And then they had gone to a plantation and fetched from there a banana tree, with a huge bunch of ripe bananas on it. They had set up the tree in the middle of that space; and as it would not keep straight, they had first driven a long bamboo rod right through into the ground, and then tied the banana tree to the top of the rod. After doing all that, the hunters were hiding in the trees around. They were watching to see the big elephant and the little elephant come right up to the banana tree to eat the bananas, and get caught! For if any elephant stepped upon that place, the top would give way under his full weight, and he would fall right through into the pit. But Salar's father grabbed him with his trunk, and pulled him away. "Come away!" he said. "This is a most hideous trap!" But Salar, who loved bananas quite as much as you love ice cream, began to cry. "I want the bananas; I want them; I do, I do!" he kept saying over and over again. Now his Papa was very fond of Salar, but he did not know how to reach the bananas and not fall into the pit. He and Salar walked home slowly. "I must think it over a bit," he said, scratching his head with a bough. He came there the next day with Salar, and looked all around the place; but he could think of no safe way to get the bananas. The hunters also came there the next day, for by this time they were quite excited to see what the wily old elephant would do. In fact, it was from the chief hunter of that Prince that I heard afterwards what the elephant did do. I must tell you here that these hunters had been watching the big elephant for many years, and trying to catch him by different kinds of traps; and that is how we know all about him and Salar. For when an elephant is very big and has fine tusks, people sometimes try for ten years to catch him, so that he may be used as the leading elephant of a grand palace. _Almost all the elephants you see in the zoo or in a circus were once quite wild in the jungle_, and have been caught by some kind of trap. They are then tamed, and finally trained to do tricks that men want them to do. I shall tell you all about that in another book, when you are a little older. But now about Salar and his father. On the third day the big elephant came there again, with Salar; and again the hunters came and hid in the trees around. This time the big elephant looked farther into the jungle. Then he saw the long bamboos growing in a clump--the very clump from which the hunters had got the bamboos to make the trap. As the elephant looked at the clump of bamboos, a thought came slowly into his head. He pulled out a long bamboo, and returned to the place where the trap was. He stood just outside the trap, and thought again for some time. Then he held one end of the bamboo in his trunk, pointed the other end to the banana tree just where the stalk of the bunch began, and gave a jab.