Project Gutenberg's The Wonders of the Jungle, by Prince Sarath Ghosh
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Title: The Wonders of the Jungle
Book One
Author: Prince Sarath Ghosh
Release Date: March 16, 2008 [EBook #24852]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WONDERS OF THE JUNGLE ***
Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper,
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[Illustration: Midnight Pool: Animals Drinking]
HEATH SUPPLEMENTARY READERS
THE WONDERS OF
THE JUNGLE
PRINCE SARATH GHOSH
BOOK ONE
D. C. HEATH AND COMPANY
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO ATLANTA
DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO LONDON
COPYRIGHT, 1915,
BY D. C. HEATH & CO.
* * * * *
PREFACE
One of the great thinkers of the world has said that all the sciences
are embodied in natural history. Hence natural history should be
taught to a child from an early age.
Perhaps the best method of teaching it is to set forth the
characteristics of animals in the form of a narrative. Then the child
reads the narrative with pleasure and almost as a story, not as a
tedious "lesson."
I have followed that method in the Wonders of the Jungle. The present
work (Book One) is intended to be a supplementary reader for the
earlier grades in grammar schools. If it be found useful, I shall
write one or two more books in progressive order for the use of higher
grades.
In Book One I have depicted only such wild animals as appeal to the
interest of young children, and even to their sympathy and love. In
subsequent books I shall describe the animals that prey upon others.
As those animals are not lovable, it would be better for the child to
read about them a year or two later. But even to those animals I shall
be just, and shall depict their good qualities as well as their
preying habits. How many people know that the very worst animal, the
tiger, is a better husband and father than many men? Or that the
ferocity of the tigress is prompted entirely by her maternal
instinct--and that in every case of unusual ferocity yet recorded it
was afterward found that there was a helpless cub somewhere near?
Hence in subsequent books I shall enter more fully into the causes of
animal instincts and characteristics--their loves and their hates and
their fears.
Regarding the scheme of Book One, the animals are described in their
daily life, and the main scientific facts and principles concerning
each animal are woven into the narrative as a part of that daily life.
But while teaching science to the child in that pleasant form, a few
other purposes have also been kept in view:--
1. To cultivate the child's imagination. True imagination is the
ability to visualize mentally the realities of life, not what is
unreal--for which it is so often mistaken. Hence in this book the
child is helped to visualize the animals in their actual haunts, and
to see each incident as it actually happens.
2. To cultivate the child's reasoning faculty. The child is encouraged
at every step to think and to reason why the animal does certain
things; _e.g._ why the elephant does not drink directly with its
mouth, but has to squirt the water into it with the trunk.
3. To teach a moral from the study of animals. The whole of Creation
is one immense and beautiful pattern: so the child may well be trained
to see the pattern in this also. And as a practical benefit from the
study of animals, the child may learn thereby the value of certain
qualities, such as obedience, discipline, and good citizenship--_e.g._
as in the remarkable case of the elephant, the buffalo, and the
flamingo, as described in the text. In this regard I have kept in mind
the very useful suggestions formulated a few years ago by the Moral
Education League of Great Britain, under the patronage of Queen Mary,
five of whose children at that time ranged in age from seven to
fifteen. One of the functions of education is to present to the child
the noblest and the most elevated of ideals. I have sought to do that
in almost every chapter.
I have to acknowledge my obligation to the New York Kindergarten
Association for its valuable cooperation in putting this book through
a practical test. The Kindergarten Association on more than one
occasion provided me with a large audience of children, ranging in age
from six to nine, ex-pupils of the Association, who are now in the
public schools.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I. THE MIDNIGHT POOL
Elephants Drink First--But Down Stream
How the Elephant Drinks
Why the Elephant Drinks with his Trunk
II. THE LAW OF THE JUNGLE
How Buffaloes Come to Drink--In Rows
Buffalo Knights Guard the Timid Deer
Wild Pigs--Careless
Red Dogs--Bold, Fearing Nobody
Other Animals Come Alone
The Law of the Jungle--Clear Water for All
III. THE ELEPHANTS' BATH
Elephant Child Obeys Mamma--or Gets Spanked
How the Elephant Child is Bathed
How the Elephant Child Learns to Swim
IV. ELEPHANTS: THE TRICKS OF THE JUNGLE
Elephant Child Learns to Feed
Elephant Child "Swats" Tormenting Flies
Elephant Covers Back from Hot Sun
How Elephants Walk under Water
How Elephants Break Down or Pull Out Trees
V. ELEPHANTS: THE TRICKY TRAP
The Elephant Taps Suspicious Ground with his Trunk
Elephant Tricks the Tricky Trappers
VI. BUFFALOES: THE KNIGHTS OF THE JUNGLE
Buffaloes Cover Body with Mud against Flies
How Buffaloes Guard against Tiger while Feeding
How Buffaloes Know Danger is Coming--Three ways
Buffalo Sentinels
Buffaloes Make a Ring when Tiger Comes
Small Animals Find Safety in Buffalo Ring
VII. TAMING THE BUFFALO
Wild Buffaloes Tamed Quickly by Kindness
Little Boys Take Charge of Buffaloes
How the Big Buffaloes Love the Little Boys
VIII. THE BUFFALO AND THE BOY
IX. DEER AND ANTELOPE
Horns and Antlers Different in Three Ways
Elk and Other American Deer
Other Kinds of Deer
Barking Deer--One of the Wonders of Nature
X. DEER AND ANTELOPE: THEIR SPECIAL GIFTS
Each Animal has the Gift he Needs Most
XI. THE CAMEL
The Camel's Wonderful Gifts
XII. THE CAMEL AND THE THIEF
XIII. BEARS
The Polar Bear
American Bears
Other Bears
XIV. BEARS: THE TRICKY TRAP
XV. BRIGHT BIRDS
The Flamingo
The Parrot
The Cockatoo
The Peacock
The Golden Pheasant
The Snowy Egret
XVI. THE CAGED PARROT
* * * * *
ILLUSTRATIONS
MIDNIGHT POOL: ANIMALS DRINKING Frontispiece
THE BUFFALOES AND THE BLUE DEER
AN ELEPHANT GIVING HIMSELF A SHOWER BATH.
AN ELEPHANT MAMMA CARRYING HER CHILD ACROSS THE RIVER
AN ELEPHANT BREAKING A TREE WITH HIS FOOT
ELEPHANT PULLING BANANAS OUT OF A TRICKY TRAP
THE BUFFALO THAT LIVES IN INDIA
THE TIGER AND THE RING OF BUFFALOES
TAME WATER BUFFALOES PLOWING IN THE RICE FIELDS
ANTELOPE
ELK
ARABIAN CAMEL--WITH ONE HUMP
BACTRIAN CAMEL--WITH TWO HUMPS
SAND STORM IN THE DESERT
CROSSING THE DESERT WITH CAMELS
POLAR BEAR
HIMALAYAN BLACK BEAR
A BEAR FIGHTING A BLOCK OF STONE
A FLAMINGO COLONY
SNOWY EGRETS
* * * * *
THE WONDERS OF THE JUNGLE
CHAPTER I
The Midnight Pool
My dear, I shall tell you all about the wonders of the jungle. You
have seen many animals in the zoo or in a circus--elephants, bears,
lions, tigers, leopards, and many others. But the jungle is the place
where these animals live before they are brought to the zoo or the
circus.
In fact, _jungle_ really means a _wild place_; that is, a place where
trees and bushes grow quite wild, so that men never cut down the trees
or clear away the bushes. That is the natural home for all sorts of
animals.
Now I am going to tell you about the wonderful way in which they live
there with their families, as we do in our homes; for the Papas and
Mammas among the animals are just as fond of their children as ours
are. So you must _imagine_ that you are going into the jungle with
me, so that I can show you everything. You see, it is just like a game
of _pretending_, that we are going to play.
There is actually a place in the jungle where you can see all the
animals at once. In fact, that place is so wonderful that King George
and Queen Mary of England went to see it; that was a few years ago,
when they went to India, which is a far-away country. For in India
there is a huge jungle where many thousands of animals live.
So you must _pretend_ that I am taking you to the Royal party, and
that you are sitting with the King and Queen and all the fine men and
lovely ladies; and we are watching the animals, while I tell you all
about them.
First, I must tell you that it is midnight, and all the animals are
coming to a stream of water to drink. This stream is a river about
twice as wide as a large street in your home town. We are sitting on
the bank, on one side of the stream; and the animals are coming to
drink on the bank on the other side.
"But," you may say, "will not the animals see us across the stream,
and get frightened and run away?"
That is quite true. But the King and Queen had thought of that. So
they ordered a lot of men to put a large net on their side of the
stream, just in front of them, and then to cover the net with twigs
and leaves so cleverly that the animals thought the leaves were a part
of the jungle, and did not see the people on the other side of the
net.
So the King and Queen, and you and I, can peep quietly through the
leaves and watch the animals. Almost all wild animals drink at
midnight; so we shall see them now.
Where will the animals come from? You see the stream before us; well,
on the other side of it is the jungle, where the animals live. Right
in front of us we see a gap in the jungle close to the bank. That gap
was made by _elephants_ by beating down the bushes with their feet.
They made it long ago to come to the water, and now they use it every
night. In fact, it is known among the jungle folks as the _Elephant
Path_; for no other animal would dare to use it before the elephants
did.
The elephants, being the biggest of all animals, are the _lords of the
jungle_; so they have the right to come first to drink. They are also the
wisest of all animals. You have seen many kinds of animals--elephants,
horses, dogs, monkeys, and others--do funny tricks in a circus. Now, all
these animals except the elephant have to be _taught_ to do tricks; the
elephant is the only animal that can think out a trick for itself.
Of course in a circus there is always a teacher, or trainer, to show
even the elephant how to do tricks; but in the jungle the elephant can
find out how to do things for itself.
Very soon I shall tell you about the tricks which the elephant
actually does in the jungle; and as you hear about them, you must
_think_! Why? Because then you will know _why_ the elephant does these
things--and that will show you how clever _you_ can be!
_Elephants Drink First--but Down Stream_
First let us watch the elephants as they come to the river through the
gap in the jungle.
See! They come one at a time, _one behind another;_ for the gap is not
big enough for more than one at the same time. The elephant is so big
that it can get through the jungle only in this way.
First come a number of _bull elephants_. They are the Papa elephants;
you can always tell them by the _huge tusks_ they have. The bulls
come first, in case there are any enemies waiting to hurt their
children; for then the bulls can drive off the enemies.
As each bull elephant comes through the gap, you see him turn to our
right, which is _down_ the stream--that is, the way the water flows.
You see the first one walk along the bank that way, and the second
comes after him, then the third, and so on.
But why do they walk along the bank? To make room, of course, for all
their friends who are still coming from behind. In this way about a
dozen bull elephants come ahead of all the others.
After them you see the _cow elephants_, also in a line, one behind
another. They are the Mamma elephants; and nearly every one of them
has a baby elephant trotting in _front_ of her. You have often seen
the ordinary cow that gives you milk; when she goes to graze in the
field, her baby, or calf, trots by her side.
But the Mamma elephant is much wiser, and always tells her baby to
toddle in _front_ of her, in case any one comes suddenly to hurt or
steal the baby. For a tiger sometimes wants to pounce on the baby from
the side, grab it quickly, and carry it away. But he cannot do it if
the baby is right in front of its Mamma; for then she will drive him
off with her tusks, even if they are not quite so big as the tusks
that the Papa elephants have.
As the Mammas reach the bank, each with her baby, you see them also
walk along the bank down stream in a long line.
After all the Mammas and babies have come, you see another set of bull
elephants coming out of the jungle. Why? Because some enemy might try
to attack the Mammas and the babies from the _back_; so these bull
elephants are there to guard them. You see, the Mammas and the babies
are _always in the middle_, safe from all harm.
When all the elephants have reached the stream, they stand in line and
face the water. All these elephants belong to _one herd_; you can
count about a hundred. A herd of elephants is really a _republic_,
like the United States of America, and has a President, who is the
wisest bull in the herd.
In another book I shall tell you how the elephants choose their
President, and make laws, and keep order in the herd; how they choose
some strong bulls among them to act as _policemen_ in the herd, and
catch and punish any naughty elephant who becomes a _rogue_; and how,
if two elephants start quarrelling and fighting like naughty boys, the
police elephants have to catch and punish both of them. Also, I shall
tell you how the President has to lead the herd every day when they go
in search of food, so that they will have plenty to eat.
And in the jungle, as there are other elephant herds and sometimes two
herds find the same feeding ground, and then start quarrelling and
fighting as to who found it first, it is the duty of the President to
keep his own herd away from the two that are fighting, and not mix in
the fight in any way. All these wonderful things and many others you
will read in the other book, when you are a little older.
But let us see what the President has to do when the whole herd is
standing in line, facing the water. He is at the bottom of the line,
far down stream; so he looks up along the line to see that all are
ready. Then he gives the signal for them to begin drinking; he does
this by dipping his trunk into the water. Then the second one sees him
do it, and does the same; in that way each elephant higher up the line
sees that the next one below him has started drinking, so he too does
the same. Soon they are all drinking, as you see in the picture at the
beginning of this book.
But why does the President have to give the signal to begin? Why is it
that any elephant, anywhere along the line, cannot start drinking,
just as he or she pleases? Think!
Because if any one along the line started drinking too soon, he might
muddy the water for those that stood _below_ him along the line,
because the water flows down that way. But if the lower ones drank a
little before, it would not matter if they _did_ muddy the water, for
the higher ones would still have clear water to drink. That is why the
lowest one drinks first, then the next, and so on up the line. Is not
that very wise, and very fair to all?
_How the Elephant Drinks_
But you must not think that an elephant actually drinks _through_ his
trunk! He does not! The elephant's trunk is really his nose, though it
is a very long nose. What he does is to dip the trunk into the stream
and suck in the water about halfway up the trunk; then he curls up the
tip of the trunk and gets it near his mouth; then he _blows_ through
the nose, and _squirts_ the water into his mouth. Of course he has to
do that many times, to get enough to drink. But he tries each time to
dip only the tip of the trunk into the stream, so as not to muddy the
water willfully!
_Why the Elephant Drinks with His Trunk_
But, you may say, why cannot he drink like other animals, by going
right into the stream till he gets his _mouth_ into the water? Because
his mouth is so high up, and his neck is so stiff, that he would have
to go quite two or three yards deep into the stream before he could
get his mouth into the water, and then his heavy feet would stir up
the mud in the stream where he was standing, and so dirty the very
water he was drinking.
Now you see what a wise animal the elephant is! The only way he could
get clear water to drink was by having a long nose! And that is
exactly what happened many, many years ago--his nose became long
enough to reach the water from the bank. How that happened I shall
tell you in another book, as you will not understand it till you are a
year or two older.
All the grown-up elephants drink in this way, and also some of the
elephant children whose trunks have grown long enough to reach the
stream. But what about a baby elephant? Why, its Mamma fills her own
trunk with water, puts the tip into the baby's mouth and squirts the
water into it.
But now after watching the elephants--who are on our right, down the
stream--let us turn our eyes to the left, and look _up_ the stream.
CHAPTER II
The Law of the Jungle
Hush! Here come all the animals! The _buffaloes_, the _blue deer_, the
_red deer_, the _wild pigs_, the _hyenas_, the _wolves_, the _red
dogs_, and many others. Watch and see how each kind of animal comes;
it is not always in the same way. The moon is now shining clear above
the trees, and we can see a long way up the stream.
See the _buffaloes!_ They come a little _above the elephants_. But
they do not come one behind another in a line, like the elephants.
They come three or four together. They also have beaten down the
bushes there years ago, to make a drinking place; and it is wide
enough for three or four of them to drink at the same time, side by
side.
_How Buffaloes Come to Drink--in Rows_
But why must they drink three or four at the same time? Because the
buffaloes are like a body of soldiers, one row behind another.
Sometimes twenty or thirty rows make up a herd. We see only the first
row drinking now, but soon we shall see the others behind.
And why do the buffaloes come like a body of soldiers? Because they
are afraid of their enemy--the tiger! Once upon a time the buffaloes
lived scattered about, and many of them got eaten by the tiger, one at
a time. Then those that escaped from the tiger became wise; they
joined together like a body of soldiers, so that they could beat off
the tiger. How they came to do that, I shall tell you at another time.
But now let us watch the first row drinking. They are all _bull
buffaloes_, the Papas of the herd; you can tell that by their _huge
horns_, a yard long on each side of the head. You see how the
buffaloes stand side by side, so that their horns almost touch one
another. That is the way the buffaloes have marched to the stream from
their feeding place--horn to horn. Why? Because no prowling tiger can
get past those horns.
Watch the first row as it finishes drinking; the whole row wheels
around to the side like soldiers. Then the buffaloes that have had
their drink march to the back of the herd, and stand there in a row
facing the jungle.
Meanwhile the second row in the front has stepped to the water to
drink. These also are bull buffaloes. When they finish drinking, they
also wheel, march to the back of the herd, and there stand behind the
first row. In this way four or five rows of bulls drink, one after the
other, and go to the back of the herd.
Next come about a dozen rows of _cow buffaloes_ and their calves, or
children. You see again, like the elephants, the Mammas and children
among the buffaloes are also _in the middle_, safe from all harm.
Then at the end there are four or five rows of bull buffaloes again,
to guard the Mammas and the children from enemies in the back.
_Buffalo Knights Guard the Timid Deer_
But wait a moment! Before the buffaloes go away, a most wonderful
thing happens. You have read stories, how once upon a time there were
brave knights who used to come to the help of ladies who were in
danger. Well, you will be glad to know that these bull buffaloes are
just like those brave knights. Do you see that timid little shadow
creeping in by the side of the buffaloes?
She is a _blue deer_, a very timid lady indeed; for she knows that a
tiger is waiting in the high ground behind, to catch her. It is the
last chance of the tiger to get his supper; so he waits by the high
ground behind, and watches for some weak animal like the deer to come
to drink.
But the blue deer knows that; so she hides in the bushes, and waits
for the buffaloes to come to drink. Then as the buffaloes come to the
water, row after row, horn to horn, she tries to creep in toward them;
she even tries to creep in _under_ the horns of the buffaloes, knowing
that there she will be quite safe from the tiger. It takes her a long
time to reach the buffaloes in that way, without being caught by the
tiger.
