CHAPTER III 



Early Experiences 



D 



URING the absence of 

 the elephant and her calf 

 the herd had not remained 

 unmolested. Beyond the 

 intrusion of man, its 

 members had little to fear in 

 the vast jungles in which they 

 roamed : and man was such an 

 infrequent visitor that of him 

 they felt little dread. They 

 came, indeed, most often into 

 contact with him when they entered his 

 special domain : the level, fruitful lands around 

 the villages, where the rice rose from the 

 stagnant water in golden ranks, each ear 

 gracefully bending with the weight of grain ; 

 where the plantain groves reared ragged leaves 



