, and indignantly refused to be tied to our seats, as was
suggested by our Hindu companions, who could not suppress their merry
laughter.... However, I bitterly repented this display of vanity. This
unusual mode of locomotion was something incredibly fantastical, and,
at the same time, ridiculous. A horse carrying our luggage trotted
by Peri's side, and looked, from our vast elevation, no bigger than a
donkey. At every mighty step of Peri we had to be prepared for all sorts
of unexpected acrobatic feats, while jolted from one side to the
other by her swinging gait. This experience, under the scorching
sun, unavoidably induced a state of body and mind something between
sea-sickness and a delirious nightmare. As a crown to our pleasures,
when we began to ascend a tortuous little path over the stony slope of
a deep ravine, our Peri stumbled. This sudden shock caused me to lose my
balance altogether. I sat on the hinder part of the elephant's back,
in the place of honor, as it is esteemed, and, once thoroughly shaken,
rolled down like a log. No doubt, next moment I should have found myself
at the bottom of the ravine, with some more or less sad loss to my
bodily constitution, if it had not been for the wonderful dexterity and
instinct of the clever animal. Having felt that something was wrong she
twisted her tail round me, stopped instantaneously and began to kneel
down carefully. But my natural weight was too much for the thin tail
of this kind animal. Peri did not lose hold of me, but, having at last
knelt down, she moaned plaintively, though discreetly, thinking probably
that she had nearly lost her tail through being so generous. The mahout
hurried to my rescue and then examined the damaged tail of his animal.

We now witnessed a scene that clearly showed us the coarse cunning,
greediness and cowardice of a low-class Hindu, of an outcast, as they
are denominated here.

The mahout very indifferently and composedly examined Peri's tail, and
even pulled it several times to make sure, and was already on the point
of hoisting himself quietly into his usual place, when I had the unhappy
thought of muttering something that expressed my regret and compassion.
My words worked a miraculous transformation in the mahout's behavior. He
threw himself on the ground, and rolled about like a demoniac, uttering
horrible wild groans. Sobbing and crying he kept on repeating that the
Mam-Sahib had torn off his darling Peri's tail, that Peri