But do you see the wonderful thing? The buffaloes wait a little for
her! They take a little longer to drink, to give her a chance to reach
the water by their side. Like the brave knights, they feel proud of
helping a lady.
Now see! The blue deer also has finished drinking. She goes away with
the buffaloes, under their horns. They all reach the jungle again. She
looks carefully: the tiger is watching her, but he dares not come too
near. She sees where he is--then suddenly she gives a leap--another
leap--and another--quickly! The tiger leaps after her--but she leaped
first! She is gone! She is safe!
[Illustration: The Buffaloes and the Blue Deer]
The tiger is furious. He stands a moment before the buffaloes,
growling with rage. But the bulls in front of the herd paw the ground,
and rattle their horns with one another. They are going to charge!
But that tiger does not wait for the charge of the bull buffaloes. He
does not want to be trampled into a mess under their hoofs, or cut up
into pieces with their horns. Instead, he sneaks away, growling. He
sneaks back to the stream, to wait for some other weak animal.
So, you see, the jungle folks are in many ways just like us; for a
brave man always helps a lady or anybody who needs his help.
But now let us watch the stream higher up.
_Wild Pigs--Careless_
Here come the _wild pigs_. They are not exactly a herd; but still
there are many dozens of them, all one large family with all their
relations--cousins and uncles and aunts. Some of the wild pigs are
called _boars_; they are the Papas among the wild pigs. You can always
tell them by the two _sharp tusks_, or teeth, one on each side, which
grow _upward_ from their under jaw. Each tusk is as long as a knife,
and so sharp that a tiger does not always care to fight with a boar.
The wild pigs drink in any fashion, and go off in any fashion--just as
they like. They trust to luck or to the sharp tusks of some of the
boars to guard them from danger. But they have not learned enough yet
to do things in proper order.
_Red Dogs--Bold, Fearing Nobody_
Meanwhile other animals have also come. The moon is now quite high in
the sky. A band of shadows in the moonlight seems to fall upon the
water. It is a pack of _red dogs_; they have come boldly, as they are
afraid of nothing. For if a hungry tiger attacks them, the whole pack
will jump on the tiger and tear him down--that is, the tiger could
kill dozens of the dogs in a few minutes, but then the rest of the
wild red dogs would tear the tiger to pieces.
So the red dogs are not afraid as they come flocking to the stream.
They lap up the water with their lolling tongues. Then they look up at
the moon. Do you see what they are doing? Can you _hear_ them? They
are _howling at the moon in a chorus_. Dogs always howl at the moon.
Men do not quite know just why dogs do that. But perhaps they do it
because they are glad and satisfied, and are trying to _sing!_ When
_you_ sing, and there is a dog near by, you may hear him start
howling. He does that, I suppose, because he likes your singing, and
wants to join in the chorus!
So the wild dogs of the jungle also howl when they are glad. Then,
after the red dogs have howled as long as a song, they scamper off
into the jungle again. That shows, I suppose, that their howling was
really a song!
_Other Animals Come Alone_
The red dogs are the last of the animals that come in a bunch. Now you
see other animals coming one by one. A sneaking shadow there! It must
be a _hyena_. That is an animal that eats what remains from some other
animal's supper; so the hyena waits to see if a tiger or a leopard has
caught any supper, or else it will have to go hungry.
But hush! Here is a _red deer_ coming carefully to the water. This
animal is much bigger than the blue deer, and more able to take care
of herself. But, still, she comes very quietly, looking to right and
left to make sure that the tiger is not just in that place. She
reaches the water and starts drinking. But do you see how her ear is
bent to the side? The red deer is listening most carefully, even while
she is drinking!
But look, look! The bush behind the deer parts very slowly, and a huge
yellow form crouches there! It is the tiger!
He is not near enough to jump on the deer; so he takes one step
forward--as softly as a cat!
But the deer has heard the footfall! For she can hear even a leaf when
it falls to the ground. And in that one second, even while she was
drinking, the red deer has turned and leaped to the side. The tiger
has also leaped at the same time, and he aimed at the place where the
deer _was_. But the deer has just left that place, and the next second
she gives another leap, like a flash, and gets out of the tiger's
reach.
The tiger stands where he leaped, and growls with rage. He knows it
would be no use chasing the deer, as _the deer can run much faster_.
So he stands there, and growls for quite a while. Then, as he did not
get any supper that night, he can at least have a drink. So he drinks
and goes away, still growling.
Now all is quiet at last at the midnight pool, as all the animals have
gone away.
_The Law of the Jungle--Clear Water for All_
But before _we_ leave the place, I want you to remember something. I
showed you first the elephants; they were on our right--that is,
_down_ the stream, the way the water flows. And the elephants drank
first among all the animals.
Then all the other animals came to the stream, but more to our
left--that is, _up_ the stream. Why was that? Think!
I shall tell you. By the time the elephants finish drinking by dipping
their trunks into the stream many times, the water begins to get
muddy. In fact, after drinking, the elephants jump into the water to
have a bath and a swim, as I shall tell you in the next chapter.
So the water gets muddy near the elephants and all the way down stream
from that place, as the water flows that way. And as the other animals
do not want muddy water to drink, they always go _up_ the stream,
where the water is still clear.
That is _The Law of the Jungle_, though it is not written down in a
book, like the laws among men. The Law of the Jungle says that as the
elephants are the lords of the jungle, they shall drink _first_: but
they must be careful to drink _down the stream_, so that all the other
animals may have a place higher up, where they can get _clear water to
drink_.
And that law has never been broken, for many thousands of years, among
all the different sorts of animals.
But with men the laws among the different sorts of people, called
nations, are often broken, because some of them want all the best
things and the best places, and do not care if they muddy the water
that their neighbors have to drink.
So, my dear children, we can learn many things from the animals, even
how to be better men and women when we grow up.
CHAPTER III
The Elephants' Bath
I have just told you that, after drinking, the elephants jump into the
water and have a bath and a swim. That is, all the grown-up elephants
do that, while the little ones stay on the bank and play about.
But, you may ask, why does not the tiger try to grab one of the little
ones then? Because even when the Mammas go into the water they keep
their eyes on the babies, who play quite near by, so that the Mammas
can come to them any minute.
And the Mammas can _smell_ a tiger a little before he gets there, so
that they have enough time to climb out of the water. Besides, the
babies themselves can smell the tiger when he is coming; then they
call out to their Mammas by making a queer rumbling sound in their
throats, and the Mammas come to them at once, before the tiger can get
there.
So all the grown-up elephants can go into the water, without any
worry. And at first they have a regular shower bath.
How do they do that? Why, each elephant fills his trunk with water;
then he curls up the trunk in the air over his head and squirts the
water out, and it falls in a shower all over his body. You can see how
he does it in the picture. All the grown-up elephants do that, and
even those that are half grown.
After the shower bath, they swim about; but the Mamma elephants do not
do that. Why? Because they have to get busy and bathe their little
children. They call to the children to stop playing, and come and have
a bath--just as our Mammas do.
How do they call? Why, I must tell you at once that all kinds of
animals have _a language of their own_. They do not speak exactly as
we do, but make different sounds through their mouth or nose, and each
sound _means_ something.
If the Mamma elephant wants to say "Come here," she makes one kind of
sound, and the baby elephant has learned to know exactly what that
means. And if the Mamma elephant wants to say "Keep still," she makes
another kind of sound, and the baby knows also what that means.
[Illustration: An Elephant Giving himself a Shower Bath]
In this way all animals can talk among themselves. Of course they
cannot say many things, as we do, but quite enough to tell what they
want.
So each Mamma elephant calls to her child to come and stand on the
bank. Now, many of our children often hate to be bathed; and the
elephant children are just the same! In fact, the very small ones
actually cry and shriek, just like our babies!
_Elephant Child Obeys Mamma--or Gets Spanked_
But when the Mamma elephant calls to the baby to stop playing and come
and stand by the bank, the baby comes at once, even though it hates to
be bathed. The baby elephant obeys its Mamma almost the first time,
whatever she tells it to do.
But if the baby does not obey, does its Mamma spank it? Of course she
does--like all Mammas! The elephant Mamma does the spanking with her
trunk.
But I must tell you at once that an elephant child never gets spanked
more than once in its life--and that is enough! And some are so good
that they _never_ get spanked!
The elephant child learns very quickly to obey its Mamma and Papa, and
afterwards its trainer or teacher. The elephant child even obeys the
very minute it is told to do anything; in fact, sometimes in the
jungle there is a sudden danger, even if the elephant child does not
see the danger. But its Mamma or Papa sees it.
Then the Mamma or Papa calls out to the child to stop, or come away,
or do something, _at once_; and if the child does not do it at once,
it may get killed. Among men folks, if a child runs out into the
street, and an auto or a street car comes suddenly, then if the child
will not obey its Mamma at once and do exactly as she says, the child
may be run over and killed. In the jungle the elephant child also has
sudden dangers like that, though in a different way.
In the next chapter I shall tell you a wonderful story about a boy
elephant who escaped a great danger because he obeyed his Papa at
once.
But sometimes it happens that a boy elephant is really naughty--just
like a bad boy among men. As you know, a bad boy among men usually
grows up to be a bad man, and then he gets into a lot of trouble. In
the elephant herd it is just the same; a bad little elephant grows up
to be a bad big elephant; it is then called a _rogue_. In another book
I shall tell you how the President of the herd orders all the police
elephants to stand in a ring around the rogue and give him a most
awful spanking. And they do that, not with their trunks this time, but
with their _tusks_--which hurt most dreadfully.
_How the Elephant Child is Bathed_
But now I shall tell you about the baby elephant when its Mamma calls
it to come and be bathed. It comes to the edge of the bank, and stands
facing its Mamma. Then the Mamma fills her trunk with water, brings
the trunk quite near the baby, and squirts the water all over it.
The baby may howl and jump about and make faces, but it _never runs
away_! Again and again the Mamma squirts the water, till all the mud
and dust of the jungle is washed away from the baby's body. Then she
tells the baby to play about on the bank again, while she attends to
the bigger children.
What has she got to do to them? She must teach them to swim!
Of course _all animals with four legs know how to swim naturally_;
their bodies float in the water quite easily, and they have only to
work their legs to move along in the water. But with elephants it is a
little different. Why? Just think!
I shall tell you. Although they can float quite naturally, their noses
point downward right into the water. As I said before, the elephant's
trunk is its nose--that is, the elephant has to _breathe through the
trunk_. So of course, if in trying to swim a little elephant kept its
trunk down in the water, it would not be able to breathe at all, and
would die.
That is why the Mamma elephant has to teach her child how to swim
properly. And the way she does it is quite wonderful.
I must first tell you that the trunk is not only like a nose to the
elephant, but also is useful as a _hand_; the elephant can hold a lot
of things with it, and can even pick up with its tip a tiny thing as
small as a pin.
_How the Elephant Child Learns to Swim_
So the Mamma elephant stretches out her trunk before her, just like an
arm, and tells her child to lie across it. In that way she holds up
the child in the water, so that the little elephant has only to think
of curling up the tip of its own little trunk out of the water to
breathe. Then she tells her child to kick out with its legs, so as to
move forward through the water.
But sometimes, in kicking out, the little elephant forgets to hold up
the tip of its trunk out of the water at the same time; then down goes
its trunk into the water, and it cannot breathe!
Then what happens? The Mamma elephant can do nothing, as she is
already using her own trunk to hold up her child. So, what is to be
done?
Really, the elephants are so wise that they take no chances of that
happening. The Papa elephant takes care of that. When he sees that the
Mamma is teaching the little elephant how to swim, he always comes
near them. He may be swimming about, as if he were enjoying himself;
but he is really watching them all the time.
And if the little elephant forgets to hold up its trunk out of the
water, the Papa comes quickly, and with one upward stroke of his own
trunk he lifts up the little elephant's trunk clear out of the water.
Is not that very wise and thoughtful of the Papa elephant?
In that way the little elephant soon learns to do _both_ things--that
is, to kick out with its legs so as to move along, and also to hold up
its trunk to breathe. And then, of course, it can swim properly.
And yet the elephants are so very wise that they never take the risk
of tiring out a little elephant, if they have to swim a very long way.
Sometimes a whole herd of elephants has to swim across a very wide
river. Then the Mamma elephant tells her child to swim in front of
her, while she encourages the child from behind with many fond words.
But sometimes after swimming halfway across the river--
"Mamma, I am getting tired!" cries the little one.
"Then come on my back, darling!" says the Mamma.
She dives, and comes up right under the little elephant; so now her
child sits on her back. In that way she swims along, and carries her
child across the wide river, as you see in the picture.
[Illustration: An Elephant Mamma Carrying her Child across the River]
CHAPTER IV.
Elephants: The Tricks of the Jungle
Now I shall tell you how a little elephant learns all the tricks of
the jungle from its Mamma and Papa. By the tricks of the jungle I mean
all the things that an animal has to learn in order to get enough to
eat every day, what to do when food is scarce, how to be comfortable
and happy, and also how to escape from every danger; in fact, these
things are very much like what men have to learn, only in a different
way.
But the animal folks are better off in one way: what they have to
learn is not like a lesson in school, but just play. In fact they
learn everything by just playing it as a game! I shall tell you how.
When a baby elephant is quite small, its Mamma has to feed it with
milk. Afterwards, when it has teeth, she teaches it to feed from the
jungle. All elephants eat tender shoots, herbs, and fresh young
leaves; they seize a bough with the trunk, and pull it down in such a
way that the end of the bough reaches right into the mouth.
_Elephant Child Learns to Feed_
First, the Mamma elephant eats like that from several boughs, while
the little elephant watches her do it. Then she looks at a low bough
within easy reach, and says in the elephant language, "Eat that!"
The little one looks at the bough, grabs it anyhow with its trunk, and
pulls it down. But it cannot get the end of the bough _into its
mouth_! Instead, the bough pokes it on the forehead, or eyes, or
cheeks.
"Hold it straight!" says Mamma, laughing.
The little one tries several times, but still it cannot get the bough
to come right. Then its Mamma puts her own trunk over that of her
child, and turns it to right or left, till the bough comes exactly
into the little elephant's mouth.
"You must learn to use your trunk just like a _hand_," she says. "So
you must bend your trunk, or turn it, or twist it, to get the thing
you are holding exactly where you want it."
And that is the first great thing the little elephant has to
learn--_how to use its trunk as we use our hands_. After that
everything else comes easy.
Now I am going to tell you about the childhood of the most wonderful
elephant in the world, who actually lives to-day in the courtyard of a
palace in India. He is the biggest elephant that ever was; that is why
he lives in a grand palace, and does nothing except carry a King, or
some other great man, on his back on days of festival.
In fact he was the leader among all the elephants in a long procession
at a grand festival called the Durbar, held in honor of the King of
England. On that day a lovely cloth of silk woven with gold was put on
the elephant's back, and around his tusks were placed rings of solid
gold studded with real diamonds, rubies, and pearls.
At another time he carried on his back the Crown Prince of Germany,
when he visited India a few years ago; and at other times he has
carried Grand Dukes of Russia and Arch Dukes of Austria when _they_
visited India.
So you see, he is quite the grandest elephant in the world. He has a
real name, just like a man, and it is written down in books with the
names of all the grand officers of the palace. His name is Salar
Jung; so we shall call him Salar for short.
He was born in the jungle, and his Papa and Mamma were quite wild
then. It was only after he grew up that Salar came to live in a
palace.
_Elephant Child "Swats" Tormenting Flies_
But now about Salar's early boyhood. After his Mamma had taught him to
swim, to eat from the boughs of trees, and to drink for himself by
dipping his trunk into the water, she had another useful thing to
teach him. In the jungle there are swarms of tormenting flies; they
come buzzing around the elephants, and bother them, just as they
bother us. Now, _we_ can whisk off the flies with our hands, but how
about an elephant?
Of course, you will say, his trunk is his hand; and so he can use the
trunk to slap the flies or whisk them off. True, but the trunk will
not reach more than halfway down the side of the body; and the
elephant is too stiff to bend his body as we do; and his tail is too
short to reach even a yard each way. Then how can he get rid of the
flies where he cannot reach them? Just think!
If he only could make his trunk _longer_! But how could he do that?
Very simply! Of course he cannot actually make the trunk longer, but
he breaks off a small bough of a tree and holds it at the end of his
trunk; then he uses the bough like a fan, and whisks off, or brushes
off, the flies with it.
And that is what Salar's Mamma taught him to do. After that he was
very comfortable.
Not quite; he had just one more thing to learn from his Mamma, to make
him quite comfortable. The sun gets very hot, and when the elephants
are feeding from tree to tree, or marching through the jungle, they
feel the hot sun on their backs dreadfully--although they have a thick
skin.
Now, how could they guard themselves from the hot sun? Just think!
Why, just as _we_ do, you will say, by using a kind of umbrella! Of
course you mean that an elephant could break off a large bough, and
hold it over his head and over his back! But his trunk would soon get
tired of holding anything as big as that! Besides, he has to use his
trunk all the time to feed! If _you_ had only one hand, you could not
eat with it and at the same time hold an umbrella over your head with
it! Then how _does_ the elephant manage it?
_Elephant Covers his Back from Hot Sun_
I shall tell you. He breaks off many small boughs, one at a time, and
lays them on his back with his trunk; he is careful to lay them in
proper order, and to criss-cross them, so that the boughs will not
fall off. In fact, he tries to arrange them very much like the
thatched roof of a cottage. That is very clever of him, is it not?
But then he does something else, still more clever! When a cottager
builds his thatched roof, he has to plaster the ceiling to prevent any
rain or sunshine from creeping in through the little spaces between
the thatches. So also the thatch on the elephant's back has many gaps,
through which the hot sun can still beat down on his skin. So what
does he do to fill up the gaps?
He cannot do anything to _plaster_ his back; but I shall tell you what
he does do. He just draws into his trunk a lot of dust from the
ground; then he curls up the trunk over his back, and blows the dust
over the gaps in the thatch on his back. Of course he has to do that
many times to fill up all the gaps; but at last, when he does not
_feel_ the sun any more, he knows that his back is quite covered.
Is not that a very wonderful thing for the elephants to think out, all
by themselves? And that is what Salar's Mamma taught him to do.
But, a few years later, he came to the age when boys among men usually
have to go to school. Then Salar passed to the care of his Papa. In
feeding through the jungle, when all the elephants march and eat from
tree to tree, Salar walked with his Papa, and began to learn lessons
from him. And his Papa's way of teaching him was quite different from
that of his Mamma, and often very funny!
