The Wonders of the Jungle, Book One

The Midnight Pool

My dear, I shall tell you all about the wonders of the jungle. You have seen many animals in the zoo or in a circus-elephants, bears, lions, tigers, leopards, and many others. But the jungle is the place where these animals live before they are brought to the zoo or the circus.

In fact, jungle really means a wild place; that is, a place where trees and bushes grow quite wild, so that men never cut down the trees or clear away the bushes. That is the natural home for all sorts of animals.

Now I am going to tell you about the wonderful way in which they live there with their families, as we do in our homes; for the Papas and Mammas among the animals are just as fond of their children as ours are. So you must imagine that you are going into the jungle with me, so that I can show you everything. You see, it is just like a game of pretending, that we are going to play.

There is actually a place in the jungle where you can see all the animals at once. In fact, that place is so wonderful that King George and Queen Mary of England went to see it; that was a few years ago, when they went to India, which is a far-away country. For in India there is a huge jungle where many thousands of animals live.

So you must pretend that I am taking you to the Royal party, and that you are sitting with the King and Queen and all the fine men and lovely ladies; and we are watching the animals, while I tell you all about them.

First, I must tell you that it is midnight, and all the animals are coming to a stream of water to drink. This stream is a river about twice as wide as a large street in your home town. We are sitting on the bank, on one side of the stream; and the animals are coming to drink on the bank on the other side.

"But," you may say, "will not the animals see us across the stream, and get frightened and run away?"

That is quite true. But the King and Queen had thought of that. So they ordered a lot of men to put a large net on their side of the stream, just in front of them, and then to cover the net with twigs and leaves so cleverly that the animals thought the leaves were a part of the jungle, and did not see the people on the other side of the net.

So the King and Queen, and you and I, can peep quietly through the leaves and watch the animals. Almost all wild animals drink at midnight; so we shall see them now.

Where will the animals come from? You see the stream before us; well, on the other side of it is the jungle, where the animals live. Right in front of us we see a gap in the jungle close to the bank. That gap was made by elephants by beating down the bushes with their feet. They made it long ago to come to the water, and now they use it every night. In fact, it is known among the jungle folks as the Elephant Path; for no other animal would dare to use it before the elephants did.

The elephants, being the biggest of all animals, are the lords of the jungle; so they have the right to come first to drink. They are also the wisest of all animals. You have seen many kinds of animals-elephants, horses, dogs, monkeys, and others-do funny tricks in a circus. Now, all these animals except the elephant have to be taught to do tricks; the elephant is the only animal that can think out a trick for itself.

Of course in a circus there is always a teacher, or trainer, to show even the elephant how to do tricks; but in the jungle the elephant can find out how to do things for itself.

Very soon I shall tell you about the tricks which the elephant actually does in the jungle; and as you hear about them, you must think! Why? Because then you will know why the elephant does these things-and that will show you how clever you can be!

Elephants Drink First-but Down Stream

First let us watch the elephants as they come to the river through the gap in the jungle.

See! They come one at a time, one behind another; for the gap is not big enough for more than one at the same time. The elephant is so big that it can get through the jungle only in this way.

First come a number of bull elephants. They are the Papa elephants; you can always tell them by the huge tusks they have. The bulls come first, in case there are any enemies waiting to hurt their children; for then the bulls can drive off the enemies.

As each bull elephant comes through the gap, you see him turn to our right, which is down the stream-that is, the way the water flows. You see the first one walk along the bank that way, and the second comes after him, then the third, and so on.

But why do they walk along the bank? To make room, of course, for all their friends who are still coming from behind. In this way about a dozen bull elephants come ahead of all the others.

After them you see the cow elephants, also in a line, one behind another. They are the Mamma elephants; and nearly every one of them has a baby elephant trotting in front of her. You have often seen the ordinary cow that gives you milk; when she goes to graze in the field, her baby, or calf, trots by her side.

