54 The Life of an Elephant 



the roundness of youth was no longer visible. 

 He wandered aimlessly through the forest, 

 seeking those comforts which failing vitality 

 alone denied him. And there were none of the 

 jungle tribes who were able to relieve him from 

 the burden of old age, and from a lingering 

 death by gradual exhaustion from starvation, 

 a fate which seemed certain to overtake 

 him. 



It was when in these straits that this aged 

 bull commenced to live in the vicinity of the 

 cultivated lands, and to rob the crops by night. 

 But even this gave him but slight relief, for, 

 once the villagers were alive to his predatory 

 habits, they kept good watch and ward, and 

 more often than not he was driven away long 

 before he had satisfied his hunger. And so it 

 fell out at last that in desperate mood he 

 refused to fly from the yelling mob that threat- 

 ened him, continuing to seize large bunches of 

 ripening grain and stuff them greedily into 

 his mouth, till the owners, gaining courage, 

 approached so close that spears and arrows 

 could be used with effect. Then the elephant 



