Arabs -- Folklore; Fairy tales; Fairy tales -- Arab countries; Folklore -- Arab countries; Tales -- Arab countries
"I saw no elephant during the night, but next morning, as soon as the
sun was up, I perceived a great number. I shot several arrows among
them, and at last one of the elephants fell, when the rest retired
immediately, and left me at liberty to go and acquaint my patron with my
booty. When I had informed him, he gave me a good meal, commended my
dexterity, and caressed me highly. We went afterwards together to the
forest, where we dug a hole for the elephant; my patron designing to
return when it had fallen to pieces and take its teeth to trade with.
"I continued this employment for two months, and killed an elephant
every day, getting sometimes upon one tree, and sometimes upon another.
One morning, as I looked for the elephants, I perceived with extreme
amazement that, instead of passing by me across the forest as usual,
they stopped, and came to me with a horrible noise, in such number that
the plain was covered, and shook under them. They encompassed the tree
in which I was concealed, with their trunks extended, and all fixed
their eyes upon me. At this alarming spectacle I continued immovable,
and was so much terrified, that my bow and arrows fell out of my hand.
"My fears were not without cause; for after the elephants had stared
upon me some time, one of the largest of them put his trunk round the
foot of the tree, plucked it up, and threw it on the ground. I fell with
the tree; and the elephant, taking me up with his trunk, laid me on his
back, where I sat more like one dead than alive, with my quiver on my
shoulder. He put himself afterward at the head of the rest, who followed
him in troops, carried me a considerable way, then laid me down on the
ground, and retired with all his companions. After having lain some
time, and seeing the elephants gone, I got up, and found I was upon a
long and broad hill, almost covered with the bones and teeth of
elephants. I confess to you, that this object furnished me with
abundance of reflections. I admired the instinct of those animals; I
doubted not but that was their burying-place, and that they carried me
thither on purpose to tell me that I should forbear to persecute them,
since I did it only for their teeth. I did not stay on the hill, but
turned toward the city, and, after having travelled a day and a night, I
came to my patron.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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