38 Wild Beasts 



Passing along the lines where they stand, shackled by 

 one foot to stone platforms, one sees, or learns to see, 

 the individualities their visages reveal. Occasionally a 

 heavily-fettered animal is met with, whose mien is dis- 

 turbed and fierce. In his " little twinkling red eye," says 

 Campbell, "gleams the fire of madness." He is "must " ; 

 the victim of a temporary delirium which seems to arise 

 from keeping male elephants apart from their mates. But 

 at length, amid all the appearances of sullenness, good 

 nature, stupidity, bad temper, apathy, alertness, and intelli- 

 gence, which the visitor will encounter, a creature is met 

 with in whose ensemble there is an indescribable but 

 unmistakable warning. Go to his keeper and state your 

 views. That "true believer," if he happens to be a Mus- 

 sulman, having salaamed in proportion to his expected 

 bucksheesh, and said that Solomon was a fool in com- 

 parison with yourself, will then express his own senti- 

 ments but not so that the animal can hear him. These 

 are to the effect that this elephant is an oppressor of the 

 poor, a dog, a devil, an infidel, whose female relations to 

 the remotest generations have been no better than they 

 should be. That the kafir wants to kill him ; is thinking 

 about doing it at that moment, but Ul-humd-ul-illa, praise 

 be to God, has not had a chance ; though if it be his 

 destiny, he will do so some day. Very probably these are 

 not empty words. Most frequently the man knows what 

 he is talking about. Still if one naturally asks, why then 

 he stays in such a position, the answer breathes the very 

 genius and spirit of the East. "Who can escape his 

 destiny ? " asks the idiotic fatalist, and remains where 

 he is. 