_How Elephants Walk under Water_
The first thing he taught was at the stream at midnight. By this time
Salar could swim quite well; so he was enjoying himself with the
grown-ups. But his Papa kept watching him with the corner of his eye.
Little by little he drew nearer and nearer to Salar, and waited till
the youngster came to a part where the water was not at all deep. Then
suddenly his Papa gave Salar a butt with his head. Down went Salar
under the water, snorting and spluttering and hollering.
"Hold up your trunk, you simp!" cried his Papa.
But Salar was too frightened to remember to hold up his trunk; so his
Papa caught Salar's trunk in his own and hoisted it clear out of the
water. Then what was Salar's joy and surprise to find that he could
breathe quite well, though his feet were actually touching the bottom
of the stream. Of course he kicked out, and tried to get up to the top
of the water again. But--
"Stay there!" cried his Papa, giving him another butt, though still
holding the youngster's trunk carefully out of the water.
Then Salar lost all fear of the water; he was not a bit afraid of
being ducked, so long as the tip of his trunk was out of the water. So
he learned to do a wonderful thing--he learned to remain completely
under the water, so that his feet were actually resting on the bottom
of the stream, with only the tip of his trunk out of the water. No
other animal can do that.
And the most astonishing thing about it is that the elephants have
taught themselves to do that trick; so that _a whole herd of
elephants can walk into a stream in time of danger, and disappear
from sight_, the smaller ones standing in the shallow parts, and the
full-grown ones standing in the deeper parts.
I have known of lots of hunters, who were chasing a herd of elephants
and who saw the elephants run ahead toward a river, to find to their
surprise, on reaching the river, that the whole herd had disappeared
as if by magic. They saw nothing, and did not dream that the little
things floating here and there, no bigger than your fist, could mean
anything. But of course they were the tips of the trunks of the
elephants hidden under the water.
To have thought out even that one trick for themselves proves that the
elephants are the wisest of all animals, next after men folks. And
they have thought out many more tricks, as I shall tell you very soon.
But now I shall tell you the next trick that Salar's father taught
him. An elephant often has to break down trees in the jungle to clear
a way for himself; or sometimes he has to do that to make an open
space where he can lie down comfortably. So this is the way Salar's
father taught him to break down trees.
_How Elephants Break Down or Pull Out Trees_
First he chose a small tree, not much thicker than your wrist; this he
pulled out easily with his trunk, just as you might use your hand to
pull out a small shrub. Then he chose a tree about six inches thick.
He tried it first carefully with his trunk; but the tree was too
strong to pull out in that way.
So the old elephant put his foot on the side of the tree, and pressed
with all his weight--as you see in the picture. The tree bent more and
more, and then suddenly broke off near the ground with a loud crack.
"I can do that!" cried Salar, frisking around his father, impatient to
show what _he_ could do.
Salar looked around and saw a tree of about the same size. He made a
dash at the tree, put his right foot on it, and--
His father winked, but said nothing. For all elephants love a joke.
Now the wily old elephant knew that this tree was a banana tree,
although the fruit had not yet started growing on it. The tree looked
quite hard and strong, but it was really very soft and easy to break,
like all banana trees. But Salar did not know that yet!
[Illustration: An Elephant Breaking a Tree with his Foot]
Instead, when he pressed on it with his foot and put his whole weight
on it, just as he had seen his father do to the other tree,--snap went
the tree like a twig, and Salar tumbled head over heels and went
rolling over the ground.
"Haw! Haw! Haw!" laughed the merry old elephant. "Did I not show you,
silly, how to try it first carefully, with your trunk, before putting
your foot on it?"
"Of course you did!" Salar said, remembering.
"That is what men folks mean when they say, 'You have put your foot
into it.' You must remember _never to put your foot into anything
before trying it first with your trunk_," the old elephant went on to
say. "Now watch me knock down a still bigger tree."
This tree was as thick as a man's body. After trying it first with his
trunk and then with his foot, the wise old elephant put his back on it
and _heaved_. Little by little the tree bent on that side, but not
very much. The elephant stopped heaving, came around and looked at the
tree. Then he began to heave from the _other_ side of the tree.
You have seen a man trying to loosen a nail from a board? He first
hits the nail on one side, and then on the other side; and he goes on
hitting the nail from side to side, till it is quite loose.
Well, that cunning old elephant did just the same thing to that tree;
he first heaved the tree from one side, and then he heaved from the
other side; and he went on heaving from side to side, till he loosened
the tree from the ground. Then he pushed the tree with his foot, and
it came out of the ground and fell with a loud thud.
And that is how Salar learned to heave with his body, though of course
he could not loosen so big a tree just yet.
There were many other tricks that Salar learned from his father, and I
shall tell you one of the best of them in the next chapter.
CHAPTER V
Elephants: The Tricky Trap
Salar and his father were going through the jungle, feeding from tree
to tree, and from bush to bush. One day they saw a little clear space
and in the middle of it a banana tree--just one tree. But beautiful
bunches of ripe bananas were growing on it from a large stalk.
Salar just loved bananas. In fact, all elephants do, as they cannot
get them in the jungle more than once in many months; for bananas grow
mostly in plantations kept by men. So Salar ran toward the tree
joyously.
But the wise old elephant had seen at once that the space all around
the tree was rather level and clear of bushes. That was strange in the
jungle, he thought!
Now, why did it look strange? Can _you_ tell? Why was it strange that
the space should be all flat and level, and clear of bushes? Just
think!
Because in the jungle that was not natural! In the jungle the space
should be all covered with grass and bushes, or at least with small
shrubs of different sizes, just as you have seen in fields which are
allowed to grow wild. So somebody must have _made_ the place level and
flat, and cleared away the bushes! That is what the wise old elephant
thought!
Then, also, he had seen that there was just _one_ banana tree, with no
other anywhere near it. That also seemed strange! Why? Because banana
trees always grow in groups of many dozens, whether they are in the
jungle or in a plantation.
"Halt!" the old elephant cried, just in time. Salar was not more than
five or six yards from the tree when he heard his father's voice. I
have told you before that, when an elephant child is told to do
anything by his Mamma or Papa, he obeys _at once_, or else he might
fall into some awful danger--just as a child in a town might get run
over by an auto or a street car.
So as soon as Salar heard his father's voice, he halted just where he
was. And that saved him, as you will see.
_The Elephant Taps Suspicious Ground with his Trunk_
His father came up to him, and looked around carefully. Then he
_tapped on the ground with the end of his trunk_.
"An elephant must always tap with his trunk when he is coming to
suspicious ground, before he puts his foot on it," he said to Salar.
"What does suspicious ground mean?" Salar asked.
"Ground where there might be danger, though you do not _see_ the
danger," his father answered.
He went on a couple of yards, tapping the ground before him all the
time. Then he suddenly stopped.
"Gr-r-r-rump!" he cried, "it sounds strange and hollow!"
Most carefully he put his foot forward and _felt_ the ground with it,
as an elephant always does when he thinks there is danger. Now the
ground _bent down_ a little just where he pressed it with his foot!
"I thought so!" he muttered.
Then he felt most carefully all along the _front_ edge of the open
space, first tapping it with his trunk, then pressing on it with his
foot--of course with the toe end of the foot. And all along that front
edge of the open space the ground bent down a little wherever he
pressed it with his foot.
Then he came to the _right side_ of the open space where the banana
tree grew, and tried the ground there also along the edge. And this
ground too bent down a little wherever he pressed it with his foot.
He came to the _back_ of the open space, and tried it in the same way.
And there also the ground bent down a little along the edge, wherever
he pressed it with his foot.
He came around at last to the _left side_, and tried that also. And
there again the ground bent down in the same way.
"All four sides are suspicious!" he cried. "My son, this is _a most
tricky trap_!"
And though he did not see them, a dozen men were hiding in the tops of
trees all around. They were the hunters kept by a great Prince, who
had ordered them to catch the big elephant and also the young one.
The hunters had first dug a huge pit. It was ten feet deep and
twenty-five feet wide on each side; so it was as big as a large room.
Then they had covered the top of the pit by laying many long bamboos
right across from side to side and very close to each other; so it was
just like the roof of a large room. And on the top of the bamboos they
had spread a layer of earth--just like what you have seen in flower
beds in a garden; and on that they had planted grass, to make it look
quite natural--only, they forgot that it might look natural for a
garden, but not for a wild jungle. Or perhaps they thought that an
elephant would not know any better!
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.
But he did not aim right, and the bamboo slipped off from the stalk.
So he tried again, and gave another jab at the stalk. In this way,
after trying many times, he managed at last to hit the stalk and break
it. Down fell the bunch of bananas to the ground.
Meanwhile Salar was jumping around his father for joy. But his father
told him to keep still. He had not succeeded in getting those bananas
yet! How could he get them out of the place of danger?
It puzzled him a long time. He poked at the bunch with the bamboo, but
that only broke off one or two of the bananas. Then he poked at the
stalk of the bunch, but the end of the bamboo slipped off it, as there
was nothing on the bamboo to grip the stalk with.
So he drew back the bamboo and looked at that end of it, to see why it
did not grip the stalk. Of course the end of the bamboo was all
smooth, and could not grip anything at all.
_Elephant Tricks the Tricky Trappers_
Then at last another thought seemed to come into the wise old
elephant's head. He put that end of the bamboo into his mouth and
began to _chew_ it; for an elephant has very strong teeth at the back
of his mouth. As his mouth was very big, that clever elephant chewed
as much of the end of the bamboo as his mouth would hold--and that was
as long as your arm. So the end of the bamboo became like fibers, that
is, like a bunch of hair, only very thick and rough.
[Illustration: Elephant Pulling Bananas out of a Tricky Trap]
Then that cunning elephant sat down on the ground and pushed the
bamboo along the ground straight before him toward the bananas. When
the hairy end of the bamboo reached the stalk of the bananas, he began
to _twist_ the other end of the bamboo with the tips of his trunk; for
_an elephant can use the tips of his trunk in the same way that you
use your fingers_.
He twisted and twisted many times, taking care to keep the hairy end
of the bamboo pressed against the stalk of the bananas.
In this way the hairy end of the bamboo got knotted around the stalk.
That was just what the wise old elephant wanted.
Then he pulled the bamboo slowly along the ground, as you see in the
picture, taking care to give one or two more twists in case the knots
came undone. He pulled the bamboo lap by lap; that is, he pulled the
bamboo for about a yard, then he let go and took hold of the bamboo
farther up; he pulled again for another yard, and so on. In this way
he at last pulled the bunch of bananas quite out of the trap.
I need not tell you how he and Salar enjoyed that feast!
And the hunters, who were hiding in the trees around, laughed and
laughed at the trick the wily old elephant had played on them! For, as
you see, he got the bananas and yet escaped from that trap! He beat
the men at their own game!
But now I must tell you about other animals,--first about buffaloes.
They are the brave knights who helped that timid little lady, the blue
deer. They are just as wonderful as the elephants, in their own way.
CHAPTER VI
Buffaloes: The Knights of the Jungle
There are three or four kinds of buffaloes that live in different
countries. The kind that lives in America you may have already heard
about. I am sorry to say that hunters have killed so many of them,
that there are very few buffaloes left in the United States now; and
these few are kept in parks.
So in this book I shall tell you about another kind of buffalo, that
lives in the jungles of India. These are the buffaloes that have to
live in herds just because they have to guard themselves from the
tiger. Yet they are much bigger than all other kinds of buffaloes in
the world. Many of them are more than ten feet long, and a span taller
than a tall man.
They have two huge horns which stand outward, one from each side of
the head. Each horn is at least a yard long; and there are some
buffaloes that have horns two yards long! (See the picture facing the
next page.)
So you can understand that this kind of buffalo is a strong and mighty
animal. But still, if just one buffalo tried to fight a tiger, the
tiger could kill him every time. Why?
Because the tiger is much _quicker_ than the buffalo. The tiger could
jump to the side to escape the buffalo's horns. Then the tiger could
turn quickly, and strike the buffalo on the neck from behind. And
though the buffalo's neck is very thick, the tiger himself is so
strong that he could break the buffalo's neck at one blow.
So, to guard against the tiger, the buffaloes have to live together
like a band of soldiers, so that the tiger never gets the chance of
catching just one buffalo alone.
Now I shall tell you how these buffaloes live. They live in a part of
the country where there is plenty of water, and lots of trees and
grass. There is sure to be a stream or two in the jungles there, like
the one where we saw the buffaloes drinking at midnight.
When the buffaloes are feeding in the jungle, and wandering here and
there to find good grass to eat, they always try to remain somewhere
near one of these streams.
Why do they do that? To drink, of course.
[Illustration: The Buffalo that lives in India]
And as the country is hot, they may want to drink more than once in
the day.
Still, there is another reason why they like to be near water. Can you
tell what it is?
"To bathe in the water, when it is hot," you may say.
That is quite true; the buffaloes do enjoy a good bath. In fact, they
like to remain in the water for a long time, when the sun is very hot.
Then they lie down in the shallow part, and remain neck deep in the
water. And every now and again they dip their heads in the water to
keep them cool.
But even when the sun is not at all hot, when the sky is cloudy, the
buffaloes like to go into a stream or a pond. Why?
"Of course to wash themselves, and make themselves clean," you may
say.
_Buffaloes Cover Body with Mud against Flies_
No, my dear, you are wrong this time! Like some little boys, buffaloes
do not _want_ to make themselves clean! In fact, the buffaloes go into
the stream or the pond to _cover themselves with mud_! To _wallow_, as
it is called. They do that by rolling in the mud where the water is
shallow.
And why do they want to cover themselves with mud? Because of the
tormenting flies! Buffaloes of this kind do not have long hair on
their necks, like the American buffaloes. In fact, they do not have
much hair anywhere on their bodies--just like the ordinary cows which
you have seen near your home. So they are very much tormented by the
flies.
I have told you that an elephant can "swat" the flies with a bough
which he holds in his trunk. But the buffalo has no trunk, and his
tail can whisk off the flies for only a yard around. So, what can the
buffalo do to guard other parts of his body from the flies?
The only thing he can do is to go down into the mud, roll about, and
cover himself with the mud. Then he does not feel the flies at all,
even if they swarm all over him. And he need not trouble to work his
tail at all, as he is protected all over by the mud.
And when he comes out to feed again, if the sun happens to be very hot
at that time, he does not mind it. Why? Because the mud on his body
keeps off the sun. So, you see, the mud is useful to the buffalo in
two ways.
But now come with me into the jungle while I show you all that the
buffaloes do.
You must _imagine_ that I am taking you quietly through the jungle,
where the buffalo herd is grazing right ahead of us. We are following
them from behind. You must be careful not to make a sound. If you
should tread on a rotten twig, the buffaloes would hear the sound as
far away as a quarter of a mile.
In another book I shall tell you why all animals that keep their _ears
close to the ground_ while they are feeding can _hear a sound a long
way off_.
But now let us hide behind this bush for a minute, and watch the herd.
They are eating the grass as they walk along. But do you see the
wonderful way in which they are arranged? It is just like the shape of
the moon when it is new, that is, something like the letter C, and
which we call a crescent.
You saw at the midnight pool that, when the buffaloes drink or march,
they are in rows close together, like soldiers. But when they are
eating grass, they could not be in rows; because then they would be
too close together to pick out the best bits of grass. So, how could
they have enough to eat, and yet guard themselves from danger? To do
this they thought of arranging themselves in the form of a crescent.
_How Buffaloes Guard against Tiger while Feeding_
It is a big crescent, as there are so many buffaloes that make it up.
The ends of the crescent bend in toward each other, just as if the two
tips of the letter C were to close up a little, leaving only a small
opening between the tips.
The buffaloes have their faces toward the _outside_ of the crescent.
So, as we are following the buffaloes from behind, we are looking at
them through the gap between the tips.
There are only bulls in the line making up the crescent; the cows and
the calves come behind them, so that they are _inside_ the crescent.
So you see, while the buffaloes are grazing and moving along, if they
meet any danger, the Papa buffaloes will face the danger. And as the
Mammas and the children are inside the crescent, they are quite safe.
This is the way the buffaloes feed and move along:
The Papas on the outside of the crescent tear off a mouthful of grass,
with one or two bites, and walk on a step or two while they are
munching the mouthful. Then, with another bite or two, they take a
fresh mouthful and walk on a step or two while they are munching that.
In this way they leave enough grass for the Mammas and the young
buffaloes that are following them.
But now let us come out of this thicket, and go after the herd very
quietly from behind. We shall see some wonderful things.
You notice at once that the Mammas and the children do not show any
fear at all, as they graze along; they are quite sure that the Papas
are taking good care of them all the time. The little ones even play
about here and there.
See that very young calf! He is playing about near the middle of the
space. He is only a few weeks old, and not much bigger than the calf
of the ordinary cow. Watch and see how playful he is! He is just like
any other calf. His Mamma is grazing along quietly, and he is now
standing still for a minute, looking at nothing. A calf and a baby can
do that quite well--just stare, and yet look at nothing.
But now this buffalo calf rushes to his Mamma very suddenly, and has
a mouthful of milk. He does not seem to want more than a mouthful at a
time. So he looks up suddenly, and stares. Then just as suddenly he
plunges into a frantic race over the ground, all by himself.
The race also ends suddenly--after going only ten yards. Then he stops
there for a minute, stares, and trots back to his Mamma for another
mouthful of milk. After that he looks up again for a minute, stares at
nothing, and plunges into another mad gallop all by himself.
So you see that he spends his time doing two things--having a mouthful
of milk, and then a mad gallop. And he does both very suddenly. He
likes to have his joys suddenly.
A kitten or a puppy dog is different, and is nearly always doing
something. It tumbles head over heels, or chases its own tail, or
keeps frisking about in some way or other most of the time. But the
buffalo calf is not like this; and when you see him standing quite
still, staring at nothing, you can never tell whether he is going to
be hungry for a mouthful of milk the next minute, or whether he is
going to break into a frantic race.
But, you may ask, while he and all the other calves are playing about
like that, is there no danger?
No, there is no danger, for the Papas are taking good care of the
Mammas and the children, as I have told you before.
But, you may say, the Papas do not seem to be doing anything; they are
just feeding and moving along. Then how are they taking care of the
Mammas and the children?
