84 TRAPPING WILD ANIMALS 
India, and are keenly sought by all the rajas and 
maharajas for the prosperity they are supposed 
to bring. They are guarded more carefully and 
quartered even more sumptuously than the white 
elephants of Siam, and the price they will bring is 
determined almost entirely by the amount the rajas 
can gather together. My little twenty-toed ele- 
phant was a faultless specimen. He was about five 
years old and stood four and a half feet high. His 
head was perfectly shaped; his back was straight 
and absolutely even with the top of his head. 
i was naturally disgusted to think that I had let 
such a bargain slip out of my hands, and, when the 
Arab returned, I blamed him for cheating me when 
I was sick with the fever. I abused him and his 
ancestors and gave a great show of indignation. 
He begged me to take the money and give him the 
elephant; I refused the money and told him to take 
the elephant out of my sight. 
“T have put a curse on him,” I said. “He will be 
dead within twenty-four hours.” 
At this he burst into tears, begging me to remove 
the curse. He said that he was a poor man and 
that the elephant’s death would ruin him. Finally 
we reached a compromise. He would pay me an 
extra $500, and I would arrange transportation to 
India for the elephant. Then, if the sale proved 
profitable, he was to return to Singapore and pay 
me an additional $500. He swore by Allah and the 
Prophet that he would keep his word. So I re- 
