Page:Works of Tagore from the Modern Review, 1909-24 Segment 1.pdf/255

Rh balancing trick, but also to maintain his footing on the smooth, curved surface. Carefully he proceeds, drawing one hind-foot up the cylinders so that he stands on this with three legs, the other remaining on the ground to steady himself, while, with head against the wall, he makes certain of retaining his balance. Only after weeks of patient trial does he trust himself so far as to raise the fourth leg off the ground eventually placing it with the other three on top of the cylinder as he gains in knack and confidence.

Then the cylinder is moved farther and farther from the wall; so that big pupil has to learn to stand all by himself. And then one morning the cylinder, which at first was rigid, has the least little wobble to it. A mere inch of play this is at first and weeks of coaxing are required to get the great animal to mount it; but then week by week this play is increased, until a foot, five feet, ten feet, have been reached, the giant acrobat walking the cylinder now forward, now backward, ponderous feet shuffling in the tiniest of steps as he balances himself neatly, head lowered and back hunched, in face and attitude the expression of a child who is being punished, but at heart the same willing, friendly beast, anxious to please its master.

In one sense, at least, showing elephants is a thankless vocation, for often the tricks that are most difficult to teach evoke the least appreciation, whereas others, that in themselves amount to nothing, are greeted with rounds of applause. One of the latter tricks was that taught the "plunging elephants" which became world-famous four years ago. Spectacular as was, indeed, the sight of eight or ten gigantic creatures shooting down a forty-five degree decline ninety feet long, and splashing into a lake of water, never was a trick easier taught. In fact, the ten elephants comprising the original group of plungers were broken in to this performance within less than forty-eight hours; the problem consisting merely in shoving the elephants overboard three or four times, after which they would willingly have kept up the fun all day, like boys sliding down a banister rail.

To introduce the elephants to the joys of this form of tobogganing, they were marched to the top of the chute, and by means of a carrot one of them was coaxed to the very brink of the decline. Kneeling, chin far over the edge and trunk extended to grasp the coveted morsel just beyond reach, the elephant had his teeth all set for the delicacy, when he was rudely prodded in the rear by the forehead of a sage behind, and with a wild trumpet of fear, down the chute shot the eight-thousand-pound mountain of flesh, landing in the water with a splash that sent spray twenty feet high. Panicstricken, he made for the shore; but decided early that the water was warm and that he would use the occasion for a little swim.

One after another the elephants were similarly coaxed and prodded overboard. The exhilaration of the slide, and the pleasures of a bath on a hot summer's day, appealed to the child minds of the giants; so that, at the end of the second day, it was necessary only to lead an elephant to the brink of the chute for him to sit on the edge, fore-legs extended, and shove himself off, until, with trunk on high and trumpeting screeches of delight, he shot, in a sitting posture, down the ninety-foot slide like a bullet out of a rifle, and with the impact of shell hurled from a modern gun.

OCTOR! Doctor!"

O bother! in this midnight—

Opening my eyes I saw our Zeminder Dakshiná Babu. I got up hurriedly and drawing the rickety chair offered him a seat and anxiously looked up to his face. It was then 30 mts. past 2 on the clock.

Dakshiná Babu with a colourless face and