having stolen his purse. I told them to
buy some bananas and leave them under the tree, and in the course
of the day the monkey would come down, leave the purse and take
the bananas. I had been humiliated by my elephant, and now being
disgusted with my monkey, I took Kari into town again. This time
I had my _ankus_ with me, so that in case he should run away
again I could prick his neck and make him behave.

We went by jewelers' shops where they were cutting diamonds, and
stopped in front of the goldsmith's door. Seeing us wait there,
the smith came out. "What do you want, do you want gold rings for
your elephant's tusks?" You know they put rings on elephant's
tusks as human beings put gold in their teeth.

"His tusks have just begun to sprout; they're too beautiful to
spoil with rings yet," I answered.

"But my rings always make tusks more beautiful," was his retort.

I answered, "All the city folk think that what they do makes
everything beautiful. Why don't they make their dirty city
beautiful?"

The smith was angry. "If thou be not a buyer of gold, nor a
vendor of silver, tarry not at my door; I have no time for
beggars."

As we trotted off, I called back, "I do not sell silver, nor do I
buy gold, but when my elephant grows up, he will have such tusks
that you will cast eyes of envy on them. But this elephant will
live more than one hundred and twenty-five years and thou shalt
be dead by then, and so there will be no chance of soiling his
ivory by buying thy gold."

We walked on very silently through the city, and then of a sudden
a pack of dogs were upon us. We knew not whence they had come.
Kari was as dignified as a mountain; he never noticed them, but
the less attention he paid to them, the more audacious the dogs
grew. They came after us and I did not know what to do, as I did
not even have a stone to throw at them. In a few moments, we were
hemmed in by packs of dogs. Quickly now, Kari turned round and in
an instant lifted a dog into the air with his trunk. As the dog
would have been dashed into bits, I yelled into his ear,
"Brother, brother, do not kill him, but let him down gently, he
will not bite you."

At this moment the dog gave such a terrible cry of pain as the
trunk was coming down that Kari stopped and slowly brought him to
the ground. The dog, however, was already dead; the pressure of
the trunk had killed him, and the other dogs, seeing his fate,
had already run away.

Kari walked ra