The Indians teach the elephants how to pile up big
logs very carefully, and so straight that a big pile may be made
without one falling off. Besides this the rich men of India, the
Princes, own many elephants, which they ride on in little houses,
called howdahs which are strapped to the backs of the big animals.
But before the wild elephants can be used thus they must go to school,
to learn to be gentle, and to do as their drivers, or mahouts, tell
them to do. And so Umboo went to school and I shall tell you about
that.
Of course it was not such a school as you boys go to, and the big
elephant boy did not have to learn to read and write. But he had to
learn the meaning of Indian words, so that when he heard them he would
know which meant go to the right or which to the left, and which meant
to stand still, to kneel down or to go forward.
But I am getting a little ahead of my story. Umboo was still in the
stockade trap with the other elephants. And there they were kept two
or three days, without anything to eat or anything to drink. Fast they
were kept in the stockade, where they could not get out, and as the
days passed, and they felt very badly at not having anything to eat,
or anything to drink, the elephants grew more quiet.
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