that
cruel, triumphant smile lit his jaw. My mother, who was watching him as
closely as I, drew in a frightened breath and whispered to me: ‘He has
scented us! We are lost! But he may pass us by. Don’t move a muscle or
take a deep breath.’
“Closely following the tracks, nearer and nearer he drew to us without
stopping until he came to the place where my father’s tracks left ours
and went north. Here the man hesitated and looked closely as if to
decide which of the tracks to follow. Then he lay flat on the ground
with his ear close to it and listened, and when he got up he had
another of his hateful smiles on his face, straightened himself and
again sniffing the air, he started and came straight as an arrow to the
place where we were hiding. But as he separated the bushes behind which
we were standing, my mother stretched out her trunk, caught him around
the neck and threw him over her head. I heard him go crashing between
the big limbs of the trees and fall to the ground.
“‘There, _he_ is done for,’ said my mother, ‘but it was a close call.
His friends, if they ever do find him, will discover him dead from a
broken neck.’
“Just then she gave a groan of pain and sank to the ground, but as she
fell she sent out an agonizing trumpet of pain and warning to my father
and the herd. By a miracle the man’s neck had not been broken and on
regaining his feet he had thrown his sharp, murderous spear at her and
it had penetrated her back in a tender part and killed her.
[Illustration]
“I was wondering what to do when my father, in answer to her death cry,
came charging back, followed by the leader of the herd and two other
strong elephants. Discovering my mother was dead, they became furious
and began looking for the person who had killed her, for they knew on
seeing the spear how she had met her death as they had been hunted so
much and knew from experience what those cruel spears would do. They
began tearing up young trees by the roots and stamping the ground in
the hopes of finding the person who had killed her hiding under a log
or up in a tree. But no one could they discover until with a bellow of
rage my father’s hind foot was caught in a slip knot of a rope thrown
from the limb of a big tree by the native who had killed my mother. The
tree was too big for my father to uproot but he began to tear off all
the limbs he could reach, but to no purpose--as he tore off the lower
ones the native only climbed up the higher.
“‘Ha! Ha! My fine fellow,’ laughed the native, ‘I have you at last! I
have gone without sleep, rest and much food to catch you for the king’s
stables. He wants just such a good-looking elephant as you to train to
carry him in his houdah on your back in the next state procession. So
the quicker you get over your fury and become docile, the better you
will be treated. Yours will be a life of ease, and no pulling of heavy
logs in the river out in the broiling hot sun. You will have a cool,
shady pagoda to stay in when the sun is up and a cool deep marble bath
to bathe in, and plenty of good food to eat. What more could you wish?
And when you take my master for a ride on your back in his houdah you
will head the procession of elephants with the nobility and flower of
Siam on elephants behind you. Your houdah or seat for the king and all
its trappings will be of crimson velvet embroidered in gold, set with
precious stones, while theirs will be of silver. Come now, stop that
struggling or I shall have to tie up another leg and fasten you to a
tree. You won’t? Then here goes!’ and he put his fingers to his lips
and gave the sharpest, most penetrating whistle I ever heard or hope
to hear. From the bushes on all sides of us appeared other half naked
huntsmen, bringing a trained elephant with them to help them subdue my
father. And with the elephant’s help they soon had my poor tired father
hobbled so he could scarcely move. And here the head huntsman left my
father with the natives and returned to the king’s palace to acquaint
him with his find.
“Elephants are also caught by drawing a herd into a strongly
constructed enclosure by frightening them with noise and fire until
the poor things are so confused they don’t know where they are going.
Once in the enclosure, with the help of tame decoy elephants, they are
quickly fastened to trees by tying one leg at a time. Here they are
kept until they become docile and tame enough to be taught what the
natives wish them to do.
“There is one interesting thing about elephants and it is this: If for
any reason one elephant leaves a herd or is driven from it, he is not
allowed to join another or come back to his own. He is forced to lead
a solitary, lonesome life and he soon becomes morose and ill-tempered
and takes delight in destroying everything. These elephants are called
rogues.
“And while I am about it, I will tell you a few more facts about
elephants before I go back to what happened to myself.
“The tusks of elephants are nothing more than enormously elongated
front teeth. They grow to be seven or eight feet long and often weigh
from one hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds. This with the weight
of the animal is considerable, as they frequently weigh from four
thousand to nine thousand pounds. Their usual height is from nine to
ten feet but they have been known to reach the height of fifteen feet.
Though so large and strong, they are rather delicate in captivity
and require being fed with care. When working they are fed two
hundredweight of green food, half a bushel of grain and forty gallons
of water each day. When once tamed and trained, they are of immense
value in the East where they do the heavy work like pulling and hauling
logs, road building and so on as well as being used by royalty on state
occasions to carry them on their backs in gaudy houdahs, a kind of seat
with a canopy or top over it. At such times the elephants are bedecked
in great splendor with head pieces of gold and silver set with precious
stones.
[Illustration: ON THAT LONG TABLE SET FOR A HUNDRED FIFTY PERSONS, EACH
ANIMAL FOUND SOMETHING TO HIS TASTE. (PAGE 160)]
“You have heard of the Sacred White Elephants? Well, there is a dispute
about them. Some authorities say they are simply albinos, which means
a person or animal all white with red eyes. Others say the white hair
is due to a skin disease. Whichever way it is, the people of India
consider them sacred and great care and attention is lavished on them.
They have pagodas of their own, cooling baths and servants to look
after them.
“Elephants are found in Africa, Asia, and Ceylon. The African elephant
differs from the species in Asia in being taller, having larger ears
and a different shaped forehead. The African elephant is hunted for its
tusks which are of great value when made up into ivory trinkets, toilet
articles and other things. The natives of Africa in the jungle count
their wealth by the number and size of the elephant tusks they have.
They are more fierce than the Asia elephants and are not used as beasts
of burden so much on that account.
“Now I have given you a few statistics about elephants in general and
will go back to where my father was caught and I was still undiscovered
beside my dead mother.
“As night came on I began to grow terribly frightened, for in the
darkness I could see the blazing eyes of wild beasts around and snakes
peering at me through the bushes. They had been attracted by the smell
of blood and were only waiting to pounce upon my mother and eat her
when they found out whether she was alive and sleeping or dead.
[Illustration]
“The natives had built a fire and were preparing their supper not
twenty feet from my father who stood stock still now, having completely
worn himself out fighting and straining to loosen the ropes that bound
him. The natives’ fire made a patch of light in the inky black forest
and I was truly thankful for it, as it made me less afraid. But the
blazing eyes kept creeping nearer and nearer where I stood until I was
trying to make up my mind to brave the natives and run to my father
when my mind was made up in a hurry. Hearing the leaves above rustle, I
looked up and what should I see but a big tiger about to spring on me.
With one bound I was out of the bushes and running toward my father. On
seeing me he caressed me with his trunk and told me not to be afraid
but to be brave. My sudden appearance surprised the natives very much
and with one accord they jumped up and came toward us and before I knew
it, I was tied up.
“The natives were very good to us and when my father saw that they
did not intend to hurt either of us, he soon had confidence in them.
At the end of two weeks the natives thought my father was docile and
tame enough for them to start out of the forest with him to the king’s
stables.
“I have had many, many masters and trainers in my long life, but none
that I loved as I did the first one that brought me out of the jungle.
“I should like to tell you about my trip to America in the big ships
across the oceans, but I see I have already talked over my time. So
thanking you for your kind attention, I will bid you good-night,” and
with much applause Jumbo returned to the side of the ring to listen to
what the next speaker had to say, which all had voted must be Billy
Whiskers.