Elephants -- Juvenile literature; India -- Juvenile literature
As we trotted off, I called back, "I do not sell silver, nor do I
buy gold, but when my elephant grows up, he will have such tusks
that you will cast eyes of envy on them. But this elephant will
live more than one hundred and twenty-five years and thou shalt
be dead by then, and so there will be no chance of soiling his
ivory by buying thy gold."
We walked on very silently through the city, and then of a sudden
a pack of dogs were upon us. We knew not whence they had come.
Kari was as dignified as a mountain; he never noticed them, but
the less attention he paid to them, the more audacious the dogs
grew. They came after us and I did not know what to do, as I did
not even have a stone to throw at them. In a few moments, we were
hemmed in by packs of dogs. Quickly now, Kari turned round and in
an instant lifted a dog into the air with his trunk. As the dog
would have been dashed into bits, I yelled into his ear,
"Brother, brother, do not kill him, but let him down gently, he
will not bite you."
At this moment the dog gave such a terrible cry of pain as the
trunk was coming down that Kari stopped and slowly brought him to
the ground. The dog, however, was already dead; the pressure of
the trunk had killed him, and the other dogs, seeing his fate,
had already run away.
Kari walked rapidly out of the city and I was heart-sick. He went
straight to the river bank and with great difficulty walked down
the steps of the Ghaut and buried all except his trunk in the
water. He stood there knowing that I knew that he had done
something wrong and he was trying to cleanse himself of it. I,
too, took my bath.
Late in the afternoon, we went back and found Kopee still sitting
on the same tree and looking for us, as the caravan had left long
ago. Judging by the banana peels under the trees, we realized he
had had his dinner. Kari and I, however, were very hungry and we
were both sick of the city. We did not want to see it again, so I
called to the monkey to follow and urged the elephant to go on to
the nearest forest. Kopee, with one leap, jumped on my neck as I
sat on the elephant's back.
This ended Kari's expedition to the city. It is better for
animals to be where the jungle is, for the jungle is sweeter and
kinder than that wilderness of stones--the city.
CHAPTER V
THE JUNGLE SPIRIT
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account