07 Elephant Adventure (7 page)

Now the men were trying to loosen the great ivory tusks. They were nine feet long and each must have weighed more than one hundred and fifty pounds.

‘Who gets the tusks?’ Roger asked. The chief?’

‘Please,’ Chief Abu objected, bowing to both boys most politely. ‘You will accept the tusks.’

‘But,’ Hal said, ‘they are the best part. You could sell them for much money.’

‘Money? The pygmies do not use money. Why do we need money? The forest gives us everything we need.’

Those tusks are the greatest,’ Roger said. ‘I’ll bet they’re just about a record.’

They could be a record these days because most of the big elephants have been killed off. But there used to be plenty of ivory this big or bigger. The heaviest tusk in existence is in the British Museum. It weighs two hundred and twenty pounds. The record length of tusk is eleven feet, five and a half inches. Just imagine how you would look with two teeth eleven feet long.’

‘But these aren’t teeth. They’re tusks.’

‘We call them tusks just to distinguish them from the other teeth. But they are actually teeth - the incisors -exactly the same as the incisors in your own mouth but about four hundred times as long.’

‘There’s something screwy about all this,’ Roger complained as he watched the baby elephant fondling the great carcass. ‘I thought this was the baby’s mother. But it can’t be. Female elephants don’t have tusks.’

‘You’re getting your signals mixed. You’re thinking of the Indian elephant’

‘Well, what’s the difference?’

‘All the difference in the world. The African is four feet taller and twice as heavy. Its head is held high, not slumped down like the Indian’s. Its ears are three times as wide and stand out like the black sails of a pirate ship. The tusks are twice as big and both papa and mama have them. The African has two nubbins at the end of its trunk like a finger and thumb and can pick things between them. The Indian has only one nubbin and is not nearly as skilful. The African is a more magnificent brute in every way.’

If it’s so fine, why don’t they use it in the circuses?’

‘Because it’s a wild animal. It might break loose and kill people. The Indian elephant is easily tamed. It will take orders. The African gives orders. A zoo will take an African because it can be kept behind bars. A circus must have an animal that’s safe. The Indian walks down the main street in a circus parade as meek as a kitten. The African would be snorting and bellowing and rampaging through the crowd into shop windows. The Indian will quietly take a peanut from your hand. Offer the African a peanut and he’s just as likely to twist off your head. Another reason why the circus doesn’t use the African -it costs twice as much. The circus can get a good Indian elephant for less than five thousand dollars but an African will cost ten thousand.’

‘You mean to tell me we lost Dad ten thousand dollars by not taking this one alive?’

‘You guessed it.’

Both boys were gloomily silent for a time. Roger said:

‘I had no idea they were worth so much.’

‘Oh, that’s not the half of it. We have an order from the Tokyo Zoo for a white elephant. They would pay fifty thousand dollars for it Of course, our chance of getting a white is about one in a thousand. Looks as if we can’t even get a black.’

Roger shook his head mournfully.

[ think the Mountains of the Moon have us jinxed.’

But he cheered up considerably when the mighty tusks were finally dug free and laid down before him and Hal. They were beautiful, and valuable, a real prize. Hal made a little speech of thanks to Chief Abu.

The men were not quite done with the tusks. Inside each was a nerve. It must be removed or it would rot and spoil the tusk.

Out it came, a long spongy thing like bright red jelly, as thick through as a man at one end but dwindling at the other to a tip no larger than the point of a pencil.

‘And all that is just a nerve?’ Roger marvelled. ‘Wow, what a toothache, if anything got the matter with that!’

‘You’re not kidding. If it’s injured by a bullet, or in any other way, the beast may go crazy with pain.’

‘Well, I suppose our little friends will gobble it up because they figure it will give them nerve.’

‘Just the contrary. They won’t touch it because they think it will give them the elephant’s toothache. And SB elephant-size toothache in a pygmy-size mouth would be just too awful.’

‘Of course that’s just superstition.’

‘Well, I suppose so. But there must be something strange about that nerve. The dogs won’t eat it either. Even the flies won’t settle on it.’

It seemed to be true. Roger noticed that flies swarmed over the carcass but not one lit on the juicy red nerves extracted from the giant’s teeth. It was just one of the unexplained mysteries of this mysterious continent

Only the skeleton of the great beast was left. You could look through the bare ribs and see the naked little men still trying to scrape some last bits of meat from the bones.

