SUNDRA'S STORY

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 146, 17 December 1927, Page 14

SUNDRA'S STORY

-" The glorious pageant of sunset slowly faded from the sky, and the moon . was rising. The great bulk of Sundra, -the black elephant, was outlined against "the old temple, bathed in pearly moonlight, and the huge elephant rocked gently to and fro in the night wind, as "he told me the following story, and ■something of the ethereal beauty of - the moonlit temple—something of the -mystic glamour of the soft, streaming - moonlight— crept into his tale; and the .■wind rustled and swayed in the bamboos ; as I listened. ...

•. _ "You cannot know the call of the .;jungle," he said, gazing dreamily into the farthermost distance. "You cannot know of the wild, unrestrained freedom of the forest, in which I was born. Tor 27 years I lived with my herd, dwelling 'mid the dark, dripping jungle, -■where trees are draped with ferns, and where the dense bracken and underbush grow knee-high. We wero very happy, for juicy bamboos and tender, .luscious grasses grew in abundance, often we came upon deep, hidden : -pools of crystal water, where we would .'drink, and bathe, spouting the water over our backs.

"Thus I had almost reached maturity when I first saw man. We were herded together beneath a tree when white men, accompanied by a medley of natives and dogs, appeared. Immediately we went off through the forest, but we _ were surrounded, and bewildered, and ■afraid; were cautiously driven on and on till wo reached a long enclosure, from which there was no escape. There were many other wild elephants captured, and we were all husteled onwards, .until the passage, growing narrower ?vand narrower, opened out into a great stockade, and behind us shut, the big drop-gate. Then was a very pandemonium of crashing and trumpeting, of yells and cartridges, as we flung ourselves at the posts of the keddah! A form loomed up from the darkness (for the torches flared and wavered), and I found myself gripped firmly by one of the tame elephants ridden by a-sahib, and I was thoroughly beaten and hammered. Until subdued, I was forced to ''■allow them torope and fasten me." "And what happened after you were ■tamed?" I asked.

: "I was employed hauling logs in a timber yard in Burmah, and there I was much petted by my master. I worked there for many years, though very young. _ I was often ordered to frighten an insubordinate companion. Then I assumed a ferocious aspect, x and trumpeted and roared until I tiad effectually subdued the refractory one. I was very sorry when I left the timber yard, and was employed in war service.

"This has been the work of . elephants from earliest times in India, when they carried long chains in their trunks, which, swung about, did much damage to the enemy. But I was employed in "the carrying of the tents and equipment. I saw my comrade, and also many of the soldiers, die from starvation and heat in crossing the great plains, and when I won through, the soldiers declared I should .be presented with a mar medal

y~ I was then bought by a circus, where I spent two years in pulling gay trucks and in giving the little children rides. But my master beat me when I made mistakes, and he used a sharp ankus •-as his tool. Once, when through a fault of his own, I did not perform correctly before a large audience, he beat me with the ankus till the blood came."

"And?" I asked,

-. "T am not usually vindictive," said Su/ira slowly. "Generally, lam the Jnost tractable of beasts, but this man's .cruelty angered me, and, rushing at 'Jhirn, I seized him in my trunk, intending to stamp him to death. I had barely touched him when his screams "brought other men. . ."

"And?" I said again, with a shudder

. "They pulled him from under my feet. . . The doctor said he was maimed and crippled for life. . .That ended circus days forme," he continued, after a pause. "I was sent to the hills to help to capture wild elephants. I really enjoyed hammering those wild youngsters, just as I was once hammered. But now those days are over. . . 1 shall soon be 95, and to-morrow I go to the Eajah to enter his retinue. I shall do nothing. I shall be well fed, and ride in his procession, with gold •harness decked with jewels and draped with silk. ... I wonder shall I like .that as •well as the old ones?" finished eld Sundra as he gazed away beyond Jthe white temple in the moonlight.