Yes, but look carefully! See how close the horn of one Papa is to the
horn of the next one! Why, there is not more than a couple of yards
between the two! If there were any sudden danger, it would not take
more than two or three steps for them to close up, and stand horn to
horn.
_How Buffaloes Know Danger is Coming--Three Ways_
"But how could they _know_ if any danger were coming?" you may still
ask.
They could know it in three ways: they could _smell_ the danger, or
_hear_ it, or _see_ it. I shall tell you how they do all that.
First, if the danger came from the direction in which the wind was
blowing, they would sniff the air, and so _smell_ the danger. If the
danger were a tiger, the buffaloes could smell him half a mile off;
that is about as far as ten blocks in a city. And if the wind were not
blowing that way, the buffaloes could still smell the tiger five
blocks away. They could smell the tiger, or any other danger, even if
it came from behind.
The second way of finding out the danger is to _hear_ it. As I said a
little while ago, if you should put your foot on a rotten twig, the
buffaloes could hear the sound of it as far off as five blocks. And
even if the danger came from behind, or from the side, or from
anywhere, they could still hear it coming, if it made the least bit of
sound that you and I could not hear.
The third way of finding out the danger is to _see_ it. The buffaloes
do that by keeping a lookout nearly all the time. I shall show you
how.
Just watch for a minute the buffalo in the middle of the crescent; he
is the leader of the herd. We can see him only from the back; but as
he is the biggest and tallest buffalo there, we can make him out quite
easily. He is grazing quietly, and then moving along.
But see, what is he doing now? Why, he is looking up, straight ahead
of him! No, he sees no danger there. So he gives a glance to his
right, and then to his left. No, there is no danger there either. So
he puts down his head, and starts feeding again.
Thus, you see, every now and again he looks to see that no danger is
coming from anywhere in _front_ of the herd.
But what if any danger came from the _side_ of the herd,--right near
the end of the crescent,--or even from the _back_ of the herd?
_Buffalo Sentinels_
Let us see what the two buffaloes at the two ends of the crescent are
doing. They are the watchers, or _sentinels_, as they are sometimes
called. They keep a lookout nearly all the time.
Do you see the one on our left? After every two or three mouthfuls he
stops, and takes a look around; he even looks right to the back. Then
he takes four or five strides to catch up with the herd, and starts
grazing again. Then in a minute or two he takes another look around in
the same way.
And the sentinel on our right is doing just the same. Yes, the herd is
quite safe; the two sentinels are sure to see if any danger comes
from their side or from the back.
"But will not the sentinels have less to eat, if they are watching
half the time?" you may ask.
Yes, that is quite true. So all the Papa buffaloes take turns being
sentinels. After a while the two sentinels from the ends move up
toward the middle, and the next ones then begin to keep watch. And
they keep changing places like that from day to day. That makes it
quite fair for everybody.
When they go to sleep also they are arranged in the form of a
crescent; but the two ends are closed up, so that the Papas make a
ring, while the Mammas and the children sleep inside the ring.
When the Papas lie down, they are closer together than when they are
feeding; and they still keep their heads pointed to the outside of the
ring, so that they can get up in a minute, and be quite ready to drive
off any tiger. Of course they have sentinels keeping watch all the
time.
But now let us see other wonderful things that the buffaloes do, while
they are feeding.
We must be very careful how we follow the herd. The ground is now
changing, and getting quite rough; so the grass is getting scarce here
and there. The buffaloes have not enough grass all the way; so they
have to walk on a few yards without eating, till they come to the next
patch.
Some of the buffaloes are even having a bite at fresh young shrubs in
passing, as they will eat anything green, when they have not enough
grass.
But see! The buffaloes are spreading out, as there are not even enough
shrubs in one place. You can see gaps in the line of buffaloes now.
And the gaps are getting bigger and bigger! Let us watch a few
minutes.
Now the gaps are very wide, as some of the buffaloes are lagging
behind; and some are turning too much to the side in trying to reach a
mouthful from a shrub or a bush here and there.
Why, what is happening now? Some of the buffaloes cannot even see one
another now, because of the bushes between them! What are the
sentinels doing? And what is the leader doing? Suppose a tiger
suddenly comes--
But do you _hear_ that?
"Moo! Moo!"
That is the leader. He has just found out that the herd is spread out
too far; so he is calling. He is saying, "Where are you?"
"Moo! Moo!" Do you hear that answer? It comes from the sentinel on the
right, who is very far away now; but still he has heard the call. His
answer means, "Here I am!"
And "Here I am!" comes the answer also from the sentinel on the left.
"Then close up!" cries the leader.
Each sentinel moves up toward the place from which he heard the
leader's voice come. And on his way there he tells all the buffaloes
he meets to move up also. Besides, all the buffaloes hear the leader's
voice too; so they begin to close up at once.
Is not that a wonderful way of bringing up all those that are lagging
behind?
But let us watch the herd again. They have closed up now, and there is
no big gap in their line. The ground is level again.
Let us move on from thicket to thicket, and come as near the buffaloes
as we can.
What is that? See! The sentinel on the right is looking hard at that
jungle grass far away to the side. This kind of jungle grass grows
very tall, taller than a man. But why is the sentinel staring at the
tall grass? What does he see there?
Yes, there, far away, something is happening! The jungle grass is
waving gently, but just in one place! What is making the tall grass
wave like that? Is it the wind? No, it cannot be the wind! Why not?
Because if it were the wind, _all_ the grass there would wave. Then
what is making the tall grass wave in just one place?
It can be only one thing! Some _animal_ is hiding there in the tall
grass! And as the animal is coming nearer and nearer to the buffaloes,
he is making the grass wave!
See, the sentinel has guessed that also! What is he doing now? Can you
_hear_ him? He gives a bellow, deep and long.
"Danger! Look out!" That is what he means.
The whole herd hears him. They all close up as near together as they
can!
Quick! Let us get up on that tree near by! _We_ are in danger as well
as the buffaloes!
One branch higher--and another! Now we are quite safe! But see what
the buffaloes are doing!
_Buffaloes Make a Ring when Tiger Comes_
The two ends of the crescent have come close together, and all the
Papa buffaloes have made a perfect ring around the Mammas and the
children. The Papas are facing the outside of the ring; so they can
meet the danger from whatever side it comes.
Why do they do that? Look again at the grass! The tall grass is waving
nearer and nearer. So, the animal that is in the grass is coming
nearer and nearer.
He comes right to the end of the tall grass. There he makes a gap in
the grass, and walks out into the open. It is a tiger!
He was trying to sneak up to the buffaloes; but the sentinel found
that out. And now the bull buffaloes are ready for him. The tiger
growls in rage. He prowls round and round the ring of bull buffaloes,
as you see in the picture. But he dare not try to break through those
horns.
He roars with fury, shaking the ground; it is just like thunder. The
jungle around is taking fright at the roar. See! All the small animals
rush out in fright--wild pigs, wild goats, and all sorts of small
deer.
[Illustration: The Tiger and the Ring of Buffaloes]
In their fright they run hither and thither very stupidly. That is
exactly why the tiger roars--he wants to make the small animals behave
so stupidly, in their fright, that some of them may make a mistake and
run straight into his jaws.
See! The small animals scatter to right and left, trying to reach a
bush or thicket. But some are cut off from safety, as the tiger stands
in their way. What can they do?
_Small Animals Find Safety in Buffalo Ring_
Yes, there is the ring of buffaloes! So those small animals rush
straight toward the ring and creep inside--and the buffaloes raise
their heads to make a way for them under the horns. Some of them, like
the wild goats, jump _over_ the buffaloes' horns to get inside the
ring. Anyway, the small animals reach safety inside with the Mammas
and the children of the buffaloes.
The tiger stands outside the ring, and still roars in fury. But now
nobody is afraid. The bull buffaloes paw the ground impatiently with
their hoofs, and rattle their horns. They are going to charge!
But that tiger does not wait for the charge. He does not want to be
trampled into a mess. So he slouches away, growling and snarling.
So, as you see, the bull buffaloes guard the Mammas and the children
from danger, and they also guard all small and weak animals that come
to them for safety.
Did I not tell you that the buffaloes are the Knights of the Jungle?
[Illustration: Tame Water Buffaloes Plowing in the Rice Fields]
CHAPTER VII
Taming the Buffalo
Buffaloes do not always remain wild and wander about in the jungle.
Men need buffaloes. Farmers want to use them for plowing the ground,
in the same way that farmers in America use horses for plowing.
This kind of buffalo also lives in Italy, and because they are so fond
of water they are called _water buffaloes_ there. But in Italy they
are not wild any more, as they have been tamed and used by men for a
long time.
I shall tell you how the men catch the buffaloes from the jungle in
India, where they are still wild.
They catch the buffaloes in many ways. The easiest way is to find some
stream or pond where the buffaloes are fond of going. Then the men
take strong nets made of ropes, and spread the nets under the water.
So when the buffaloes come to bathe or roll in the mud, some of them
are caught in the nets.
Then the men rush in from their hiding place and drag out the nets. Of
course, those buffaloes which are not caught run away. But those that
are caught struggle fiercely. After a time they get tired of
struggling, as the nets are too strong for them to break.
When the buffaloes have become very weak from struggling, a lot of men
rush up and tie a stout rope around the neck of each buffalo. The rope
has two ends, one on each side of the buffalo, and each end is quite
long.
A dozen men haul at the rope, and the buffalo has to get up and march
with them. In this way the men bring the buffaloes one by one to the
village.
How do the men tame the buffaloes? That is quite easy, if they already
have a few tame buffaloes which they may have caught and tamed some
time before. And as the people have been doing this for many, many
years, they always have some tame buffaloes. So this is the way the
men treat the wild buffaloes:
_Wild Buffaloes Tamed Quickly by Kindness_
They put the wild buffaloes and the tame ones together in a pen, or
corral. Inside the corral there is a pond. In the deep part of the
pond there is plenty of good water to drink; and in the shallow part
of the pond there is plenty of mud in which the buffaloes may roll
about and wallow.
The men keep the buffaloes there together for many days, the wild ones
and the tame ones. Every day the men throw into the corral plenty of
fresh grass, which the buffaloes can eat all day.
Now, what more could the wild buffaloes want? They could not be
treated any better! They have plenty to eat, plenty to drink, and
plenty of mud in which to wallow. The tame buffaloes soon make friends
with them, and talk to them in their own language.
"You will not be any better off in the jungle," the tame ones say to
the wild ones. "Here you do not have to walk about all day to get
enough to eat, and then walk a good way to find water to drink, or a
place in which to wallow. And, also, we have no fear of tigers here.
What more do you want?"
So in a few weeks the wild ones become quite tame. Still, even after
that, the old and the new ones are always kept together, and soon they
become like one herd.
Afterwards, when the farmers use them for plowing, they always hitch
to the plow one buffalo that has been tame for a long time, and one
that is newly-tamed. Then it becomes easy for the new one to learn the
work by just doing as his friend does.
The farmer uses the buffaloes for plowing for only a few hours, and he
gives them plenty of time for wallowing and enjoying themselves. So,
even if they have to do a little work, the new buffaloes soon see that
they are really much better off living in the village than running
wild in the jungle.
After the plowing season is over, the buffaloes have no work at all.
They can wallow all day, if they want to.
When all the new buffaloes are quite tame, they are not kept in the
corral any more, as they would never think of running away now. They
are allowed to lie about and sleep in a little plot of ground
somewhere in the village. By daytime they are taken out into the
fields outside the village, and allowed to graze as they please; and
as there is always a stream or a pond near, the buffaloes can go into
the water or the mud whenever they like.
So, as you understand, the buffaloes very soon become quite tame. Why?
Because they are treated kindly. Please remember that. _Most wild
animals can be tamed if treated kindly._
Now I am coming to the nicest part about the buffaloes. It is the
nicest part because it shows how the buffaloes can even be made to
love us.
I have just told you that the buffaloes are taken out into the fields
to graze. Well, then, somebody has to do that in the morning, and
somebody has to bring them home in the evening.
Can you tell who does that? Why, there is a herdsman to do it, you may
say. Quite true. But the herdsman does not bother to do a simple thing
like that every day.
_Little Boys Take Charge of Buffaloes_
Then who does it? I shall tell you. The little boys of the village!
They are about five or six years of age. They are not old enough to go
to school, and not old enough to do any work; so they can play all
day.
The most useful thing they can do is to take charge of the buffaloes.
The boys soon learn all the buffalo calls--"Come out to graze," "Come
to wallow," or "Come home now." And the wonderful thing is that these
huge animals soon learn to obey these calls. When the boys call to
them, the buffaloes do just as they are ordered.
The buffaloes soon learn to love the little boys. You know how fond of
us an animal can become--especially a dog or a horse. Still, I do not
think that any animal can show such love for us as the huge buffaloes
do for the little boys who act as their herdsmen.
Why? Because the little boys _share the same mud_ with the buffaloes!
Boys and buffaloes mix very well with mud! The little boys tumble
about in the mud on the side of the bank where the buffaloes may be
wallowing. Or the boys will splash about in the water where the
buffaloes are lying neck deep to keep cool. Or they will climb up on
the buffaloes' backs for a while, then tumble off and play again.
Even when the buffaloes are grazing in the field, the boys may be near
them, playing hide and seek, and running in and out between the
buffaloes' legs, or under their horns. So the boys are with the
buffaloes all day long.
_How the Big Buffaloes Love the Little Boys_
It is quite wonderful to see a little boy actually twisting a huge
buffalo's tail. As I have told you, a buffalo is often more than ten
feet long, and taller than a tall man; and it has horns that reach
out more than a yard from each side of the head. This huge animal
could charge and smash up a big wagon as easily as if it were a match
box; and yet he will stand still and let his tail be twisted by any
little tot in the village.
Sometimes you may see a sight like this: A huge buffalo is grazing
hungrily, and a little boy comes up and stands right in front of him.
"Put up your head!" says the boy. But the buffalo goes on feeding
hungrily.
"Put up your head, or I will spank you!" says the boy. But the buffalo
still goes on feeding hungrily.
Then that tot raises his small hand and spanks the huge buffalo on the
jaw. The buffalo puts up his head, and rubs his nose lovingly against
the boy.
Well, why not? You have seen a baby pulling his Papa's hair. The Papa
just loves the baby all the more for it. So it is with the buffalo and
the little tot. And it would not matter a bit whether the tot were a
little boy or a little girl. The big buffalo is fond of both.
And now I shall tell you a wonderful true story about a buffalo and a
boy.
CHAPTER VIII
The Buffalo and the Boy
In a village there were many tame buffaloes, and among them thirty
bull buffaloes. The little boys of the village took charge of them
every day. The smartest boy among them was called Gulab. He was six
years of age.
Gulab knew quite well each of the thirty bull buffaloes, and was a
friend of each. Sometimes he alone had charge of them, and took them
out to graze and to wallow. That was because his father was the
herdsman.
The buffaloes loved Gulab, and they did exactly as he told them to do.
When he was going to take them to the fields, he would just stamp his
little bare foot and call out to them "Stand in rows!" And the huge
animals would stand in rows, one line behind another.
Then Gulab would come around to the side, and see if each line was
straight. If the line was not quite straight, and a buffalo happened
to be standing too much this way or that, Gulab would walk up to the
buffalo and spank him on the jaw. Then the buffalo would move into
line, exactly as Gulab wanted him to do. Or, if a buffalo happened to
be standing too far behind, Gulab would come around to the back and
twist the buffalo's tail, and the buffalo would move up into line.
Then, when the whole herd was in the right order, Gulab would come to
the front of the herd, and walk up to the biggest bull.
"Bend down your head, Baldo!" he would order.
And Baldo, the biggest bull, in the middle of the front line, would
bend down his head, and Gulab would climb up by one of the horns,
scramble up Baldo's neck, and sit down on his back.
"March!" Gulab would order--and the whole herd would march.
Now, a few miles away there was a grand palace. In the palace was a
little Prince, whose father was a Rajah--that is, a kind of king. The
little Prince's birthday was coming, and his father ordered grand
feasts for many days.
The Rajah had six English friends, who were quite big men. The
Englishmen were very fond of tiger hunting, so the Rajah wanted to
order a tiger hunt for them. But it is not easy to have a tiger hunt
just when you want to have it. Why not? Because the tiger will _not_
come out and be hunted just when you want him to. He would rather stay
in his den.
So for a few days no one heard of a tiger prowling about. Then
suddenly a strange piece of news came from that village where Gulab
lived. It happened in this way:
One day Gulab took out the buffaloes to graze and to wallow. The
buffaloes lay down in the shallow water for a while, and Gulab
splashed about or tumbled in the mud near them. Then he got tired of
doing that, and came out on the bank and played about there for a
while.
Suddenly he heard a strange sound. It was one of the buffaloes, who
had stood up in the water and was giving a low, deep bellow. Two or
three other buffaloes stood up also, and gave a low, deep bellow. Then
all at once the whole lot of them began to come out of the water.
Gulab stopped in his play to see what was wrong. But he could see
nothing.
"What's the matter, Baldo?" he asked. "What's wrong, Chando?"
But the two biggest bulls scrambled up the bank, and came rushing
toward the boy. All the other bulls came also, and some went past him
on the right side, and some went past him on the left side. Then
suddenly Gulab knew what it all meant!
A snarl--a growl--a roar, he heard. A flash of yellow leaped out of
the jungle, and came toward him with a huge jump. It was a tiger!
But already the buffaloes were making a ring around Gulab. Then he
knew what had happened. The tiger had seen him from the jungle beyond,
and had been trying to creep up to him quietly from thicket to
thicket. But the buffaloes had _smelled_ the tiger in time, and had
run out of the pond to save Gulab. And now they had made a ring around
him.
Gulab stood in the ring and looked with large round eyes, for he was
more frightened than he had ever been in his life. He was only a
little boy, and had never seen a tiger face to face.
The tiger growled and snarled and roared. Then it came round and round
the ring, trying to find a gap between the horns to get at the boy.
But there was no gap between the horns.
Then little by little the fear left Gulab's heart. Something inside
him told him to be brave. He walked up to Baldo.
"Baldo, let me up!" Gulab said to him, standing behind the buffalo.
And Baldo lowered his body behind, and bent his hind legs at the
knees.
Gulab took hold of Baldo's tail in both hands, and put his foot on
Baldo's hind knee, which was now bent quite low. In that way Gulab
climbed up to the buffalo's back, and sat on it, holding on to Baldo's
shoulders.
