15. ELEPHANTS AND TIGERS.

1. In his last letter Tom asked me to tell him something about elephants
and tigers. I will try to do so.

2. Yesterday your uncle and I went out to shoot pigeons. An Indian
chief, or rajah, lent us an elephant to carry us to the shooting ground.

[Illustration: AN INDIAN RAJAH.]

3. A driver sat on the neck of the huge animal. Instead of a whip he had
a goad of sharp steel. I did not see him prick the elephant with this
goad. He guided the animal with voice and hand.

4. On the elephant's back there was a large pad upon which we were to
sit. I could see no ladder, so I wondered how I was to climb up. Just
then the elephant knelt down on his hind legs.

5. Your uncle showed me how to get up. "Here," he said, "is a ladder of
two steps. The first step is the elephant's foot, the second is the loop
of his tail."

6. He held the end of the elephant's tail in his hand and bent it to
make a loop. When I put my foot on it he lifted the tail, and in this
way helped me on to the elephant's back.

7. When your uncle had climbed up, the elephant jogged off at a good
pace. He went along rough, narrow paths, over ditches and the beds of
streams. Never once did he make a false step.

8. An elephant costs a great deal of money. Only princes and rich men
can afford to keep them. Sometimes a great prince has as many as a
hundred elephants in his stables.

9. When a prince rides through a city in state his elephants wear rich
cloths, which are studded with gems. Sometimes the elephants' heads are
painted and their tusks are covered with gold.

10. In the drawing-room of your uncle's house there is a beautiful tiger
skin. The tiger that used to wear this skin was shot by your uncle about
three years ago.

[Illustration: {Tiger skin rug}]

11. It was a man-eating tiger--that is, an old tiger that could no
longer run fast enough to catch deer. This man-eater used to hide near a
village. He would creep up silently behind men and women, and stun them
with a blow of his paw. Then he would drag them away and eat them.

12. The people of the village came to your uncle and begged him to kill
the man-eater. He agreed to do so. Near to the tiger's drinking-place a
little hut was built in a tree. One night your uncle sat in this hut
with his gun on his knee, waiting for the tiger to come.

13. Slowly the hours went by, and your uncle felt sure that the tiger
had gone to another place to drink. Just as h