THE LITTLE SAHIB SEES THE BIG ELEPHANTS
"TO-DAY I must take the young elephants home," said Uncle Achmed, when
the wedding festivities were over. "Are the two little princelings ready
to go with me?" he continued, smiling at his two little nephews.
"Indeed we are," exclaimed the two boys, wild with delight, though they
did not whoop or jump about as boys probably would do elsewhere. Little
Hindu children don't make much noise at any time. It would be thought
strange because it would be bad manners to do so; indeed a Hindu very
seldom even laughs loudly.
But there was nothing that Chola and Mahala really liked better than to
go to their uncle's house and see the big elephants at work. Uncle
Achmed had a big lumber-yard on the banks of the Ganges, and used many
elephants to move about and pile up the great logs of teak-wood.
Wouldn't little boys in America think it a lot of fun if they could go
out into the country and see, instead of horses, a lot of elephants at
work? Well, that is just what a little Hindu boy can do, for elephants
are almost as plentiful as horses in India; and they use them for many
kinds of work where we use horses or machinery.
"I have brought the old elephant with me; he is wise and will be able to
show the others the way home; and, also, he will tell them how to
behave," said Achmed, as he and the two boys made their way to the
_serai_, the camping-place of the elephants outside the city gate.
Here were lots and lots of great gray elephants, swinging their long
trunks from side to side as they swayed and stamped around, while their
owners and drivers shouted and disputed together.
The two young elephants were hobbled in one corner, swaying to and fro
and swinging their trunks in rather a wicked way. Near by was Uncle
Achmed's old elephant, swinging his trunk at the two young ones as much
as to say: "There are a great many things for you youngsters to learn
yet, and I'm going to teach you."
The driver touched the old elephant with his stick and the great beast
slowly knelt down. Achmed and the boys then climbed into the _howdah_,
and the great big elephant marched off with much dignity.
"Look, the little elephants do not like the road," said Chola, pointing
to the new elephants, who would not budge. A little prodding from the
driver's sharp stick, however, made them change their minds quickly;
and they meekly followed the old elephant.
"Thou art like two little Rajahs now," said Uncle Achmed, with a smile
as he squatted in the _howdah_ beside them and took out his "_betel_"
box. It was a beautiful little silver box, all inlaid with enamel and
precious stones. Inside were three compartments which held _betel_ nuts,
lime, and spices. He took a pinch of all three of these and began to
chew the _pan_, as the mixture is called.
The boys had a very good time. They would call down to the children
walking along the dusty road and twit them for not being able to ride in
state as they were doing, just as children do the world over. Everybody
gave them the road, or, rather, the big elephants took it as a matter of
course. The old elephant took all kinds of liberties with the
passers-by, evidently just for the fun of the thing. He would give a
fellow trudging along a nudge on the back with the end of his trunk,
which would nearly scare the fellow to death; or he would sneeze, as it
were, into a lazy beggar's face, which would make the "Holy Man" very
angry indeed. Once he deliberately took a nice ripe melon out of a cart
and ate it, while its owner, who was fast asleep, never missed it.
"He is a wise one," said Uncle Achmed, "but what is the matter there?"
he cried, looking back. The matter was that a wedding procession had
just come out of a side road. The bride was in a litter covered with gay
curtains and gold embroideries, and the bridegroom was riding a white
horse which was all decked with flowers, and had his mane and tail dyed
pink.
With all this splendour there was much beating of drums and music from
other noisy instruments. One of the new elephants had taken a great
fright and backed up against the bride's litter. This had made the
bridegroom's horse rear up and nearly upset him on the dusty road. The
poor little bride screamed, and the crowd of relations and friends
abused the elephant and all his family and kindred back through many
generations, several hundreds of years, which is the true Hindu fashion
of showing one's anger.
The drivers prodded and punched, but the young elephant would not move.
Then old Ranji, the wise old elephant, wheeled around and went up to the
naughty and obstinate youngster and gave his trunk such a twist that he
squealed out in pain. Then Ranji gave him a push out into the middle of
the road again, and after this kept the young one right in front of him.
He was so scared that he scarcely dared to swing his trunk from side to
side again; and all went smoothly until they lumbered into the great
courtyard of Achmed's house, which sat in the midst of a wide expanse
of rice-fields.
As they climbed down out of the "_howdah_," the head servant made a
"_salaam_," or bow, before the master until his forehead touched the
ground, which is a way of being very polite. He then told Achmed that
the Colonel _Sahib_ and the little _Sahib_ had done him the honour of
coming to see him, and were even now sitting in the garden awaiting his
coming. All Englishmen in India are called _Sahib_ and English women are
called _Mem-sahib_.
Achmed found the Colonel sitting on a bed under a big tree in the
garden. This bed the head servant had brought from the house for him to
sit on, for this is one of the forms of politeness shown to English
visitors at a Hindu home.