Then, being quite safe on the buffalo's back, Gulab glanced around and
called to the buffaloes at the back of the ring, "Open out!" And the
buffaloes opened out at the back of the ring, and made a crescent.
Then they moved still farther around, and the crescent became one long
line, facing the tiger.
Gulab gave one glance to right and left, to see that all were ready.
Then--
"Charge, brothers, charge!" he cried to the buffaloes.
Then his big brothers, the buffaloes, charged with thundering hoofs
and fiery nostrils. The tiger gave a huge leap to the side to get
away; but the buffaloes on that side opened out and headed off the
tiger. On to the front again the tiger was forced to turn--and run for
his life before the furious herd.
The buffaloes chased and chased that tiger, across field and jungle,
over hedges and ditches, through brambles and bushes and thickets,
till at last the tiger jumped across a ravine and ran away growling
and howling and snarling, like a low thief who is chased out of a
village at night.
The ravine was a deep hollow in the ground, like a huge ditch; and it
ran all the way across the ground; so the buffaloes could not get over
it, as they cannot jump as far as a tiger. Then the buffaloes returned
to the village, and Gulab gave the news about the tiger.
Some of the village people ran to the palace, and said that the tiger
might be still hiding somewhere on the other side of the ravine. So
the six Englishmen went around to that side to hunt the tiger. They
found him and wounded him four or five times. But it takes a lot more
than that to kill a tiger. The tiger ran out, got past the hunters,
and came back again across the ravine. Here he hid in a dense thicket,
and would not come out and be hunted to please anybody.
Now, when a tiger is hiding in a thicket and will not come out and be
hunted, there is only one way to _make_ him come out.
What is that way? Can you tell?
Why, of course, the bull buffaloes!
So the herdsman brought up the thirty bull buffaloes, and drew them up
in a long line in front of the thicket. And on the other side of the
thicket the six Englishmen got up into trees, and pointed their guns
at the thicket.
Then the herdsman ordered the buffaloes to charge, and they charged
right through the thicket, trampling it down and cutting it up into
lanes; so the tiger _had_ to run out on the other side. But on that
side the six Englishmen were waiting for him; and they all fired at
the tiger at once, and all hit him. They used a kind of bullet that
broke up into a hundred pieces right inside the tiger.
But the tiger still kicked and kicked, and would not agree to be dead
at once, as any other animal would. People say that a cat has nine
lives; then a tiger must have ninety-nine lives. So this tiger jumped
about, torn up as he was, and glared at the Englishmen in the trees,
trying to get at them, while they were loading their guns for another
shot.
But the buffaloes went on charging, and caught up with the tiger. They
rushed upon him, and now the torn-up tiger could not get away. So the
buffaloes trampled upon him, and then the tiger agreed to lie still
and be dead, really and truly.
The six Englishmen began to climb down from the trees, as they thought
the excitement was all over. But the herdsman called out to them at
once:
"Please go up again--quick! Don't let my buffaloes see you!"
For I must tell you now that buffaloes do not like strangers. They may
be very fond of their own friends in the village; but if they should
see a stranger, they would charge him just as quickly as they would
charge a tiger. And the Englishmen would look quite strange to the
buffaloes.
So the Englishmen remembered that, and stayed up in the trees till the
buffaloes were taken away.
The buffaloes were taken to the pond; and as the herdsman would not
bother to stay with them there, he left the buffaloes in the pond to
do as they pleased till evening.
The six Englishmen had their lunch there, when they got down from the
trees. They gave their guns to their servants, to carry away to the
palace. Afterwards the Englishmen walked about, smoking their cigars,
as they did not want to return to the palace so soon.
But four or five hours passed, and still they had not come back to the
palace. It was nearly evening, and still they had not come.
And in the village Gulab said to his Papa, who was the herdsman,
"Papa, I shall bring the buffaloes home now."
He went to the pond. But the buffaloes were not there! He shouted,
whistled, and gave all the buffalo calls he knew. But no answer!
He looked about, and searched everywhere, but he could not see the
buffaloes. What had become of them?
Then he happened to look far to the side, toward a lot of tall trees.
Something was happening under the trees! He could see a lot of things
moving there, but he was too far away to see what they were.
He ran toward the trees. Yes, they were the buffaloes! But why were
they there? And why were they behaving like that?
For he saw that they were pawing the ground angrily, and tossing their
heads and rattling their horns. And what was very strange, the
buffaloes were not looking at anything on the ground in front of
them. They were looking _up_, at the trees!
Then Gulab glanced up into the trees, and saw at once why the
buffaloes were behaving like that. But he did not waste a minute. He
ran to the buffaloes, shouting:
"Down, Baldo! Down, Chando!"
But the two biggest bulls and all the others glared at the trees and
snorted in fury.
"Down!" Gulab shrieked. "Down, or I shall spank you!"
He rushed to Baldo, and spanked him on the jaw. He rushed to Chando,
and spanked him on the jaw. He rushed from buffalo to buffalo, and
spanked each one on the jaw.
Then the huge animals that had charged the raging tiger, and that were
now fierce themselves, obeyed the little boy. They blinked, then one
by one lowered their heads. Gulab climbed up by Baldo's horns, and
seated himself on his back.
"Now turn around, all!" he ordered. And the buffaloes slowly turned
away from the trees.
Gulab looked back over his shoulder, and said to the six Englishmen
who were up in the trees: "You may come down now. My buffaloes won't
hurt you a bit, because if they try to I will spank them!"
Then the little boy took away the buffaloes, and the six big
Englishmen came down from the trees quite safely.
And now, do you understand what had happened? I shall tell you. The
Englishmen had forgotten what the herdsman had told them--about
keeping away from the buffaloes. The Englishmen had walked about, and
had finally come near the pond where the buffaloes were.
Then the buffaloes had come out and charged them. The Englishmen had
run and run, and had just managed to reach the trees. But the
buffaloes had come there after them! So the big Englishmen had to stay
up in the trees, and wait for some little village boy to come and take
away the furious buffaloes.
I have told you this story, my dear (and it is a true story) just to
show you what kind of an animal the buffalo is--at least, this sort of
buffalo. Even when he is furious, he will do anything for the little
boy whom he loves.
But as it is a true story, I must tell you one more thing that
happened--and I am sure you will be delighted to hear about it. The
six Englishmen went to the palace, and laughed and laughed, and told
all about it to the little Prince whose birthday it was.
Then the Rajah, who was the little Prince's father, said that Baldo
and Chando should not be made to plow any more, or do another bit of
work in their lives. Why? Because Baldo and Chando had first helped to
save Gulab from the tiger at the pond, and then afterwards they had
helped to hunt the tiger.
So after that, Baldo and Chando were allowed to walk about the village
as they pleased, and nibble at anybody's hay or grass, and splash in
anybody's pond, and wallow in anybody's ditch, rut, or mire.
And what was little Gulab's reward for saving the six Englishmen?
Well, the little Prince, whose birthday it was, came and took Gulab by
the hand, and brought him to the grand palace, and gave him lots and
lots to eat--cakes and ice cream and candy--so that Gulab went home
that night very full and very happy.
CHAPTER IX
Deer and Antelope
The buffalo has many relatives among other animals which also have
_horns_. In fact, all animals that have horns are some relation to
each other--first cousin, second cousin, third cousin, and so on.
The buffalo's nearest relatives are the ordinary cows and bulls that
you see in the fields.
"But the sheep and the goat also have horns," you may say. "Are they
also cousins?"
Yes, they are. In the same way the _deer_ and the _antelope_ are also
cousins to each other. I am now going to tell you about them.
The deer and the antelope are not exactly the same kind of animal, as
you might perhaps think. As I said, they are only cousins. If you look
at them carefully in the pictures on pages 103 and 109 you will see
which is the antelope and which is the deer--just as you can tell a
sheep from a goat.
[Illustration: Antelope
Photograph of a group in the American Museum of Natural History, New York]
First see the picture on page 103. These are _antelope_. Look at the
horns carefully. They are something like a cow's horns; only, a
cow's horns are sometimes bent and twisted in different ways. But the
antelope's horns point upward, and are much longer than a cow's horns.
They sometimes look almost like a pair of long and thick spikes,
pointed at the top.
Now look at the picture on page 109. These are _deer_. Look at the
horns carefully--only, they are not called horns when the animal is a
deer, but _antlers_, which is a special name. So take a good look at
the deer's antlers. There are two of them, and they grow from the top
of his head, like the antelope's horns.
But look again. The antlers _start_ from the head as _two_ spikes, but
higher up each antler branches out into _many_ parts. In fact, near
the top each antler looks something like the branches of a small tree
without leaves.
So now you can always tell which is an antelope and which is a deer:
the antelope's horns have no branches, but the deer's antlers have
many branches.
_Horns and Antlers Different in Three Ways_
The antelope's horns and the deer's antlers are also different in
other ways, which you cannot see in the pictures. So I shall tell you
about them:
1. The antelope's horns are _hollow_ inside, and made of the same kind
of thing as the _hoofs_ or _nails_ of an animal, only they are thicker
and harder. But a deer's antlers are _solid_, and made of _bone_.
2. Both the Papas and the Mammas among antelopes have horns. But among
most kinds of deer, only the Papas have the antlers; the Mammas have
none.
3. Among antelopes, when once the Papas and the Mammas have grown
their horns, they keep them always. But among deer, the Papas throw
away their antlers every year, and grow _new ones_. That seems very
wonderful! I shall tell you more about it soon.
But now I shall tell you, little by little, all the wonderful things
the deer and the antelope can do. I shall begin with the deer, as
there are many kinds of deer in America.
Of course, in America there are not such wild jungles as in countries
which are hot all the year round. Still, there are many places in the
West and a few other parts of America where there is some kind of
jungle and plenty of forest. A forest is a kind of jungle, only it has
more trees, and fewer thickets; but wild animals can live there just
the same.
_Elk and Other American Deer_
The biggest kind of deer in America is the _moose_; in fact, it is the
biggest kind of deer in the world. The second biggest is the _elk_; he
is nearly as big as the moose. Some people think that the moose and
the elk are exactly the same kind of deer, but that is not quite
correct. In this book I must not make it too hard for you to
understand, by telling you how they are different. So I shall tell you
all about the elk, as his picture is on page 109.
Once upon a time elks lived in all parts of America, but now they have
been killed off by hunters in most parts, and are found wild only in
the Far West.
The elk is a fine fellow. At the shoulder he is as tall as a man, and
is as heavy as six men. He lives in places where there is plenty of
forest--that is, plenty of trees. Why trees? Because he needs them in
winter--for then the bark is his food!
In summer he has plenty to eat--leaves, twigs, and grass. But when the
winter comes, and the leaves fall, and the ground is covered with
snow, the poor elk would starve and die, if he did not have at least
the bark of trees to eat. And very little bark he gets for many days
at a time.
Here I must tell you that some kinds of deer are among the most _hardy
animals_; that means that at times they can live on very little. There
is a kind of deer, called the _reindeer_, that lives in the frozen
North, where there is snow and ice almost all the year round; and the
reindeer has nothing more to eat for many days than a little bit of
moss or seaweed.
But there is another animal, not a deer, that is still more hardy: he
can go a whole week without eating or drinking--and do work all the
time! That seems very wonderful. But I shall tell you about that
animal in another chapter.
Now about the elk. His antlers are fine! You can see in the picture
how huge they are. And yet, would you believe it, he grew them in only
five months! I told you a little while ago that a deer throws off his
antlers every year, and grows new ones. I shall now tell you how the
elk does that.
[Illustration: Elk
Photograph of a group in the American Museum of Natural History, New York]
In the middle of the winter, the elk's antlers break off bit by bit.
In a few weeks they have all fallen off, leaving the elk's head
bare, with just a ridge or rough stump on it. Then, early in the
spring the new antlers start growing from the top of the stump. They
grow very fast, and in five months are as huge as ever.
But while the new antlers are growing, they are not hard. As yet they
are soft and tender, and all that time they have an outside covering
like hairy leather, to guard them from harm. But as soon as the elk
feels that his antlers are quite grown, and are strong and hard, he
strips off the outside covering by rubbing the antlers against trees.
Of course, while his antlers are still growing, and are soft and
tender, the elk cannot use them to fight another animal; so during
that time he hides in the bushes. But as soon as his new antlers have
become hard and strong, he is very brave again, and is ready to fight!
Does the elk fight much? He does! He fights most awfully when he has
his new antlers. What he fights about, and with whom he fights, I
shall tell you in another book.
There are a few other kinds of deer in America, but the funniest of
them is called the _mule deer_, which lives along the Rocky Mountains.
He is called the mule deer because he has very long ears, like a
mule's ears. And perhaps you have seen a mule bucking--that is,
jumping about while holding his legs quite stiff. Well, the mule deer
can buck just like that.
And while he is running at a gallop, he will often jump off the ground
with stiff legs, and then hop on and on many times like that, with
stiff legs, finishing up with another gallop.
That makes him look very funny, and because he jumps like that people
in Canada sometimes call him the _jumping deer_.
_Other Kinds of Deer_
I must now tell you about some other kinds of deer that live in
jungles and forests in other countries.
The _fallow deer_ lives in Europe. When he is wild, he lives in a
forest; but when he is tame, he lives in a park. He is a small deer,
about the size of a donkey. His coat is very soft and glossy and
beautiful. In winter his coat looks dark brown, and his legs and the
under part of his body are light brown. But in summer his coat becomes
a lovely light red in color, with white spots jotted all over it. Then
he is very handsome.
In India also there is a handsome deer, which the people call the
_lion deer_. He looks quite gentle and mild. Then why do the people
call him the lion deer? Because he has a lovely coat, golden yellow in
color. You could see him far across the open field, if he only stood
there. But he is so timid that he does not often come out in the open.
And why has he a yellow coat? Because he lives in a place where there
is plenty of yellow grass; and if he stood right in the middle of the
grass, and did not move, nobody could see him. Even if a tiger were
looking for him, and the deer stood quite still in the grass, the
tiger could not find him.
In another chapter I shall tell you how other animals have on their
bodies the _color of the place where they live, or where they want to
hide_.
_Barking Deer--One of the Wonders of Nature_
Now I am coming to one of the nicest kinds of deer in the world, and I
am sure you will just love him! He lives in India, and is called the
_barking deer_; only, he is not exactly a deer, but an antelope. You
remember what I have told you before, about an antelope having a
different kind of horns? Still we must call him the barking deer, as
people have already given him that name.
He is very small, about the size of a goat. If there is any danger
from an enemy, the barking deer is small enough to hide in any little
bush or behind a fallen tree or log; or else he can run away very
quietly through the under bushes. And he runs so quickly that his
enemy soon loses sight of him.
He is called the barking deer, because he can bark or yap almost like
a dog. But, you may ask, why does he want to bark at all, if he is
afraid of some enemy? Will not the enemy hear him, and then catch him?
Yes, that is quite true. And yet the fact that he does bark is one of
the most wonderful things in the jungle. It is so wonderful that in
another book I shall tell you more about it. But now I shall tell you
just this:
There are some animals which are so deadly that they could kill off
many, many other animals. So, as the only way to save the other
animals from being all killed, _God has made some special animals to
fight those deadly animals_.
There is the _cobra_, which is a snake, and which has such a deadly
poison that it could kill almost all other animals in the jungle by
just biting them. So, to save the other animals from being killed by
the cobra, God made the _mongoose_. He is a plucky little creature,
about the size of a cat. And he will fight and kill every cobra he
sees! But really he is such a wonderful animal that I must keep him
for another book, when you are old enough to know him better and to
love him.
But sometimes the deadly animal is too strong to be killed himself.
There is the tiger. He can kill and eat many kinds of animals. But who
can kill _him_? No animal! At least, the elephant and the buffalo
could kill the tiger if the tiger should let them _catch_ him and
trample on him. But the tiger does not let any animal catch him. Then
how can the other animals be saved from the tiger?
God made two special animals to save the others from the tiger. The
first is the buffalo, of which I have already told you, and which is
the Knight of the Jungle. The second animal is the barking deer. How
the barking deer saves the other animals from the tiger, I shall now
tell you:
When the tiger is prowling about, all other kinds of deer and antelope
just run away, and are glad enough if they escape being eaten. But
not the plucky little barking deer! He too runs away, but as soon as
he gets a little ahead of the tiger, he stops under a bush and lets
out that bark or yap--then runs on at once to another bush.
The tiger is furious, and jumps on the bush where he heard the
bark--but the deer is not there now! The deer barks from that second
bush--and runs to another one. In this way the barking deer leads the
tiger on and on through the jungle from bush to bush.
And why does he bark like that? To tell the other animals in good time
that the tiger is coming, and then to tell them exactly _where_ the
tiger is.
"Look out, here's a tiger!" That is the meaning of his first bark.
"Here he is! He is coming after me--this way!" That is what he means
by the next bark.
"He is chasing me this way! You run the other way!" And that is what
the barking deer keeps on saying, as he runs from bush to bush, so
that all the other animals know exactly where the tiger is at each
minute.
In this way the barking deer runs through the jungle, _warning all the
other animals_, and so spoiling the tiger's dinner all the way.
CHAPTER X
Deer and Antelope: Their Special Gifts
You have learned by this time that _every animal has some special
gift_, that is, he can do one thing better than most other animals.
The deer and the antelope have their special gifts.
First, there is their gift of _hearing_. I have already told you that
the wild buffaloes can hear a long way; but the deer and the antelope
can hear still farther.
Let us suppose that a tiger is trying to creep up to a deer through
the jungle, as quietly as he can. The tiger is still a long way off,
and quite hidden by the bushes, so the deer cannot _see_ him at all.
But the deer can _hear_ him coming, even if the tiger takes each step
very lightly. Why? Because the deer's ears are so sharp that he can
hear even a leaf rustling under the tiger's foot, a long way off. So
the deer can run away in good time.
To make him hear still better, the deer can turn or bend his ears to
the side from which the sound is coming. You have seen an ordinary
cow prick up her ears when she heard somebody coming; and many other
animals--even a dog--can do the same.
But the deer can do that best. The shape of his ear is like that of a
funnel, so as to _pour_ the sound into his ear, as it were. Then even
if there is only a single drop of sound, it gets right into his ear.