‘They’re like squirrels in a cage,’ Roger said.

‘Or like prisoners behind bars,’ Hal added. It would make a good jail - if pygmies ever needed a jail.’

Chief Abu shook his head.

‘If one of our people does wrong,’ he said, ‘we don’t put him in jail. He would like that too much. We would have to feed him and he would not have to do any work. It is too hard to get food. We cannot spare food for the bad man.’

‘Then what do you do with him?’

‘We turn him over to our witch doctor. He puts a curse on him and gives him a bitter drink. He dies.’

‘Aren’t you pretty hard on him?’ Roger objected.

The question seemed to surprise the chief.

‘Hard? Yes, we are hard. Life in the jungle is hard. Once in a moon or two moons we kill an elephant and everybody eats. In two days the food is gone, hunger returns. You know what it is like? To be hungry? No, you do not know. In your country there is much food -plenty for good men and bad men. You can afford bad men. We cannot.’

Hal nodded. It was a hard life, he thought, not only for the pygmies but for all Africans. It wasn’t just hunger. There was war. too. Fighting was going on a thousand miles away in die southern part of the Congo. No trouble yet in the Mountains of the Moon, but who could tell when it might come?

The baby elephant whined and whimpered about the cage of bones that was all that was left of its mother.

It stroked the bare ribs with its little trunk. It nudged and pushed with its forehead, making questioning noises as if to say: ‘Why don’t you get up and give me my dinner?’

It searched for the comforting sources of fresh warm milk and found nothing but more bones.

In a fit of anger it whacked the skeleton with its trunk and poked it with its small tusks, squealing with baby rage. When this didn’t work it turned gentle once more and petted the great skull with a touch as light as a butterfly’s. It groped for the trunk and was plainly distressed not to find it, for it is with the trunk that the elephant kisses and embraces and protects its young.

‘Poor little duffer,’ Roger said, and started towards the small elephant

‘No, no,’ cried Abu. ‘Little one big trouble, quick.’

‘I suppose he’s trying to tell you.’ Hal said, ‘that the little one is badly upset and might hurt you.’

‘I’ll take a chance,’ Roger said.

‘Remember,’ Hal warned him, ‘that’s a half-ton baby you’re fooling with. If he knocks you down and steps on your face you won’t look very pretty in your coffin. His tusks may be only two feet long, but that’s long enough to go right through you and come out the other side. Have a care, young man.’

When Roger reached the young elephant’s side he was surprised to find how big it was. From a distance it had looked very small in comparison with its giant mother.

But it wasn’t such a little fellow after all. It stood as high as Roger and was heavy enough to make ten Rogers. Those tusks looked uncomfortably sharp. The trunk which had seemed so small was a yard long and Roger knew it could pack a wallop as hard as a prize-fighter’s punch. The baby’s, feet were as big as boxing gloves -with more power behind them than any boxing glove ever had.

The big baby wheeled about and made a rush at Roger. The boy stood his ground. When the elephant stopped, his tusks were not two feet from Roger’s face. Roger tried not to show fear, but his heart was beating fast

He spoke soothingly. ‘Now, now, little fellow, nobody’s going to hurt you. You need a mama. How about me?’

The young animal did not seem to know what to do next. His instinct was to defend himself and to defend his mother. But he was afraid of this strange animal on two legs.

Finally he plucked up courage to attack, blew a blast on his little trumpet, waved his little trunk in a wobbling circle and gave Roger such a swat on the shoulder that the boy fell flat on the ground.

Hal would have run to help him but Roger signed to him to keep away.

He knew very well that he might be trampled. But some instinct told him to stay where he was. He remembered in a flash a boy he had once feared and fought and knocked down. As soon as he had knocked him down he didn’t fear him any more and only wanted to make friends.

It might work with this intelligent animal. Surely the elephant could not be afraid of him so long as he lay flat and helpless.

The elephant raised a boxing-glove forefoot and prepared to give his victim a half-ton push in the face. Roger controlled his wild impulse to roll to one side. The big foot hovered over him, then was replaced on the ground.

