Page:In Desert and Wilderness (Sienkiewicz, tr. Drezmal).djvu/265

 Rh began to grow fastidious. Chancing upon a plant which was not to his taste, he beat it over his fore leg and afterwards tossed it upwards with his trunk, as if he wanted to say, "Eat this dainty yourselves;" finally, after having appeased his hunger and thirst, he began to fan with his prodigious ears with evident contentment.

"I am sure," said Nell, "that if we went down to him he would not hurt us."

And she began to call to him:

"Elephant, dear elephant, isn't it true you would not do any harm to us?"

And when the elephant nodded his trunk in reply she turned to Stas:

"There, you see he says 'Yes.'"

"That may be," Stas replied. "Elephants are very intelligent animals and this one undoubtedly understands that we both are necessary to him. Who knows whether he does not feel a little gratitude towards us? But it would be better not to try yet, and particularly not to let Saba try, as the elephant surely would kill him. But with time they become even friendly."

Further transports over the elephant were interrupted by Kali who, foreseeing that he should have to work every day to feed the gigantic beast, approached Stas with an ingratiating smile and said:

"Great master, kill the elephant, and Kali will eat him instead of gathering grass and branches."

But the "great master" was now a hundred miles from a desire to kill the elephant and, as in addition he was impulsive, he retorted:

"You are a donkey."

Unfortunately he forgot the Kiswahili word for donkey and said it in English. Kali, not understanding English, evidently took it for some kind of compliment or praise