And by turning or bending his ear, the deer knows which way the sound
is coming. You also can tell which way a sound is coming, if it is
loud enough; but the deer can do that even when the sound is very
faint. That is very useful to him, as he then knows exactly _which
way_ a sneaking tiger is coming, and can run the _other way_.
I must now tell you that the tiger himself, tries to come so quietly
that the deer may not hear him at all; and to help him to do so, his
feet are padded with muscles, just like cushions. So it is a kind of
trial between the tiger and the deer as to which is the more clever.
If the tiger can come so quietly that the deer cannot hear him, then
the tiger is more clever than the deer. But if the deer can hear the
tiger, even if the tiger comes most quietly, then the deer is more
clever than the tiger.
That kind of trial between two different animals as to which is the
more clever, goes on in the jungle all the time: and _the more clever
one wins every time_. If the tiger is more clever than the deer, the
tiger eats the deer; but if the deer is more clever than the tiger,
the deer escapes being eaten. And that is true of all other animals.
In fact, one of the great wonders of the jungle is that the animal
which is _the fittest wins the oftenest_; and so he goes on living,
whatever may happen to the others.[1]
[Footnote 1: _To the Teacher._--Please give the class other examples
of the "Survival of the Fittest" among other creatures--birds,
insects, fish, etc.]
Now I come to the second special gift of the deer and the antelope. If
by any chance a deer cannot hear a sneaking tiger, he can still
_smell_ the tiger.
Most animals can smell their enemy a long way off, even if they do not
hear him or see him; but _the deer and the antelope can smell the
farthest_. Even if a sneaking tiger is so cunning that he stops in a
thicket and stands quite still for a minute, so that he does not make
any sound at all,--and so the deer cannot hear him,--even then the
deer can smell him when he is still a long way off.
I must tell you now that the tiger himself can smell the deer. But he
cannot do that very far off,--so the deer always smells him _first_!
Also, the tiger can hear the deer, if the deer happens to be moving.
But the tiger cannot hear quite so far as the deer can. So the deer
always hears him _first_!
But in one thing the tiger is better off than the deer: _the tiger can
see farther than the deer_. In the night most animals can see a
little, but the tiger can see a little better and farther than the
others. And in the daytime, if a deer were feeding in a very big level
field, and a tiger came to the field from the other side, the tiger
would see the deer before the deer could see him. Then the tiger would
come round to the nearest thicket, and try to creep up to the deer
from thicket to thicket.
_Each Animal has the Gift he Needs Most_
So, you understand, the deer can _hear_ farther and _smell_ farther;
but the tiger can _see_ farther.
And that is so because it is a wonderful rule in the jungle that _each
animal has the gift that he needs most_.
But can you think why the tiger _needs_ to see farther, and why the
deer _needs_ to hear farther and smell farther? I shall tell you.
The tiger is the catcher, and the deer is the one that is caught. So
the tiger tries to get to the deer, and the deer tries to run _from_
the tiger.
But to get to the deer, it would be no use to the tiger if he could
only smell or hear the deer, for then he would only know that the deer
was _somewhere_ near, but could not find the exact spot; and to catch
the deer the tiger must know exactly where the deer is. So the best
way for him to know that is to _see_ the deer.
But for the deer himself, all that he needs to know is that a tiger is
somewhere near. So it is quite enough for him to know from which side
the tiger is coming, by just smelling him or hearing him. Then the
deer can run the other way at once. He does not want to see the tiger
at all!
So, you understand, the tiger's best gift is to be able to see the
deer; and the deer's best gift is to be able to smell and hear the
tiger.
But then, you may ask, if the deer can always run away long before the
tiger can get at him, does a tiger never catch a deer?
Yes, a tiger does catch a deer once in a while, if the deer happens
to make a mistake! And the deer can make only one mistake like that in
his life, because after the first he gets eaten!
So, you may be sure, the deer tries very hard never to make even that
one mistake.
And what is that one mistake? It is to run straight into the jaws of
the tiger! It may just happen that when the deer hears the tiger
coming, he does not listen quite carefully, and so he does not know
which way the sound is coming. Then, in running away, the deer may
happen to go just the wrong way--and fall into the tiger's jaws.
Or else it may happen that the deer is so frightened that he loses his
head, as it were, and goes just any way--and by bad luck chooses the
wrong way, and falls into the tiger's jaws.
But I must tell you that, although the tiger tries very hard to eat
the deer, _the deer tries still harder not to be eaten!_ Why? Because
if the tiger does not catch the deer for to-day's dinner, he can still
catch some other animal for tomorrow's breakfast, even if he goes
hungry to-night. But if the deer once gets eaten, there is no
to-morrow for, him at all! The tiger is only trying _to get a meal_,
but the deer is trying _to save his life_. That is why the deer
nearly always gets away from the tiger--because he is trying harder
than the tiger.
So the tiger does not get deer to eat much oftener than most children
get roast turkey. The tiger lives mostly on pork, for the wild pigs of
the jungle are such careless animals, as I have told you before. Now
and again the tiger gets mutton also, for the wild sheep are silly
creatures, like other kinds of sheep. In the same way the tiger
sometimes catches a wild goat.
The tiger would really get deer to eat a little oftener than he
actually does if it were not that the deer has two other gifts by
which he can escape from the tiger at the last minute. Those two gifts
are his _quickness in getting started_, and his _speed in running_.
So, even if the deer makes a mistake and runs toward the tiger, he can
still escape from the tiger if he finds out his mistake in time.
For, as you saw at the midnight pool, the deer may be drinking
quietly, when he hears or smells a tiger. Then the deer can leap at
once and get away, before the tiger can leap. Or it may happen that
the deer is trying to escape from a tiger and has run to within
twenty yards of the tiger, when he finds out his mistake. Then the
deer can turn _at once_ and leap sideways to get out of the tiger's
reach. The deer is so quick that he can turn aside without stopping,
and keep on running.
Then after that, once he has turned away from the tiger, the tiger can
never catch him. For the deer can run ever so much faster than the
tiger.
In fact, the deer or the antelope is the fastest animal in the world,
except one other. About that other animal I shall tell you some
wonderful things in the next book. But among all animals I have told
you about in this book the deer is the fastest.
"But how do people know that the deer can run faster than other
animals?" you may ask. "Has anyone had a race between different
animals?"
Yes, some people did that in England a few years ago. They took the
fastest racehorse in the country, and ran a race between him and the
fastest greyhound; and the greyhound beat the horse in the race. Then
they took that greyhound, and ran a race between him and an English
deer; and the deer beat the greyhound in the race. So, you see, the
deer was faster than the greyhound, and the greyhound was faster than
the horse! So the deer was the fastest of the three.
And the deer that lives in the jungle is even faster than the English
deer. Why? Because the English deer lives in peaceful glades and
forests, and has no other animal trying to catch and eat him; so he
does not try to be as fast as he could be. But the deer that lives in
the jungle has to try very hard all the time to be as fast as he can
be, or else he would be eaten by the tiger! And, as you must know, _we
can do the best in anything when we try the hardest_.
So, all kinds of wild deer in the jungle have been trying their
hardest to run as fast as they can. And as their fathers and
grandfathers have been trying to do that, the wild deer to-day have
become the fastest runners among all the animals I have told you
about.
CHAPTER XI
The Camel
The _camel_ has very little to do with the kind of jungle I have been
telling you about; but he has much to do with the _desert_. A desert
is another kind of wild place. As I told you before, jungle means any
wild place; but usually, of course, there are lots of trees and bushes
and thickets in it. But we call the wild place a desert when trees and
bushes and thickets will not grow there, because the ground is all
covered with _sand_. In the desert there is nothing but sand all over
the ground, and not a single tree or a tiny blade of grass anywhere,
as far as you can see.
And that is the place where camels can do some very wonderful things,
as I shall now tell you. The camels do not actually live in the desert
all the time, but in countries quite near there.
First I must tell you that there is only one country to-day, called
Central Asia, where camels are still found wild. In all other places
they are not wild any more, for in those countries people have lived
for many thousand years; so the people caught all the camels once upon
a time, and tamed them.
Since that time the camels have been used by people in those countries
for their work, just as we use horses here; and rich people in those
countries count their wealth by the number of camels they have. Just
as we say here that a rich man has a million dollars, or two millions,
or three millions, so in those countries a man is thought to be rich
who has one thousand camels, or two thousand, or three thousand.
It was just the same in those countries in olden times. You have read
in your Bible history that Job was once a rich man, as he owned
thousands of camels.
You will see from the pictures facing page 128 that there are two
kinds of camels; one kind has a huge hump on the middle of his back;
and the other kind has two humps, with a gap between. The _One-Hump
camel_ is called an _Arabian camel_, or a _dromedary_. Once upon a
time he lived in the country called Arabia; that is the country from
where you get your lovely old stories of Ali Baba and Aladdin. But now
the One-Hump camel also lives in other countries near there. These
are all very hot countries, with many miles of desert here and there.
The _Two-Humps camel_ is called a _Bactrian camel_, as he lives in a
country which was once called Bactria. That country also has many
deserts, like Arabia; but as it is far to the north of Arabia, it is
very cold in winter, and the snow then lies very thick on the ground.
So try and remember this:
The One-Hump camel lives in a country where there are many miles of
desert, and where it is very hot almost the whole year. So the
One-Hump camel has to guard himself only from the _hot burning sand_.
The Two-Humps camel lives in a country where there are also many miles
of desert, but where it is very hot in the summer and very cold in the
winter. So the Two-Humps camel has to guard himself from the _hot
burning sand in the summer_, and from the _cold and snow in the
winter_.
The Two-Humps camel has in winter a coat of long, shaggy hair on his
back to guard him from the cold; and in summer the shaggy hair comes
off his back, just as if he were to cast off his thick coat. But the
One-Hump camel has only short hair, as the country is too hot all the
time to need a thick coat.
[Illustration: Bactrian Camel--with Two Humps]
[Illustration: Arabian Camel--with One Hump]
Now I must tell you how camels are used. First, they carry goods for
trade. In those countries there are hardly any railroads, so the
merchants carry their packages on camels. Of course they could not put
a package right on a camel's hump, as it would fall off; so they
always join two packages together with a band or belt, and sling the
band across the camel's back, so that there is a package on each side
of the camel.
When a One-Hump camel is used, the band or belt has two parts, like a
loop; and the loop rests over the hump, so that the band cannot slip
backward or forward. When a Two-Humps camel is used, the band of
course rests in the gap between the two humps, so that it cannot slip
at all; and then the two packages can be made very big. That is why
people like the Two-Humps camel better for carrying goods, and like
the One-Hump camel better for riding. But in some places the One-Hump
camel is used both for riding and for carrying goods.
In this way merchants carry their goods for many hundred miles across
desert and country. Then sometimes they come to the sea and send the
goods in ships to different countries. That is how you get many of the
figs, dates, and grapes you eat; so the next time you eat them, think
of the patient camel that brought them for you across the desert. That
is why the camel is called the _Ship of the Desert_.
The beautiful carpets and rugs and shawls which you see in rich homes
have also been brought by the patient camels; and some of the lovely
vases and ornaments that rich people have were also carried by camels.
And not only across the desert, but even over ordinary land camels
carry these goods. The camel is such a large animal that he can carry
packages as heavy as four men.
Of course when he carries such a heavy load, he cannot go any faster
than a man's walk; but the camel can keep on walking all day, with
just a short rest once in a while. Those used for riding cannot run as
fast as a horse, but they can keep on running at a steady trot much
longer than a horse, and then after a short rest can start running
again. So by the end of the day a camel can run twice as far as a
horse, and sometimes still farther.
_The Camel's Wonderful Gifts_
Now I am going to tell you of the most wonderful things a camel can
do.
First, I must tell you that no other animal could cross a desert at
all. To begin with, if such an animal as a horse tried to walk on the
sand, his hoofs would sink into the sand up to the ankles, and it
would be hard work for him to go even a mile. But a camel's foot is
different. It has a _soft pad of muscles_ under it, just like a
cushion; and when the camel walks or runs on the sand, the pad spreads
out under his foot, and that gives him a firm hold on the sand in
walking or running. So remember that the camel has padded feet.
I must tell you here that the feet of all animals are formed in the
way they can best use, in the country in which they live. Those
animals that have to walk on _hard ground_ have _hoofs_, and those
that have to walk on _soft ground_ have _padded feet_. The elephant is
the only animal that has to walk on hard ground, at least very often,
and yet has padded feet. Can you tell why? Because of his huge weight!
He is so heavy that if the bones under his feet were not covered with
a thick pad, he would jar the bones every time he put his foot down,
even if the ground were not very hard.
In the same way the camel's padded foot is very useful to him even
when he is not in the desert, but on hard ground; for he too is
rather heavy, though of course not so heavy as an elephant.
[Illustration: Sand Storm in the Desert]
There are other reasons why no other animal could cross a desert as
easily as a camel. In the desert there are sometimes fierce storms;
and as it is all sand there, the strong wind blows the sand about in
every direction. As there is no place there where one could get away
from the sand, any other animal would soon have a lot of sand blown
into his nostrils; then he would be choked. But a camel's nostrils are
made differently, so that whenever he likes he can _close his
nostrils_, as easily as you can close your mouths, and that keeps away
the sand. The camel is clever enough to lie down on the ground when a
storm is blowing, and to lay his neck and chin along the ground; then
his nose is quite close to the ground, where the storm is not quite so
fierce as in the air.
Of course, when he wants to breathe, he opens his nostrils a tiny bit
to take in a little air; then he closes the nostrils again, and holds
his breath for a little while. He has to keep on doing that as long as
the storm lasts.
But what does his master do, who has been riding on his back? He
cannot close his nostrils; so the only thing he can do is to get off
the camel and huddle against the camel's body on the side far from the
wind; then he brings his face quite close to the ground and holds his
nose with his hand. When he wants to breathe, he opens his fingers
just enough to make a slit and let the _air_ in, but not enough to let
the _sand_ in.
There is another reason why no other animal could cross a desert: his
eyes would be blinded by the fierce glare of the sun. But a camel has
very _thick hair on his eyebrows_, which hang over the eyes, and keep
off the fierce rays of the sun. His eyelashes also are very thick, and
help to keep off the sun in the same way.
But there is a still more wonderful reason why no other animal, except
a camel, could cross a desert. In a desert water is very scarce, and a
traveler crossing a desert on a camel may not find any water for a
whole week. Of course, he carries on his saddle half a dozen bottles
of water to drink; but after drinking some of the water each day, he
has not much to spare for the poor camel. Then what is the poor camel
to do?
Of course, you may say that his master should carry more water for the
camel to drink. But the load of goods which the camel has to carry is
already so heavy that there is not much room for any more water. Then
what _can_ the poor camel do?
Why, he _carries his own drinking water_, not in the load on his back,
but _inside his stomach_! Is not that a wonderful thing? His stomach
is made differently from that of any other animal. The stomach of any
other animal, Or even a man's stomach, is so made that the water drunk
at any time is all used up in the next few hours; that is why any
other animal, or even a man, has to have another drink after those few
hours.
But a camel's stomach is so made that it has one big place for food
and drink like the stomach of any other animal, but it also has many
smaller places arranged all around the stomach; these smaller places
are just like bottles, and are called _cells_.
So when a camel takes a good long drink, the big place in the middle
of the stomach takes in the water first; then as he drinks more and
more, the bottles or cells all around begin to get filled also. And
the wonderful thing is that as soon as each cell is full, its mouth
closes up by itself! In that way, if the camel drinks long enough, all
the cells get full, one by one, and then have their mouths closed up.
When a camel is about to start on a long journey through the desert,
he takes a very long drink, till he _feels_ that he cannot drink any
more; then he _knows_ that all the bottles or cells inside are quite
full, as well as the big place in the middle of his stomach. Now he is
ready to cross the desert.
After many hours all the water in the big place in the middle of the
stomach gets used up. Then what happens? Why, one of the bottles
inside opens its mouth by itself, and pours the water into the
stomach! And after many hours more, when _that_ water has also been
used up, the _second_ bottle opens its mouth and pours the water into
the stomach. In this way all the bottles or cells inside the camel one
by one pour their water into the stomach from day to day, whenever the
camel feels thirsty. Is not that most wonderful?
And there is yet another very wonderful thing about the camel. His
hump! It is just as wonderful whether it is one hump or two humps. I
shall tell you.
The camel's hump is his _store of food_! Yes, just as he carries his
own drinking water inside his stomach, so he also carries his own
store of food in his hump.
This is how he does it:
When the camel is quite well and strong, if he eats any food which is
a little more than he actually needs for his hunger, that food after a
while goes to his hump and helps to make it bigger. In this way the
hump becomes a store of all the extra food that he has eaten. Then, on
going on a long journey through the desert, if the camel has nothing
to eat and begins to feel hungry and weak, a little of the hump is
used up to give him strength, just as if he were to eat a meal. In
this way he can go for many days without food, but of course his hump
will get smaller and smaller.
[Illustration: Crossing the Desert with Camels]
But his master does not actually take him through the desert without
giving him _any_ food or drink; in fact he always gives the camel some
of the figs and dates which he takes with him for his own meals, and
also some of the drinking water which he carries on his saddle. But if
it did happen that his master had no food or drink to spare, the camel
could still live for several days, using his hump for food, and the
water in the cells of his stomach for drink.
The camel can do yet another wonderful thing. He can tell a long way
off when he is coming to a place where there is water. In the desert,
after going over sand and sand for many days, a traveler sometimes
finds a beautiful place called an _oasis_. It is just like a lovely
little garden right in the middle of the desert, with a spring of
water, and several fig trees, date trees, and other palm trees growing
all around the pool.
When a traveler is crossing the desert and sees nothing but sand for
several days, it sometimes happens that his camel suddenly stops,
stands quite still for a minute, raises his head, and sniffs the air.
Then he turns a little to the right or to the left, and begins to run
straight that way. His master may look ahead very hard, but he will
see nothing but sand and sand, as before.
But the camel, by just sniffing the air, has found out that there is
an oasis within reach, though it is still too far away for him to see
it. Then he runs on most gladly, and comes to the oasis in an hour, so
that he and his master can rest there for some time, and drink from
the pool, and eat the figs and dates growing on the trees.
Of course, the camel can also eat the leaves of the trees; in fact,
when he is not in the desert, but just in the ordinary country, he
usually eats from the shrubs and bushes, and gets figs and dates only
as a dainty, just as you sometimes have ice cream. The camel with two
humps will gladly eat many more things than the camel with one hump.
