Early Experiences 31 



against the sky, and the tender green of the 

 young shoots sheltered in the protection of 

 the juicy stems. Rice 

 and plantains were well 

 worth the risk 

 of a midnight 

 foray in the 

 hopes that the 

 owners would 

 not wake 

 during the 

 spoliation and inter- 

 fere to protect their 

 property with torches, 

 guns and drums, all 

 more disagreeable than terrible to the robbers. 

 In their own domain in the primeval forest, the 

 elephants took little notice of human beings ; 

 certainly some morose tusker, or mother with 

 calf at foot, might resent too near an approach, 

 or, if stumbled upon inadvertently, would 

 brush the intruder away with a brusqueness 

 that meant death ; otherwise, in the forest, man 

 was not a force to be seriously reckoned with ; 



