The captain's talk drifted to elephants, but, as the boys had been at the elephant-catching establishment in Siam and learned how these huge beasts are shot and entrapped, they did not make any notes of the narrative.[8] They had stories of leopards and bears, of hyenas and wolves, and of several other wild animals in India, till it was late in the evening and bedtime had arrived. They heartily thanked Captain Whitney for the information he had given them, and wished him every possible success in the expedition he was about to make, and then they said "Good-night" and retired. [8] "The Boy Travellers in Siam and Java," Chapters XI., XII., and XVIII. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1881. CHAPTER XXXV. FROM SIMLA TO ALLAHABAD AND BOMBAY.--A GREAT HINDOO FESTIVAL.--CASTES.--THUGS AND THE CAVES OF ELLORA. From Simla the party returned to Umballa, which they reached just in time to take the train for Allahabad. They expected to arrive there early in the morning, and it was just about daybreak as the train rolled over the magnificent bridge that crosses the Jumna just outside the city. The bridge is two-thirds of a mile in length, and built entirely of stone and iron, and the engineers had great difficulty in placing the piers, owing to the treacherous nature of the river's sandy bed. The Bramins predicted that the bridge could never be made, and its successful construction has gone far to shake the faith of the people in the infallibility of their idols, and teach them to regard the God of the foreigner. It was the time of the _mela_, or annual festival, that brings two or three millions of people to Allahabad to bathe in the sacred waters where the Ganges and Jumna unite. Early in the forenoon our friends went to the flat plain at the junction of the rivers--a triangular stretch of sand measuring a mile or more on each side, and so low that it is covered during the season of floods. Their carriage was not allowed to proceed farther than the edge of this plain, through fear of accidents, but they hired an elephant that was equipped with a couple of chairs of the "settee" pattern placed back to back, and affording accommodation for half a dozen persons. Thus mounted, they rode over the ground of the assemblage, and had a capital view of the scene. Doctor Bronson thought there were at least 100,000 people on the ground, and it is said that the crowd sometimes numbers half a million. They come from all parts of India, and there are few acts considered more pious than the pilgrimage to Allahabad. As if the sanctity of the two rivers was not sufficient, the priests teach that there is a third river, invisible to mortal eyes, which flows directly from heaven to unite with the Ganges and Jumna, and it is at the point of the triple union that the bathing ceremony is performed. [Illustration: HINDOO FAKIRS CUTTING THEMSELVES WITH KNIVES.]