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already climbing up his left flank and I knew from my experience of tigers,
that she was prepared for a mortal combat. She had come to kill the slayer
of her mate or be slain by him. The elephant shook and trembled and
swayed. The Rajah could not aim again; she gained upon him too rapidly but
he dug the ankus into the elephant's neck almost up to the hilt, and the
elephant, poor beast, shrieked so terribly that the noise frightened the tigress.
She paused and Parakram aimed again. But the now frenzied elephant
started forward into the jungle; Parakram drove the ankus once more into his
neck, crying, "Halt, thou sow of shame! Are thy bowels of mud and thy
tusks of dough?" With a deep groan of pain, the elephant stood still and the
tigress clawed at the Rajah, tearing his sleeve. He with a sudden motion
thrust his rifle into the creature's yawning jaws. Before he could pull the
trigger, she bit it between her teeth and with one of her four paws smote at it
until the weapon flew to pieces, as much to the amazement of the tigress as
to ourselves. With a sudden inspiration I snatched my knife from my belt
and leaning well forward from the tree branch, hurled it with all the force of
my small arm at the tigress. By great good fortune, it buried itself in her
eye. With a ghastly howl of pain she bounded back. The elephant
crouched on the earth as if he, too, were mortally wounded. Parakram
jumped off his neck and stood on the ground before the tigress. He took
advantage of her blind eye to dodge her but; she crouched and crawled
toward him once more. A strange change came over the elephant. Instead of
running away as all elephants do when attacked and riderless, he came
forward and stood beside his master, trumpeting at the tigress. She
leaped upon the elephant but he moved a step backwards, and instead of
falling on him the tigress fell to the ground. With a fierce trumpeting the
elephant charged upon her. A horrible wail of agony pierced the air and then
the elephant darted away into the jungle, leaving the tigress pasted to the
ground. There stood Rajah Parakram mopping his brow with his
handkerchief. After we had come down from the tree, he said:
"I owe my life to a boy and an elephant. Thou hast a good aim, Little
Hunter, to blind a Tiger from a tree branch; what a hurler of knives! The
elephant, has--well, the skin of the tigress is ruined for me! It is glued to the
ground; we'll never save. Then he smiled at me. "The tigers came near being
better hunters than we were," he said. Then to the mahout, "Go and find the
elephant."
Just at this moment we heard grunts across the stream and the beaters'
noise grew louder and louder in the distance; Rajah Parakram and I climbed
up a tree at once and waited for the animals to go by. They came frightened
to the very marrowbone. Leopards, panthers, antelopes, bison's, all sped
before us terrified. Very soon the beaters came into sight and the Rajah told
them to stop their fiendish noise. By this time the mahout returned but
without the elephant, who had stampeded into the jungle.
Before we started for home, the Rajah asked for my father, who bowed to
the earth before him. Parakram said:
"Thy Son is worthy."
That was all but it was enough for both my father and for me. I read in his
glance that I had "passed with honor."
CHAPTER VII
HUNTING AND TRAPPING CONTINUED
"THE other hunters who had gone in different directions the day
mentioned in the previous chapter, bagged very good game. But then they
were standing in front of a clearing, sixteen elephants standing abreast, and
as the animals driven past by the beaters they shot them one by one. None
of them, however, had had adventures anything like ours. Boy-like, I did not
keep my pride to myself; neither, in view of what I felt to be my superior
judgement, could I refrain from expressing my opinions on hunting with
more freedom than discretion. My self-confidence received a check that
evening when my father and I were summoned into the tent of the Rajah and
at Parakram's first words my heart sank and my knees shook as they had not
done since I had faced my first tiger.
"I hear that thy son disapproves of our hunting," said the Rajah.
"O, most exalted one!" cried my horrified father, "forgive the child's
impudence!"
Then, unaccountably the situation changed as I had so often known it to do
in the jungle when I had thought the game was lost. The Rajah smiled.
"Nay," he said, "thou father of a wise child, I am inclined to think thy son
is in the right. Let us hear him speak for himself. Tell us, Little One, what is
thy complaint?"
"Upholder of Truth," I stammered, "may thou live long to protect thy
subjects! I think the jungle is being destroyed with so much killing pursued
for pleasure and not for a livelihood as my father and I kill."
"Mayst thou live long to grow into a jewel of righteousness," said
Parakram laughing. "Tomorrow I send these people away to hunt no more
but thou and thy father shall remain and help me to hunt as I like to hunt,
facing the animals squarely and giving them an equal, chance to escape and
to attack, and if the gods will it so, winning our trophies fairly."
"O, thou pride of truth, O thou man of excellence, O thou king of gods,"
cried my father in delight, "as your people kill now, it is more like a cruel
slaughter than hunting and it pleases my heart that my foolish son has
spoken his mind without risking his neck."
"Royalty may be angry but not with a child for telling the truth, rejoined
the Rajah. "However, what I wish to ask of thee, is to assist me in trapping a
few elephants as well as to find my own friend that stampeded into the
jungle today. I was brought up with that elephant--ah, he has been mine for
many years. Let us hunt until we find and trap him for he saved my life
today!"
"Is that why he came between you and the tigress?" I asked.
"Aye, O thou questioner without shame, that elephant is my little brother.
He was a present to me from a royal father and brought him up as he brought
me up; and today as death was upon me, he risked his life to save mine and
though he ran into the jungle he could not have run far; he remembered me
as his brother. Help me find him!"
"O Pillar of Truth," replied my Father, "my life and my son's life are thine
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