"Now open your ears. A huge and sour-tempered elephant went and wandered in the forest. His inside was slack for want of juicy roots and succulent reeds, but his head was as full of dark thoughts as a gadfly is full of blood. As he looked this way and that, he observed a young lion asleep at the foot of a tree. He regarded it for a while, then, as he was in a wicked mind, it came to him that he might as well kill it, and he accordingly rushed at it, and impaled it with his tusks. He lifted it with his trunk, swung it about, dashed it against the tree, and afterwards kneeled on the body until it became as shapeless as a crushed banana pulp. He then laughed, and said, 'Ha! ha! This is a proof that I am strong. I have killed a lion, and people will say proud things of me, and will wonder at my strength.' "Presently a brother elephant came up and greeted him. "'See,' said the first elephant, 'what I have done. It was I that killed him. I lifted him on high, and, lo! he lies like a rotten banana. Do you not think I am very strong? Come, be frank now, and give me some credit for what I have done.' "Elephant No. 2 replied: 'It is true that you are strong, but that was only a young lion. There are others of his kind, and I have seen them, who would give you considerable trouble.' "'Ho, ho!' laughed the first elephant. 'Get out, stupid! You may bring his whole tribe here, and I will show you what I can do. Ay, and to your dam to boot.' "'What! My own mother, too!' "'Yes. Go and fetch her if you like.' "'Well, well,' said No. 2, 'you are far gone, there is no doubt. Fare you well.' "No. 2 proceeded on his wanderings, resolved in his own mind that, if he had an opportunity, he would send some one to test the boaster's strength. No. 1 called out to him: "'Away you go. Good-by to you.' "A little way on, No. 2 elephant met a lion and lioness, full grown, and splendid creatures, who turned out to be the parents of the youngster which had been slain, and he said to them, after a sociable chat: "'If you go further on along the path I came, you will meet a kind of game which requires killing badly. He has just mangled your cub.' "Meantime elephant No. 1, chuckling to himself very conceitedly, proceeded to the pool near by to bathe and cool himself. At every step he went you could hear this: 'Ha, ha, ha! Lo! I have killed a lion.' While he was in the pool, spurting the water in a shower over his back, he suddenly looked up, and at the water's edge beheld a grown lion and lioness regarding him sternly. "'Well, what do you want?' he asked. 'Why are you standing there looking at me?' "'Are you the rogue who killed our child?' they asked. "'Perhaps I am,' he answered. 'Why do you want to know?' "'Because we are in search of him. If it be you that did it, you will have to do the same to us before you leave this ground.'