In fact, when he is hungry, he will eat not only any kind of
vegetable, but also meat. He has even been known to chew up and eat
bones, blankets, and leather! And he is perhaps the _only animal that
will drink salt water_; for the country in which the Two-Humps camel
lives has several lakes, the water of which is bitter and salty.
So you see how useful an animal the camel is, whether he has one hump
or two humps. He is so useful that people have been saying for a long
time that camels should be brought into America, where there are
several deserts in the western states. In fact, a strange thing has
already happened. The United States Government did bring a lot of
camels for use in the western states several years ago, about the time
when your grandfather was a boy.
But the people who can best manage such large animals as elephants and
camels are the people who are born in the same countries as those
animals and who understand their habits. And unluckily, when the
camels were brought into America, nobody thought of bringing men also
from those countries to manage the camels. So nobody seemed to know
how to use these animals, and after a time they were turned loose in
Arizona. The camels went into the deserts and forests there, and
became quite wild, and to-day there are some of them in Arizona.
Now, do you not think it would be a good idea to get a few men from
those countries and learn from them how to manage camels? Then the
camels of Arizona also could be used in crossing the deserts there,
where there are no railroads.
Besides being the only animal that can cross the desert, the camel is
different from any other four-legged animal even in the way he walks.
You have seen how a horse walks? When his left foreleg is lifted off
the ground, his right hind leg is also lifted off the ground; then in
the next step, when his right foreleg is lifted off the ground, his
left hind leg is also lifted off the ground. That means that the two
legs which move at the same time are those placed at the _opposite
corners_ of his body. But when a camel walks, he lifts the two legs
on the _same side_ of his body at the same time. And when he takes the
next step, he lifts the two legs on the other side of his body.
Now, my dear, I have told you many things about the camel which are
different from anything in any other animal. So, before I close this
chapter, I want you to remember these things about the camel:
1. His _foot_ is _padded_ in such a way that he can walk or run on
sand.
2. He can _close_ his _nostrils_ to keep out the sand in a storm.
3. His _thick_ and bushy _eyebrows_ and _thick eyelashes_ keep the
glare of the sun from his eyes.
4. His stomach has many _cells_ like bottles, in which he can _store
up water_.
5. He can _store up food_ in his _hump_.
6. He walks by moving both legs on the _same side_ of his body at the
same time.
In another chapter I shall tell you about an animal that can also do
one of these things: he can _store up food_ in his body, though in a
different way. That animal is the _bear_. He sleeps through the whole
winter, and has to have a store of food somewhere in his body to last
all that time.
CHAPTER XII
The Camel and the Thief
Now I shall tell you a story about a camel and a thief. It is a true
story, and happened many, many years ago. The story shows what we can
learn by watching the animals.
Once upon a time, a traveler was going on foot across the country. In
his belt he had a purse full of money. One day, as the sun began to
get hot, he lay down on the grass under a tree near the roadway, and
fell asleep.
After a few hours he woke up, and what was his surprise to find that
the purse was gone! While he was asleep, somebody had quietly stolen
his purse and gone away.
The traveler ran to the nearest village, and there told the police
about it. Now, among the police there was a very clever man, and the
police brought him with them to the place where the money had been
stolen. The clever man looked all around the place very carefully to
see if he could find any marks on the ground. On the grass near the
tree he found no marks; in fact, if a person walks on the grass just
once or twice it does not leave any mark. But on the roadway near by
he found footprints.
"They are a camel's footprints," he said, looking at the marks
carefully. "And the marks of all the four feet are not quite the same.
Three of them are quite deep and clear; but the fourth one is very
faint."
He followed the camel's footprints along the road for a long time. But
now and again he stopped and looked at the shrubs and bushes which
grew here and there, on both sides of the road.
"Hello, that is strange!" he suddenly said. "The camel has eaten from
the bushes and shrubs here and there on the left side of the road, but
he hasn't eaten at all from those on the right side of the road."
He went on for some time longer, then suddenly stopped to look at the
road where the camel had walked.
"Hello, this is also strange!" he said. "Here are a lot of _bees_
buzzing near the ground on the _right_ side of the road. And here are
a lot of _ants_ scrambling over the ground on the _left_ side of the
road."
"Never mind about the camel, and the bees and the ants," the
policemen said impatiently. "We want to know about the thief who stole
the money. You have not found any other footprints except the
camel's?"
"That is quite true," the clever man said. "But as the _camel_ could
not steal the money, there must be a _man_ riding on the camel. He
must be the thief."
"But why didn't the thief leave any footprints?" the policemen asked.
"Because he must have ridden his camel from the roadway right to the
edge of the grass," the clever man answered. "Then he must have jumped
down upon the grass, where he knew he would not leave any footprint.
He must have walked very quietly on the grass up to the tree where the
traveler was sleeping, and stolen the money. Then he must have walked
back quietly to the camel and ridden off."
"But what sort of a man is the thief?" the police asked. "How can we
find him, if you do not tell us what he is like?"
"I cannot tell you a thing about the thief, or what he looks like, as
he hasn't even left a footprint," the clever man answered. "But I can
tell you _all about the camel_. The camel is _blind_ in his _right
eye_, and _lame_ in his _left hind foot_. And on his back he is
carrying two packages, one on each side; the package on the _right_
side has _honey_ in it, and the package on the _left_ side has _corn_
in it. So you must search for a man who is riding a camel loaded like
that. He is the thief."
So the police searched for a man who was riding a camel which was
blind in his right eye, lame in his left hind foot, and carrying honey
in a package on his right side, and corn in a package on his left
side. After following the camel's footprints on the ground for a long
time, the police at last came to a village.
They searched through the village, and found many men riding camels.
But there was only one man riding a camel blind in his right eye, lame
in left hind foot, and carrying honey on the right side, and corn on
the left side. So the police knew that he was the thief, and took him
before the judge. Then the thief said that it was quite true that he
stole the money.
Afterwards the judge turned to the clever man and asked him how he
knew all that about the camel.
"You didn't _see_ the camel at all, but only his footprints," the
judge said. "Then how did you know that the camel was blind in his
right eye, lame in his left hind foot, and carrying honey on the right
side, and corn on the left side?"
"It was quite simple," the clever man answered very modestly. "First,
about the camel being blind in his right eye. He had nibbled at the
shrubs and bushes growing on the left side of the road, for at each
bite I found the leaves cut off clean by his teeth. On the right side
of the road there were also plenty of good shrubs and bushes, but the
camel had not taken a single bite at any of them. That showed that he
did not even _see_ those shrubs and bushes on his right side. And that
of course meant that his right eye was blind."
"That is very clever of you," the judge said. "But how did you know
that the camel was lame in his left hind foot?"
"That was just as simple," the clever man again answered very
modestly. "As the camel walked along, the marks of his two front feet
and right hind foot were quite deep and clear on the ground. But the
mark of his left hind foot was very faint. That showed that the camel
was limping, and the left hind foot only just touched the ground. So I
knew that he was lame in that foot."
"That is also very clever of you," the judge said. "But how did you
know that the camel was carrying honey on his right side, and corn on
his left?"
"That was the simplest of all," the clever man answered most modestly.
"As the camel was limping, nearly every step he took jerked the load
on his back. So a few drops of the honey fell to the ground from the
package on his right side, and a few grains of the corn fell to the
ground from the package on his left side."
"But you could not see very well here and there on the ground just a
few drops of honey or just a few grains of corn?" the judge said.
"_I_ could not," the clever man answered, "but the _bees_ and the
_ants_ could! On the right side of the road I found a swarm of bees
here and there; so I knew that they were trying to pick up the honey.
And on the left side of the road I saw a whole lot of ants here and
there; so I knew that they were trying to pick up and carry away the
grains of corn."
Now was it not really clever of that man to find all that out about
the camel, without ever seeing the camel before? But, as you
understand, he knew all about the _habits_ of different animals; and
so he knew what camels and bees and ants always do.
CHAPTER XIII
Bears
_Bears_ are such funny animals, at least some kinds of bears, that you
may like to know all about them.
Bears are found in many countries, and in some countries there are
several kinds of bears.
But you must remember this: _hardly any bear lives in the tropics_;
that means countries where the sun is almost overhead all the months
of the year, so that it is very hot all the time.
But why does not the bear usually live there? Can you guess?
Because the bear is a very _hairy_ animal; and his hair is just like a
thick coat, so that he cannot live where it is very hot all the time.
Of course, once upon a time the bear lived only in places where it was
very cold, and so he grew thick hair to keep out the cold; but now
that he _has_ a thick coat of hair, he cannot go down to hot countries
to live. He does not mind living in a cold country; and the colder the
country is, the thicker is his coat of hair.
What does the bear eat? Most kinds of bears eat berries, fruits, soft
roots of trees, and fish when they can catch it. One or two kinds of
bears eat other things also, which I shall tell you about very soon.
The bears that live in cold countries, where there is heavy snow in
winter, cannot get anything at all to eat in winter. Why? Because
there are no fruits and berries in winter, and the roots of trees are
frozen hard and covered up by the snow.
Then if those bears cannot get anything to eat in winter, what do they
do? They _sleep_!
You know that when you are asleep you do not feel hungry; but as soon
as you wake up you feel hungry again. It is just the same with the
bear; he does not feel very hungry while he sleeps. And he _sleeps
right through the winter months_!
Still, while he is asleep all that time, does he not feel a little bit
hungry? He does. So he uses up the store of food inside his body! I
have told you that the camel carries a store of food in his hump. The
bear has no hump, of course, but he has a _thick chunk of fat all
around his body_ just under his skin; and that chunk of fat is his
_store of food_.
So, when the bear sleeps snugly in his den in the winter months, the
chunk of fat is slowly used up inside his body, and keeps him from
being very hungry.
Of course, he eats such a lot just before the winter, that the chunk
of fat is very thick when he goes to bed. But the chunk is all used up
when he wakes up at the end of the winter, and then he is very hungry
again!
But there is a kind of bear that lives in a place where there is snow
and ice almost all the time. What can _he_ do?
He cannot sleep always! So he has to get something to eat now and
then, and I shall tell you how he does that.
_The Polar Bear_
This kind of bear is called the _polar bear_. (See the picture on page
155.) He lives in a place far up North, where it is always very cold.
The land is nearly covered with snow, and the water at the top of the
sea is frozen. There are no berries or fruits there for the polar bear
to eat; so he has to live on fish, and seal, which is a water animal.
The way the bear catches the fish or the seal is this:
He makes a hole in the ice with his paws, so that he can reach the
water below. Then he sits down very quietly by the edge of the hole,
and waits for a fish or a seal to swim past the hole. Then the bear
pounces on it very quickly with his paw or his jaws, and catches it.
If the ice is too thick for the bear to make a hole through it, he has
to try another way. He comes right down to the part of the sea where
some of the ice has broken off. There he chooses a place at the edge
of the ice, close to the water; and he waits there for a fish or a
seal to swim past. Then he pounces on it and catches it.
Now I shall tell you a few special things that the polar bear has.
His coat of hair is much _thicker_ than the coat of any other bear.
Why? Because he lives in a colder place than any other bear; so he
_needs_ a thicker coat. Also, he sometimes has to swim through the icy
water to get to some floating field of ice, so that he can catch fish
from it. Then, although his hair gets wet, he has a thick lining of
fat inside his coat to keep him warm.
The next special thing about the polar bear is that his hair is _all
white_--like the color of everything around him, which, as I have
told you, is just snow and ice. So when the polar bear sits down very
quietly on the snow and ice, nobody can see him even from a short
distance, because he is the same color as the snow and ice. And that
is why the fish or the seal does not see him, and so gets caught.
[Illustration: Polar Bear]
That is one of the wonderful things about many wild animals--they are
of the _same color as the place where they live_. You know that the
color of a lion is yellow, like the color of sand; and the lion lives
in countries where there are lots of sandy places. You know, too, that
the color of a tiger is yellow, but with black stripes upon the
yellow, so that if you looked at him from a distance, you might think
he was made up of yellow and black stripes. And the tiger lives in the
tall grass, which also looks like yellow and black stripes.
But now I shall tell you more about the polar bear. He has three other
special things: the _soles_ of his feet are _hairy_; he has a _small
head_; and he has a _long neck_.
First, about the soles of his feet. The soles of the feet of other
bears are smooth, just like the feet of all other animals that have to
walk on ordinary ground. But the soles of the polar bear are covered
with long hair, just as is his body. Why? Because he has to walk on
ice, which is very slippery, and he needs to have the soles of his
feet covered with hair, or else he would slip on the ice, just as you
must wear rubbers over your shoes when you have to walk on icy ground.
Now, my dear, just stop for a minute, and think. Among all the
wonderful things that I have told you so far, you have always noticed
that an animal always has _just the very thing he needs! We_ have to
_make_ rubbers, and warm coats, and gloves, and socks, and a dozen
things that we need. But to every animal God has given everything
that he needs, right on his body.
But now let us go on with the polar bear. He has a smaller head than
any other kind of bear. Why? To make it easier for him to put his head
through the hole in the ice, when he is catching fish. Other kinds of
bears do not have to put their heads into a hole to get anything to
eat; so they do not need to have a small head.
The polar bear has also a longer neck than any other kind of bear.
Why? To give him a longer reach in catching the fish with his
jaws--without tumbling into the water himself. Other bears, who live
on dry land, do not need to reach out like that, and so they have
shorter necks.
I shall now tell you about these other kinds of bears.
_American Bears_
First you shall hear about the bears that live in America. The biggest
kind is called the _grizzly bear_. In fact, he is the largest bear in
the world. Some grizzly bears are ten feet tall when they stand up on
their hind legs!
The color of a grizzly bear is yellow, but with many shades;
sometimes between brown and yellow, and sometimes between red and
yellow. Teddy bears, with which you have played, are sometimes made of
that color. Teddy bears of course are very nice, as they are toys; but
I am sorry to say that the real grizzly bear is not nice; he is very
fierce. In fact, he is the only kind of bear that is so fierce. Even
grown-up men do not want to go near him.
The grizzly is found in many parts of North America, near the Rocky
Mountains, from the United States right up to Alaska. He lives on
berries and all kinds of fruits, and also on the soft roots of trees.
But the grizzly bear eats meat also, if he can manage to catch deer or
cattle. That is why cowboys in Colorado and Wyoming do not like the
grizzly bear--he tries to kill and eat their cows.
Besides, he kills a lot of fish. In the Columbia River in Oregon there
are lots of trout and shad, which people like to have for their
dinner. But the grizzly bear gets to the river first, and eats a great
many of the trout and the shad. How does he catch the fish? Why, he
just lies down along the bank, and waits for the fish to rise to the
top of the water. The trout and the shad like to rise to the top of
the water now and again, and swim there. So the grizzly just waits
for a fish to rise--and then he pounces on it and catches it with his
paw. He is so very quick that he hardly ever misses. All kinds of
bears are very clever in catching fish.
_Other Bears_
Another kind of bear is called the _brown bear_. He lives in Europe,
Asia, and also in some parts of America, especially in Alaska. There
he is rather big, though not quite so big as the grizzly bear. He too
lives on berries, fruits, and roots, and he also catches fish. For in
the rivers of Alaska there are lots of salmon.
But the brown bear is not at all fierce, like the grizzly bear. He is
peace-loving, and sometimes quite friendly.
The nicest kind of bear is called the _black bear_. He is found in all
parts of the United States, and in many other countries. He is
sometimes rather small, and is quite full of fun. Almost all the good
stories you may hear about bears are about the black bear.
Many people mistake the black bear for the brown bear; so when you
sometimes hear people talking about a "brown" bear, you may know that
they really mean a "black" bear.
Like other bears, the black bear lives on berries, fruits, and roots,
and also on nuts, if he can find any. But what he likes best is honey!
It is quite amusing to see the bear hold a honeycomb in one paw, scoop
out the honey with the other, and put it into his mouth. It looks just
like a boy holding a pot of jam in one hand, and sticking his fingers
into the jam and putting it on his tongue!
"But do not the bees get angry, and try to sting him?" you may ask.
Of course they do. The bees swarm around the bear and try to sting him
all over. But they cannot! He is _too hairy_! They cannot get through
the hair to sting him on the skin. So he goes on licking the honey and
smacking his lips!
The black bear is always a funny animal. Perhaps you have seen him in
the zoo. He will squat on the ground like a man, and if he sees a
crowd of people before him, he will swing his arms just as a man does
when he talks to a friend. Perhaps the bear has seen some men do that,
and has learned to do the same!
And sometimes he will sit on the ground, hold his tail in his mouth,
and fumble head over heels, or roll over and over, or spin round and
round--just for fun! In fact, the black bear is among the _few
grown-up animals that love to play_. Many _young_ animals of course,
such as kittens, puppy dogs, calves, and many others, love to play.
But most grown-up animals do not seem to care for play, except the
black bear.
When he is caught and tamed, he is still very playful at times. He
will do all sorts of funny tricks, all by himself; and if he sees
anyone watching him, he will try to show how clever he is--just like a
child playing "smarty!"
Once in a lumber camp in the West the men caught and tamed a black
bear. After a time the bear was allowed to walk about the camp, quite
free, as he did not think of running away. One day the men had stopped
work to have their dinner. The bear walked by, and the men petted him
and said nice things to him. Then what do you think happened! The bear
felt so proud of being praised that he went to a sloping log, and
walked along it right to the top. You must know that in a lumber camp
there are lots and lots of huge logs, or trees which the men have cut
down. And one of these logs happened to rest on a slope, that is, with
one end higher than the other.
When the bear reached the top of the log, he sat across it. Then he
held on to the log with his front paws, bent his body, and slid down
the log--just as a boy slides down the banister! Of course the men
laughed, and cheered him. Then just guess what that bear did!
He walked up to the top of the log again, and sat across it, as
before. But now he held on to the log with his knees, not his paws,
and sat straight up without bending, and slid down the log in that
way--just as a boy might hold on to the banister with his knees, not
using his hands at all, and slide down the banister in that way, just
to show how smart he could be!
You may be sure those men cheered the bear, and gave him lots to eat.
There is another kind of black bear that is also funny, though in
another way. He is called the _Himalayan black bear_, because he lives
in India near some huge mountains called the Himalayas. In many ways
he is very much like the black bear of America, but he has a _white
chin_ and _long side-whiskers on his jaws_. Some people think that of
all kinds of bears he is the most handsome.
