120 The Life of an Elephant 



noisily over the rounded pebbles ; its murmur 

 rose and fell in obedience to some air-current 

 hardly perceptible ; it was rather as if waves of 

 sound followed one on another with rhythmic 

 precision. The wide water-course of bleached 

 stones and sand, which would be covered in the 

 monsoon with a turbid torrent, now lay peaceful 

 and solitary ; it was bounded by dense thickets 

 of young trees, which gave place to grassy 

 plains stretching up to the foot of the hills. 

 From clefts in these flowed other minor streams 

 with rippling waters eager to join the main 

 river. On the grassy plains a few cattle and 

 buffaloes wandered ; their deep-toned bells 

 clanging as they moved. 



As daylight appeared over the hills, and the 

 sun's rays struck in slanting lines on one side 

 of the valley, the other seemed to grow more 

 dark and indefinite. Some peafowl planed with 



extended wings from 



/.,v . - ^yv.u, their lofty roosting 



'K w-\t r'^rv-^L pl aces to warm them- 

 selves by the river's 

 brink ; the grazing 