The black trunk with its pink two-fingered tip explored his face and chest

Roger kept on murmuring sweet nothings in a low tone.

Then he slowly raised his hand and touched the little trunk. It was sharply pulled out of the way. But after a moment it came back and continued its exploration. It ran under his bush coat and into his pockets.

Roger again raised his hand and placed it ever so softly on the exploring trunk. There he let it rest quietly for a moment Then he began tenderly stroking the trunk.

He knew that elephants receive affection and give affection by means of the trunk. They stroke each other with the trunk. Two friends will coil their trunks together and so stand for a long time giving and getting comfort The first thing the baby feels upon entering the world is the touch of a mother’s trunk. The sick animal is caressed by his friends, who wave the vultures away and sprinkle him with cooling water and place mud on his wounds - and all is done with the trunk. The last sensation of the dying elephant, if he is loved by the herd, is the gentle touch of trunks.

The baby elephant stopped its search and stood perfectly still, eyes fixed upon Roger, as if trying to decide whether he should accept such familiarity from a perfect stranger.

Then he snorted, pulled away, and went back to his mother. But there was no comfort to be found here. After petting the dead bones, the little beast stood swaying from side to side, swinging his trunk back and forth, while tears trickled from his eyes. For the elephant is one of the few animals that actually weep.

Roger cautiously got to his feet. For a little while he stood perfectly still. Then he began to talk - softly. The elephant would understand, not his words, but the tone in which they were spoken.

Roger ventured again to stroke the trunk. Then he went on to the big floppy ears. He scratched behind the ears where they join the body. His hand went on over the neck, along the backbone, down the flanks, stopping to pluck off some of those bothersome ticks. For although the elephant’s skin is an inch thick it is full of nerves and the bite of the smallest insect is felt.

The elephant seemed to appreciate these attentions and Roger began to feel that he was winning. But suddenly the trumpeting of the herd distracted the little lost beast. There were his friends - he must go to them.

Away he went in a fast shuffle and the line of men parted to let him through. He reached his aunts and cousins and neighbours and they crowded around him, seeming happy to have him back.

Then there was a curious change. The crowd broke

up, the animals wandered away and left the tittle beast standing alone.

He whimpered his displeasure and followed a large female, perhaps an aunt, but when he came close auntie turned upon him savagely, brandishing her tusks, and scared him away. He tried others of his relatives and old friends, but the effect was the same. They would have nothing to do with him.

‘What’s got into them?’ Roger puzzled. They act as if he didn’t belong.’

‘He doesn’t,’ Hal said. ‘You fixed that.’

‘Me? What did I do?’

‘You petted him/

‘What’s the harm in that?’

‘You smell bad. You made him smell bad.’

‘Well I like that,’ Roger protested. I’ll have you know I took a sponge bath all over this morning before we started out. How could I smell so bad?’

He knew his brother was kidding him, but he didn’t much care for the joke.

Hal grinned. ‘Of course you don’t smell so bad to me. Tm used to you. And the baby elephant doesn’t mind, because it doesn’t know any better. But you can’t fool the grown-up elephants.’

Roger said impatiently, ‘Will you cut the comedy and tell me what this is all about?’

‘Sure, 111 tell you,’ Hal said more soberly. ‘Ifs just that elephants hate the smell of man. You can’t blame them. They’ve been attacked by men so much that they either attack or run when they get the man odour. To them it means death, or at least danger. The babies don’t know about this, but the adults have become wise and the more trouble they have had with hunters the more they dislike the stink of humans.’

‘But I only petted him for a minute or two.’

‘That’s enough. Elephants have a terrifically keen sense of smell. They can scent a human a mile away, if the wind is right.’ ‘Seems to me,’ Roger grumbled, ‘you could have told

me all this before I touched the baby.’ ‘I didn’t tell you because I thought you were doing

just the right thing. True, the herd won’t take the baby back. But we’ll take it. Or, rather, you will. You have just become a mother. And I can tell you it’s no easy job you’ve picked for yourself - playing mama and nurse to a baby ten times your size.’ ‘I don’t think I’ll have to,’ Roger said. ‘He’s not coming back. He’s forgotten that I exist’ So it seemed. The baby stood apart, facing away from the men and still making plaintive little questioning sounds as if begging the herd to have a heart and take him back.