But the Mamma elephant is much wiser, and always tells her baby to toddle in front of her, in case any one comes suddenly to hurt or steal the baby. For a tiger sometimes wants to pounce on the baby from the side, grab it quickly, and carry it away. But he cannot do it if the baby is right in front of its Mamma; for then she will drive him off with her tusks, even if they are not quite so big as the tusks that the Papa elephants have.

As the Mammas reach the bank, each with her baby, you see them also walk along the bank down stream in a long line.

After all the Mammas and babies have come, you see another set of bull elephants coming out of the jungle. Why? Because some enemy might try to attack the Mammas and the babies from the back; so these bull elephants are there to guard them. You see, the Mammas and the babies are always in the middle, safe from all harm.

When all the elephants have reached the stream, they stand in line and face the water. All these elephants belong to one herd; you can count about a hundred. A herd of elephants is really a republic, like the United States of America, and has a President, who is the wisest bull in the herd.

In another book I shall tell you how the elephants choose their President, and make laws, and keep order in the herd; how they choose some strong bulls among them to act as policemen in the herd, and catch and punish any naughty elephant who becomes a rogue; and how, if two elephants start quarrelling and fighting like naughty boys, the police elephants have to catch and punish both of them. Also, I shall tell you how the President has to lead the herd every day when they go in search of food, so that they will have plenty to eat.

And in the jungle, as there are other elephant herds and sometimes two herds find the same feeding ground, and then start quarrelling and fighting as to who found it first, it is the duty of the President to keep his own herd away from the two that are fighting, and not mix in the fight in any way. All these wonderful things and many others you will read in the other book, when you are a little older.

But let us see what the President has to do when the whole herd is standing in line, facing the water. He is at the bottom of the line, far down stream; so he looks up along the line to see that all are ready. Then he gives the signal for them to begin drinking; he does this by dipping his trunk into the water. Then the second one sees him do it, and does the same; in that way each elephant higher up the line sees that the next one below him has started drinking, so he too does the same. Soon they are all drinking, as you see in the picture at the beginning of this book.

But why does the President have to give the signal to begin? Why is it that any elephant, anywhere along the line, cannot start drinking, just as he or she pleases? Think!

Because if any one along the line started drinking too soon, he might muddy the water for those that stood below him along the line, because the water flows down that way. But if the lower ones drank a little before, it would not matter if they did muddy the water, for the higher ones would still have clear water to drink. That is why the lowest one drinks first, then the next, and so on up the line. Is not that very wise, and very fair to all?

How the Elephant Drinks

But you must not think that an elephant actually drinks through his trunk! He does not! The elephant's trunk is really his nose, though it is a very long nose. What he does is to dip the trunk into the stream and suck in the water about halfway up the trunk; then he curls up the tip of the trunk and gets it near his mouth; then he blows through the nose, and squirts the water into his mouth. Of course he has to do that many times, to get enough to drink. But he tries each time to dip only the tip of the trunk into the stream, so as not to muddy the water willfully!

Why the Elephant Drinks with His Trunk

But, you may say, why cannot he drink like other animals, by going right into the stream till he gets his mouth into the water? Because his mouth is so high up, and his neck is so stiff, that he would have to go quite two or three yards deep into the stream before he could get his mouth into the water, and then his heavy feet would stir up the mud in the stream where he was standing, and so dirty the very water he was drinking.

Now you see what a wise animal the elephant is! The only way he could get clear water to drink was by having a long nose! And that is exactly what happened many, many years ago-his nose became long enough to reach the water from the bank. How that happened I shall tell you in another book, as you will not understand it till you are a year or two older.

All the grown-up elephants drink in this way, and also some of the elephant children whose trunks have grown long enough to reach the stream. But what about a baby elephant? Why, its Mamma fills her own trunk with water, puts the tip into the baby's mouth and squirts the water into it.

But now after watching the elephants-who are on our right, down the stream-let us turn our eyes to the left, and look up the stream.

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