The Elephant God

o the ground. When Badshah stopped, the long-stretching line behind him halted, too, and the elephants broke their formation and wandered about feeding. Soon the

ned standing over his man, while the latter sat down on the ground, rested his aching back against a tree, and made a meal from the contents of his haversack. Badshah conten

hants, animals which are usually extremely shy of human beings, was in itself extraordinary. Much as he knew of the jungle he had never dreamt of this. In Central Indian villages he had been told legends of lost children being adopted by wolves. But for elephants

forest gradually died down, and the intense silence that followed was broken only by the harsh

ched him with his trunk and then sank down on his knees. The invitation to mount was unmistakable; and Dermot slung his rifle on his back and climbed on to the elephant's neck. Badshah rose up and moved off, and apparently t

mps of bamboos, by long-leaved plantain trees and through thick undergrowth of high, tangled bushes that clothed the foothills. Up this path, as a paling in the east betokened the dawn,

p slopes. The track was not visible from the village, but a party of wood-cutters from the hamlet had just reached it on their way to descend to their day's work in the jungle below. They saw the winding file o

ntly conducting the enormous herd. One of the wood-cutters recognised Dermot, who had once visited this very village and interrogated this man among others. Petrified with f

urkha overseer the reason of their absence on the previous day, they told him the full tale. No story is too incredible for the average native of India, and the overseer and various forest guards who also heard the na

urbed by them in his sleep beside the bones of a goat, rose growling from the ground and slunk sullenly away. A pair of brill

ugged, barren mountains cloven by giant chasms and seamed by rocky nullahs down which brawling streams rushed or tumbled over fa

t he was nearing the border-line between India and Bhutan; and this was apparently a pass from one country into the other, unknown and unmarked in t

showed where tea-gardens dotted the darker forest. Thirty odd miles to the south of the foothills the jungle ended abruptly, and beyond its ragged fringe lay the flat and fertile fields of Eastern Bengal. A dark spot seen indistinc

Even at noon the pass was dark and gloomy. But it came abruptly to an end, and as through a gateway the leading elephants emerged suddenly on a narrow jun

ng them, as soon as they had drunk from a little river running midway between the mountain chains and fed b

ketches of it. Then he strolled among the elephants grazing near Badshah. They showed no fear or hostility as he passed, and some of the calves evinced a certain amount of curiosity in him. He even succeeded in making friends with one little animal about a y

soon as he was mounted the march began again. The route lay through the new mountain range; and all day, except for a couple of hours' halt at noon, the long l

uch dense foliage that, when the sun was high in the heavens, its rays scarcely lightened the gloom between the tree-trunks. Dermot wond

y threatened to tear Dermot from his seat. Indeed, only the continual employment of the latter's

animals to pass, and then Dermot found Badshah had entered a natural tunnel in the mountain side. The inte

es, as Badshah burst out of the darkness of the

tely ringed in by precipitous walls of rock rising straight and sheer for a couple of t

and dotted with low trees. But elsewhere the ground was dazzlingly white, as though the snow lay deep upon it. Badshah halted among the trees, and t

, skeletons, scattered bones, and tusks. It was the elephants' Golgotha. He had penetrated to a spot which perhaps no other hum

ly sank to the ground. It laid its head down and stretched out its limbs. Tremors shook the huge body; then it lay still as though asleep. A second old elephant, and a third, stood for a moment, then slowly

the end of the stately animals which in obedience to some mysterious impulse, had struggled through many difficulties only to lie down here silently, uncomplainingly, and give up their lives, all stirred Dermot strangely. And when the thoug

rough the trees again towards the tunnelled entrance, and the hundreds of other elephants followed him in file.

ed in descent than when ascending. But they travelled at a much faster pace, being no longer hampered by the presence of the old and decrepit beas

to the east and north, evidently purposing to remain for a time in Bhutan, where the young grass was springing up in the valleys as the lower snows melted. Only thre

ould happen with Badshah when they reached the forest. Would the elephant pe

Badshah were alone, all the others having disappeared, and the animal was standing patiently awaiting orders. He seemed to recognise that his brief hour of authority had passed, and had become once more his us

nts rushed from their huts to stare in awe-struck silence at animal and man

ted the huge beast affectionately and pointed to the empty stall in the peelkhana; and Badshah, seeming to understand and appreciate his being left unfettered, touched his white friend caressingly with his trunk and walked o

the parade ground he found the men of the detachment falling out after their morning drill. His subalte

said, saluting. "I hardly expected to, after the

ked his senior officer, lead

jungle," replied the subaltern. "Another tale was that he knelt down and wors

no desire to be regarded as a phenomenal liar. Natives would believe it, for nothing is too marvellous for them; but he h

was just as I guessed when you first told me of

that you were seen leading an army of elepha

ar that?" asked D

, who said they'd been told it by Bhuttias from the hills. You know how natives

jor, forcing a smile. "Yes, natives

e wooden gate-posts at the entrance were smeared with

r godling or is otherwise holy, his first impulse is to procure marigolds and red paint and make a vot

you and mean to do poojah (worship) to you," said Parker with a laugh. "I told you they reg

uggestion. He was annoyed, as he had no desire to be looked

"When you get to the Mess, Parker, please tell them I'll

mself. But before he acquainted Army Headquarters in India with his discovery, he went to the pass again on Badshah to examine and survey it thoroughly. When this was done and he had despatched his sketches and report to

in search of them, Badshah seemed to know what he wanted and carried him straight to them. For each day the an

objection to Dermot's presence among them. The little animal with the blotched trunk recognised him at once and came to him, and the other calv

hrough the jungle, who hurriedly climbed a tree or hid in the undergrowth to avoid meeting the elephants. From concealment the awed watcher gazed in astonishment at the white man in their midst, of whom such won

hen the elephants in front broke their formation and crowded forward in a body, and Dermot suddenly heard a human cry. Fearing that they had come unexpectantly on a native and might do him harm, he urged Badshah forward through the press of