Although he often goes up very high on the side of the mountains, he
sometimes comes down to the country below, where there are many
villages. But the bear is quite friendly, and never hurts the people
in the villages, although he is strong enough to kill a man. So the
people are also very kind and friendly to him, and never try to hurt
him. When you grow up you may read that there are some people in India
who are always kind to _all_ animals, tame or wild.[2]
[Footnote 2: _To the Teacher._--Please explain to the class that the
sect called Jains do not hurt the smallest creature, and will suffer
the sting of a wasp rather than kill it.]
[Illustration: Himalayan Black Bear]
I am telling you this because you will see very soon what we gain by
being friendly even to a wild animal. The Himalayan black bear, like
the other black bear, is also very fond of honey, and of everything
sweet. In the country where he lives there grows a berry called mawa,
which is very sweet--even sweeter than the strawberry; and the people
of the villages make jam from it.
These berries grow quite wild, on bushes here and there in the fields,
and even in the jungles near by. When the berries are ripe, the people
send out their children to gather them from the bushes in the fields;
and the children carry baskets so as to bring back as many berries as
they can.
But when the berries are ripe, the bears also want to eat them! So it
sometimes happens that half a dozen children are picking the berries
from a thick bush, when suddenly a bear comes round the bush and
starts gobbling up the berries as fast as he can!
Do the children get frightened and run away? Not a bit! They want
_their_ share of the berries, too!
By this time the bush may be getting empty, and the children have not
quite filled their baskets. The bear keeps on gobbling up the berries,
and even pushing past the children to get at a bunch. What then? Why,
the children raise their hands, and _just spank the wild bear_!
"Go away, you have had enough!" they say. "Can't you go to another
bush? There must be others right in the jungle, where _we_ can't go!"
And, can you imagine it, a wild bear there has never hurt a child!
When the children spank him and push him away, telling him that he has
had enough from that bush, he _does_ go away to some other bush. Of
course, the spanking does not really hurt him.
I have told this to you, my dear, just to show you that there is never
any real reason for quarreling and fighting, among children, or even
among men. _If children and wild bears can get along together_, why
cannot children and children, or men and men, or nations and nations?
Surely there are enough berries and other good things for all, if we
only look around!
Remember this always, even when you grow up, if you want to be good
men and women, and good citizens of your country.
CHAPTER XIV
Bears: The Tricky Trap
Now I am going to tell you something funny about the bear. You have
seen lots of wild animals in the zoo, and you may sometimes have
wondered how these animals were caught. In another book I shall tell
you all about the different ways of catching different kinds of wild
animals; but now I shall only tell you how a wild bear is caught. Of
course, there are two or three ways of catching him alive, but I shall
describe to you now just one way.
You must know by this time that everybody in the world--whether man,
woman, or child--has _some fault_. Some have a bad temper, others are
rude, and still others are obstinate; and many, especially children,
are too greedy! And so it is among animals: they all have one fault or
another.
So the people who want to catch a wild animal find out first what
fault that kind of animal has--whether he is greedy, or obstinate, or
bad tempered. And they _catch the animal because of that very fault_!
A bear is very obstinate; in fact the bear, the pig, the donkey, and
the mule are among the most obstinate of animals. So, because the bear
is very obstinate, he will never give up when he meets anything that
blocks his way; and if he has made up his mind to do anything, he will
never give up, even if he finds he _cannot_ do it and that it is very
foolish to try to do it.
So the people remember the bear's obstinacy, and catch him in this
way:
They find a large tree which has a bough fifteen or twenty feet from
the ground; then they tie a pot of honey on the bough, quite two or
three yards away from the fork where the bough joins the trunk. So, if
a bear wants to get at the honey, he will have to climb up the trunk,
and then walk along the bough to the place where the pot is tied.
But the people also take a heavy stone, tie a stout rope around it,
and hang up the stone by the rope from another bough higher up. They
place the stone in such a way that it swings right in front of the
honey and a little above it. Then the people hide in thickets near by.
Presently a bear smells the honey from a distance, and comes to find
it. On reaching the place he sees the pot of honey on the tree. As
the bear is a good climber, he soon scrambles up the trunk of the tree
and walks along the bough toward the honey.
But just as he is coming to it, he sees something right before his
path. It is the block of stone! And he cannot get at the honey without
pushing the stone aside. So, what does he do? Why, quite naturally he
pushes the stone aside with his paw. But, as I have told you, the
stone is hung up by a rope; and so it _swings_ any way you may push
it.
Then what happens? Why, as soon as the bear pushes the stone aside
with his paw, the stone _swings back_ and hits him on the paw. The
bear gives a growl, and again pushes the stone aside, and this time
harder than before.
Then what happens? The stone swings back and hits the bear harder than
before! In fact, the stone will always swing back just as hard as it
is pushed.
But the bear does not know that! So with another growl he pushes the
stone again--and now much harder than before. Then of course the stone
comes back much harder, and whacks him again.
[Illustration: A Bear Fighting a Block of Stone]
This makes the bear really angry. He hits at the stone, and sends it
flying through the air in a big curve. But when the stone has gone
up and up in that curve, it begins to come down, down, the same
way--and gives the bear a thumping whack on the jaw.
Now, if the bear were not such an obstinate animal, he would go away
after that third blow, and try to forget the honey. But the bear will
never, never, give in! Instead, he gets quite mad with rage. He thinks
some enemy is hiding behind the stone!
"Who is hitting me?" he growls. "Come out of that, and fight fair!"
With that he hits a frantic blow at the stone; for the bear is a good
boxer. He sends the stone swinging through the air again, and farther
than before. Again the stone swings back and gives the bear a hard
whack.
In this way the fight goes on. Of course the stone cannot get hurt; so
it is the bear that gets hurt, every time. And as he will never give
in, he goes on fighting with the stone, and gets hurt more and more,
till at last he is knocked right off the tree, and falls stunned to
the ground.
Then the clever people rush in from their hiding place, throw a net
over the bear, and carry him away. And that is how the zoo gets some
of its bears.
CHAPTER XV
Bright Birds
Now I shall tell you something about birds; not ordinary birds, but a
special sort.
Of course, birds are not exactly animals of the kind that I have been
telling you about, as they have only two legs, instead of four. But
they have two wings, which are more useful to them than two more legs.
If they had four legs they could run fast; but with the two wings they
can fly, which is ever so much faster and better than running. And
they still have two legs with which to stand on the ground, when they
have to come down to rest or to feed.
The birds that I am going to tell you about live wild in the jungle,
and are free to build their nests where they like.
Among the birds we like best, some can _sing_, and some have _bright
feathers_. Those that sing may live near your own homes in the
country--the lark, the thrush, the nightingale, and some others. But
the birds that have bright feathers live generally in other countries.
_Most birds that have lovely voices do not have bright feathers_; and
_most birds that have lovely feathers cannot sing_.
So among animals everything is very fair and just. With us it
sometimes _seems_ different. Some children appear to have all the good
luck, and others all the bad luck. Some children can sing well, and
are also very pretty; others cannot sing at all, and are also plain to
look at. But really things are not quite so unfair; for a child who is
plain, and cannot sing, may still have _some other gift_.
Among birds, those that can sing you may have seen often enough near
your own homes in the country; so I shall now tell you about the birds
that have bright feathers.
Most birds with bright feathers live in hot countries, where it is
_sunny_ almost the whole year. In fact, it is the bright light of the
sun in those countries that gives the colors to the feathers of the
birds, which are as lovely as the colors of the rainbow.
Among the bright birds that live quite wild in the jungles of hot
countries, the most beautiful are the _flamingo_, the _parrot_, the
_cockatoo_, the _peacock_, the _golden pheasant_, the _egret_, and a
few others.
_The Flamingo_
I shall tell you first about the flamingos, as they _live together in
flocks_. They were once found in America, and only a few years ago
there were many flocks of them in Florida, but now there are very few
left in this country. They are now found in Africa and in the
countries of southern Asia; a few are found also in Europe.
This is the way the flamingos live. They choose a place in the jungle
where there is a lake or a river, and build their nests all around the
lake, or by the bank of the river. The nest is just a heap of mud
raised up from the ground, with a hollow at the top where the mother
bird lays her eggs. Sometimes many thousands of flamingos are found
together around one place, which is then called a _flamingo colony_.
[Illustration: A Flamingo Colony
Photograph of a group in the American Museum of Natural History, New York]
The flamingo is a very tall bird, taller than a man when standing up.
The flamingo's legs are long and thin, and the neck is also long. The
long neck and the long legs are very useful to him. He stands in the
water on his legs, which look almost like a pair of stilts; then he
bends down his long neck, dips his beak into the water, and catches a
fish or any other small creature that he can find there. And although
the fish or the small creature sees the flamingo's legs in the water,
it does not run away. Why? Because it mistakes the legs for reeds
growing in the water!
When thousands of flamingos in a colony are standing around the lake
or by the river, where they live, it is a very grand sight from a
distance. The flamingo's feathers are a bright red in color, with
white or pink at the edges; so the thousands of flamingos look like an
army of soldiers with red coats.
In former years, when soldiers sometimes wore red coats, travelers who
happened to come toward a lake in Africa would suddenly see at a
distance an army of soldiers, as they thought, standing by the lake.
What they really saw were the flamingos fishing!
But no traveler could get very near the flamingos, for they have
_sentinels_! I have told you that the wild buffaloes have sentinels to
warn them when an enemy is coming. The flamingos have the same. Their
sentinels stand here and there just outside the place where the others
are fishing; and they keep a lookout all the time. If any enemy
comes, they cry out,
"Honk! Honk! Honk!" That means, "Enemy coming! Fly away!"
And of course all the flamingos rise up in the air and fly away to a
safe place, till the enemy goes away.
To see a whole flock of flamingos flying in the sky far above one's
head is a most wonderful sight. You have seen a cloud at sunset
shining with lovely tints of red and pink and orange: well, the flock
of flamingos flying in the sky looks something like that. And they all
_keep level_ at the same great height, in _rows and ranks_, just like
an army, as there are thousands and thousands of flamingos in the
flock.
Sometimes the rows and ranks widen out for a few minutes, and fill a
large portion of the sky; then they close up again, and look like one
long banner of red floating in the sky.
And all the time they have sentinels that fly outside the rows and
ranks. They make the pattern in the sky still more beautiful.
My dear children, the more you think of these wonders of the jungle
and of the world, the more you will understand how great and wise is
God, Who made all these things.
_The Parrot_
Another bright bird that lives in the jungle in a flock is the
_parrot_. You know all about him, as you must have often seen him
caged, or chained by the leg to a stand. But he is different in his
happy home in the jungle. He lives in almost every sunny country, and
flies about in flocks.
Wild parrots also make their nests in flocks. In India there is a
deserted city called Amber. Once upon a time a great King lived there
in a lovely marble palace; and the nobles and courtiers also had
lovely marble palaces and mansions.
But one day the King said that they must all leave that city, and go
and build another city. So everybody left the city of Amber, and
to-day it still stands perfect--lovely marble palaces and mansions,
with hundreds of bushes of wild roses growing all around them.
Nobody lives there, except thousands and thousands of wild parrots,
that have made their nests upon the roofs of the palaces, in the
porticoes and balconies, and upon the tops of the marble pillars and
columns.
Just think of that lovely sight! The blue sky above, the red roses on
the ground below, and the white marble palaces between the blue sky
and the red roses; and many thousands of green parrots flitting across
the sky, and from palace to rose bush. Broad bands of red, white, and
blue, with bright flashes of green between them!
Another lovely sight is a flock of wild parrots in the jungle, going
home to roost at sunset. I once saw that sight. Their beautiful green
wings and the patches of yellow on their heads shone amidst the
gorgeous colors of the sunset. And as the parrots flew on and on, many
thousands of them, their own colors mingled with the colors of the
sunset in ever-changing bands. They flew toward the setting sun, and
passed out of sight right into the sun, as it were.
After seeing a sight like that--seeing God's lovely creatures flying
about like happy children at play--who wants to see a bird boxed up in
a cage?
_The Cockatoo_
Another bright bird which you may have seen in a cage, or chained to a
stand, is the _cockatoo_. He is a cousin of the parrot, but much
larger, and far more gorgeous. He has a beautiful _crest_ of red and
orange feathers on his head. His wings are a rosy pink in color; and
he has a long pink and white tail.
In other ways he is very much like the parrot. He lives chiefly in the
countries of southern Asia, and in the islands between Asia and
Australia.
_The Peacock_
And now I come to the most beautiful bird of all, the _peacock_. When
he spreads out his long tail, it looks just like a lady's fan, only
far lovelier than any fan made by men. In color the tail is a kind of
blue and green, with touches of gold and violet, and with "eyes"
dotted all over it in shades of many other colors.
The peacock can also close up his tail like a fan. Then the long
feathers of the tail all come together in many folds, and stand out a
yard long behind him.
The peacock is found wild in India and in countries near there, but
has now been brought into America and Europe. You may even have seen
the peacock in the parks and gardens of some cities, where he lives
quite peacefully, at least in the summer months. In the winter, of
course, he must have a warm place indoors.
The peacock is really the Papa bird, and the Mamma bird is called the
_peahen_. She has not the gorgeous tail and the lovely feathers that
he has; so she looks quite plain. You will find that _among animals
the Papas are often much prettier than the Mammas_.
That seems very strange, does it not? Among us, of course, the Mammas
are always prettier than the Papas!
But in another book I shall explain _why_ the Papas among animals are
often prettier than the Mammas.
_The Golden Pheasant_
There is another beautiful bird which has been brought to America, and
now lives here; it is the _golden pheasant_. Once upon a time he lived
only in China; but a few years ago people brought a number of golden
pheasants to America, and put them in the forests of Oregon and
Washington. So now there are many thousands of golden pheasants flying
about and making their nests there.
There are other kinds of pheasants in England and in some parts of
Europe, and these the people shoot and eat. But the golden pheasant is
much too beautiful to eat. His feathers are as lovely as the
sunset--gold and yellow and orange, with blue and deep crimson; and
all these colors are laid out on his feathers in such a beautiful
pattern that to look at him you would think you were dreaming, and not
looking at a real bird.
Man, who toils with his hands, cannot make such lovely colors as those
of the birds of the air, and of the flowers in the fields, which do
not toil.
_The Snowy Egret_
And now, my dear children, I shall finish this chapter by telling you
about a beautiful bird that once lived quite wild in great numbers in
the United States. This bird has lovely soft feathers, which are pure
white; so it is called the _snowy egret_. The feathers are as soft as
silk. They are also long, with a gentle droop at the end.
Because these feathers are so lovely, rich women want to wear them in
their hats; and these rich women are willing to pay a great deal of
money for the egret feathers. So, for the sake of the money, hunters
go wherever these lovely birds are to be found, and catch and kill
them, and get the feathers. In fact, they have killed off so many of
these lovely birds, to get feathers for rich women's hats, that to-day
there are hardly any snowy egrets left in the United States.
Worse than that, the hunters killed the Papa and Mamma egrets just
when their babies were born, because at that time the feathers of the
snowy egrets were the softest and loveliest. And so, for each Papa and
Mamma egret which the cruel hunters killed, they left a dozen _baby
birds in their nests to starve and die_. Think of that!
Now, my dear children, I want the little girls among you to remember
this, especially the little girls who are lucky enough to have rich
Papas and Mammas. You can grow up to be beautiful, and look beautiful,
without wearing these egret feathers. There are women who try to look
beautiful, but who do not think of the pain they give to God's
innocent creatures.
So, if ever you want to wear egret feathers, think of the dozen baby
egrets who must starve and die if you are to have them.
[Illustration: Snowy Egrets
Photograph of a group in the American Museum of Natural History, New York]
CHAPTER XVI
The Caged Parrot
I shall finish this book by telling you a story--a true story, which,
I hope, will make you think.
Many years ago a sea captain returned to his home in the north of
Scotland, after sailing the sea for a long time. He brought with him a
parrot. The parrot had lived in South America, where the people speak
the Spanish language. So all the words the parrot knew were in
Spanish.
The captain knew Spanish quite well, and often talked to the parrot in
that language. But after a time the captain died, and there was nobody
in that part of Scotland who could talk to the parrot.
The parrot grew silent, and never opened his mouth to say a word. But
he was thinking of his friend who was dead, and whose words in Spanish
had reminded him of his sunny home. The people around him did not know
that, and thought nothing of his silence. So the parrot in his cold
and bleak cage pined and pined for his sunny home land, but never a
word did he say.
Forty years passed, and a new set of people came to live there. They
took no notice of the silent old parrot. They put food and drink in
the cage, but knew nothing about him except that he had been in the
cage for many years. For a parrot lives much longer than a
man--sometimes one hundred years.
One day a sailor came to the house. He had lived in South America, and
knew Spanish. He saw the parrot sitting in his cage, all alone and
silent, with his head bent down, and his beak on his breast. Then the
sailor spoke to the parrot in Spanish.
The parrot looked up, as if he had awakened from a long, long dream.
Something reminded him of the days of his youth, when he was a happy
bird flying about over the sunny fields of South America. Then he
remembered the language of his youth, which he had not spoken for
forty years.
Suddenly he flapped his wings in joy, and spoke again. He spoke all
the Spanish words he knew, one after another. He spoke to that sailor
as to a friend come to him from his own home land. He flapped his
wings against the bars, and finally dropped to the floor of the cage,
dead. He had died in the thought of his bygone happy days.
My dear children, I am closing this book with this story, because I
want you to learn a great lesson from it: _be kind to all animals_.
I know that you would never willfully hurt any animal. But that is not
enough. You may think that you are very kind to some creature, because
you feed it and pet it; but all the same you may be very cruel, though
you do not mean to be so.
You may think it is great fun to have a pretty bird in a cage. But is
it any fun _for the bird_? How would _you_ like to be shut up in a
cage all your life, instead of playing about in God's free air and
living in your own home? The bird wants to fly about and live in his
nest in his own home land. Think of that when you wish to put a bird
in a cage.
Children who are kind to all animals grow up to be men and women who
are kind to other people. And it is only by being kind to others that
we ourselves _deserve_ to be happy and _are_ happy.
Remember all that I have said, till I come back and talk to you again
in the next book. Then I shall tell you many more Wonders of the
Jungle.
Till then, as they say in the Orient, God and His peace be with you!
* * * * *
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