Elephant dance (1937)

big tusker of the Kakankote camp, can be taught to The do it, though it may take some months. It will be ]ema(iar interesting watching how he does it, won't it? We came upon our old shikar elephants at the river, having a glorious bathe after their two days hunting. They were coming out of the water all clean and black and shining. I loved seeing them again, like old friends. I could imagine they recognized us. We made much of them, patting them. The one I thought so old is not old at all, not full grown, but she had a bad time, poor thing, bearing a calf which was born dead. Her eyes are so patient and so kind. Though only a year and eight months caught, she seems gentlest and wisest of all. Sabu, transfigured, was in his element, thoroughly Sabu, The at home, ordering the elephants about, mounting Elephant Boy them, riding them, sitting there as on a throne from which he looked down upon us common mortals. It is here, by the way, near Kakankote, that he was born. His mother died when he was a baby. His father taught his elephant to rock the baby's cradle — to rock the baby himself in his trunk. It is even said that a wild elephant came out of the forest and played with the child! The river, as I have said, was mightily swollen by Monsoon the heavy monsoon rains,— a racing torrent three hun Flood dred yards across. Bob was curious to know if the elephants would tackle such a current, and asked the 59