Just then the "little _Sahib_" ran up to see the elephants; and, who
should he be, but the little boy who had lost his way in the Bazaar.
"Look, it is the little _Sahib_ I talked with," exclaimed Chola to
Mahala.
"Hello!" said Harry, holding out his hand. "Oh, I forgot you folk never
shake hands," he continued. "Isn't it funny to think I should see you
again? But this isn't the same boy who was with you before," he
continued, turning to Mahala.
The boys were delighted to see each other again, and soon were talking
away as if they had always known one another, though sometimes it was
hard for them to understand, and they made many funny mistakes.
Harry thought the big elephants were wonderful beasts, and wanted to see
them at work; so the boys took him down to the river where the elephants
were piling up the teak. An elephant picks up one end of a log with his
trunk and lays that on the pile; then he takes hold of the other end
and so brings it around in place. All the while his driver sits on the
neck of the great beast, and tells him what to do by prodding him gently
with his iron-shod stick. After awhile the elephants become so well
trained that they will do their work without any guidance whatever.
Harry was amazed. He had never seen elephants at work before; but it was
an old story to the Hindu boys, and they told him how the elephants were
made to help build roads and railroads, and even carry cannon on their
backs in battle. Elephants are very intelligent, and can be trained to
do the most wonderful things.
"We will go now and see the wonderful elephant of old Yusuf," said
Chola, leading the way to the back of the house, where old Yusuf, the
head driver, lived. Here they saw the funniest sight. Yusuf's baby
grandson lay asleep on a mat in front of the door, and the old elephant
was standing by waving his trunk backwards and forwards over the baby to
keep away the flies.
How the children laughed! "That is the funniest '_ayah_' I have ever
seen," said Harry. An "_ayah_" is the name for the Indian nursemaids.
Old Yusuf now came up and showed them how the elephant would wake up the
_coolies_, or labourers, when they were sleeping in the shade, by
filling his trunk with water and squirting it over the sleeping fellows.
When he wanted his master he would go to the door of his house and knock
against it with his foot, just as a person would knock with his fist,
only a good deal harder.
"Yusuf knows, too, the language that the elephants talk together in the
jungle," whispered Chola to Harry. It really seemed as if the old man
did understand the language of the elephants, for he would speak to the
elephant with strange sounds, and the beast would follow him about like
a dog. "He has taught me to speak some of the elephant talk, also,"
continued Chola, looking very knowing.
Harry told the boys that his father had come to talk with Achmed about a
tiger hunt that he and several other Englishmen, who were friends of
his, were planning. Achmed was well known as a good man to plan a hunt,
for he knew the jungle well, as the wild forests of India are called.
"Papa is going to take me on the tiger hunt, too. Won't that be fine!"
said Harry, eagerly. "Mamma was afraid at first, but I begged as hard as
I knew, and told her that if I was going to be in the Indian Survey some
day, I'd have to go through the jungle grass and wild forests, and take
measurements with all sorts of instruments and things, and that I might
as well get acquainted with the country now. Then papa laughed and said
that I ought to begin as soon as possible, and so it is all fixed.
"Why couldn't you both come, too?" Harry asked the boys. "Your uncle
could bring you. Wouldn't it be fun! Perhaps we could shoot a tiger
ourselves!"
"Oh, I shouldn't dare to even think of attacking a tiger," gasped the
gentle little Chola. Hindus are as a rule mild, gentle folk. Perhaps
this comes from their laws, so commonly observed, which forbid them to
kill animals or eat meat.
"Perhaps you are afraid to go," said Harry.
"I have not fear, though I would not be brave enough to attempt to kill
a great tiger; but I should like to go all the same. We are brave
people, and many of our warrior _caste_ serve in the great Sahib's army,
as you know," said Chola, proudly.
"I did not mean to say that. I know you people are brave. Father often
says he never had a finer lot of soldiers than those in his Indian
regiment," replied Harry, hurriedly. He was afraid that he had hurt the
little Hindu boy's feelings.
"But perhaps you can go, Chola, if Mahala can't. Let us go now and ask
your uncle if he will take you," continued Harry.
"By all means let the boy come, Achmed. He will be a companion for you,
Harry," said the Colonel _Sahib_. "And he will help you learn
Hindustanee, too. You need help, do you not?" laughed his father.
"What will your father say if the gods of the jungle carry you off?"
asked Achmed, half-banteringly. But he could not long refuse his
favourite nephew anything that he could give him, and so it was arranged
that Achmed, with two of his best drivers, and Chola, should meet the
Colonel Sahib and his party at the big railway station in Lucknow in a
week's time. From there they would take the "fire-wagons" to a certain
small village, from which they would make their real start for the
jungle.