1937-11-05 — Page 13

THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT. NOVEMBER

"IT KILLED THE CAT"

PARAMAH

the RAMAH Came out high, virgin forests and down the slopes of the hills until the river confronted him. It was the broad, quiet-flowing, wicked Jamsuj River, which no beast of the northern forests had ever crossed

The young elephant wondered why the land that lay beyond the Jamsuj had always been regarded as forbidden territory by his own folk of the hathi-log. The river looked

and smooth

shallow enough for fording, while the plains that stretched beyond it were open and inviting, with scattered brakes of sugar-cane liberally about the prospect

Anyway, Paramah decided, no new country could be worse than the one he was bent upon leaving. Legend has it that curiosity once killed a cat and curiosity was the besetting sin of that young le

been "phant, for which he had

often beaten by his parents.

Only a fortnight ago all the full-grown beasts of the herd, save one old bull and the mothers with calves running at heel, had begun to fade away silently, mys- teriously into the dark forests. When Paramah's father disap- peared the half-grown young ele- phant had made no fuss, but the sight of his mother preparing to take her departure was a very different matter. Hitherto she had never left him and he had come, indeed, to look upon her rather as a nurse than as a par- ent; someone, in fact, especially created to minister to his many wants, someone preordained to the task of attempting to satisfy his insatiable curiosity.

Upon this occasion, Kaloomi had proved

answer her son's importunate questioning. She had, in fact, hustled him somewhat roughly towards the old bull who had been left in charge of the yearlings, the mothers and the calves. And so it was from the other yearlings that Paramah learned that all the older beasts had gone off to celebrate an elephant dance in a certain secret place.

They had warned Paramah that it was a sight which no human being has ever been allowed to witness and at which no elephant under two years of age may be present..

That warning, however, had affected Paramah as little as a duck's back is affected by water Here was something new and he meant to find out all about it. The road to the dancing floor had not been hard to follow, for, if, the way was long and those who had trampled it before him were ing singly upon the place appointed, it must be remembered that elephants, in their native seldom take thought to

over up their traces.

And so Paraman had come at Tast to leared space in the fo

the earth had been to the hardness of

no gra

rew

The earth looked grey as death save where some immobile phant threw the clear-cut sil- houette of its densely black sha dow upon the ground. And, since. everything was also as silent as death, Paramah had suddenly known fear. He had tried to steal away, but had been con strained to stop by a most strange fascination; the ghost of a toot had wailed from his up-flung trunk and then his mother had come to him. Kalavisain, Para- mah's father, had joined Kaloomi a moment later and between them the old elephants had hustled their frightened, inquisitive son- away before any of the other ele phants had caught sight of him.

Thereby was Paramah's life saved by his parents, but even they would have killed him had he stayed to witness the dance. As it was they took him to a quiet place in the forest, fat enough from the dancing floor for his squeals to remain unheard, and there they had beaten him with their trunks until he was sore all over. Finally, they had ordered him to go back to the

Short Story

herd and had themselves, return- ed to the dancing floor.

But Paramah had not gone back to the old bull, and the nursing mothers and the calves and year-- lings. Instead, he had come to the northern bank of the Jamsuj River and now stood looking across to the Forbidden Terri- tory. He was getting rid of the soreness of his beating but was still resentful, mainly because he had not been allowed to witness the Dance of the Elephants. Meanwhile, there was no one to stop him exploring those inviting looking lands which lay beyond the river, and in which succulent sugar cane grew in such profu sion

Paramah tested the water deli- cately with the sensitive tip of his trunk, then slid clumsily down the bank. The river bed shelved gradually, but soon he was swim- ming and was surprised to find

Ow swiftly

hed the

He bank after a bit of a struggle, surged out of the water and up the bank, where he paused to blow his trunk clear. Then he made for the nearest patch of sugar

came:

As it happened, the Hindu own er of that piece of cultivation was sitting up to watch a trap he had baited in the hope of catch- ing a marauding tiger. The man was completely invisible, but the moment Paramah lapped his trunk round a bunch of canes and set the rest crackling the Hindu sprang to his feet and fired a charge of pot-leg from his ancient flint-lock musket into the young elephant's tender rump.

Paramah fled, squealing to was high heaven, but the pain worse than the actual wound, for he had not been very close when the farmer fired at him and the charge had barely broken his tough skin.

He approached the next cane- brake with far greater circum spection and much less noise, and

By F. A. M. Webster

this time he was allowed to feed in peace, a

cumstance which greatly increased his confidence. Just before dawn he retired into rees, rowed: a topt through hich a stream from the Jamsu

There he found a pleasant mud-wallow from which he ejected a couple of waterbuffalo, before settling down to wile away the long hours of intense heat in pleasant idle-

ness.

At night he resumed his south- ern journey, pausing to feed just when and where he listed. Para- mah, in fact, was enjoying him- self immensely now that he was entirely free from any form of restraint

By the end of a week, however, he was completely fed up with his own society. He had, in fact, al most decided to turn back for the purpose of recrossing the river and rejoining his own herd when

he struck

In sme est

mens;

encountered so fa

except

who had pepp

flank but whom he had hardly glimpsed, were the tid forest dwellers of his native and they had been only to keep out of the elephants.

of wild

he to

And so when ramnat broad squashy rail sprinkled with broken. and elephant dropping no notice of the hu which crossed and recross tracks of the elephants. he trumpeted meri and follow- ed that trail at a umbering run.

fact

A funny little man watched him go, a little man not unlike the primitive natives man's own jungle, but them in th respect, that duty little samese jungli nd lah was tracker of wild ele phants, as his father, and fathers for countless generat had been before him.

Silent as a small black shadow, the little man flitted behind the big, half-grown grey elephant, nor was he, much more than stone's throw away when the dawn broke and Paramah, from the top of a small hill, surveyed the strongly stockaded but at pre sent empty keddah and the Ter- nts ly lines where the tame elep

now stood were picketed and

while they waited for mahouts to attend to their

watched while the Mirgas and the midd lowca class Dwasala elephants were den and marched away to Then all his attention wa up as his eyes fell upon. ful Koomeriah

which was ridden

Paramah, the wild elep

efore had seen such a beast or such a being.

Without show

Roshni fasci

but

in following her he muddy river side where the low aste elephants were pulling loads

(Continued on Page

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