he was almost as high as the
ceiling. He was never trained for hunting. We never thought of
killing anything except snakes and tigers, and these we killed
when they came toward the village and injured men. So Kari never
had the training of a hunting elephant. Just the same, he was
very alert and steady in the face of danger, so when it was a
question of going into the jungle on the back of an elephant, we
generally took Kari with us. During such trips we did not put a
cloth of gold on his back or silver bells on his sides. These
bells are made in certain parts of India where silversmiths know
how to melt and mix silver so that when the clapper strikes the
sides of the bell there will be a sound like rushing water. The
two bells are tied by a silver chain and slung over the
elephant's back, one dangling on each side of him. We never put a
_howdah_ on the back of Kari. Very few Hindus put _howdahs_ on
elephants.

Do you know what a _howdah_ is? It is a box with high sides
inside of which there are chairs for travelers. The _howdahs_ are
generally for people who are not accustomed to elephants. They
need the high sides so that when the elephant walks they will not
fall from his back. They stay in their seats leaning on the edge
of the box and see very little, especially children who are not
tall enough to see over the sides. That is why Indian children
prefer riding bareback on an elephant to taking a _howdah_.

One evening when my brother and I went out, we put a mattress on
Kari's back and tied it very tightly with cords so that it would
not slip, for it is not pleasant to slip and fall under an
elephant's belly and be stepped on. But Kari was trained so that
he would not have stepped on us even if we had slipped under him.
We tightened the cords to the mattress, however, and lay down for
the night. Though we had bells, we lifted them up and silenced
the clappers, so that in walking through the jungle road they
would not ring and frighten the animals, for the forest is the
dwelling place of silence, and silence being the voice of God, no
man dares to disturb it. We lay on the back of Kari and looked up
at the stars. In India, the stars are so close that you can
almost pluck them with your hands and the velvet blue of the sky
is like a river of stillness running between banks of silver.

As we lay there, unable to go to sleep right away, we heard
jungle sounds. The heavy tread of the elephant was like clouds
brushi