r ago you whipped him for no reason at all, almost on
the exact spot where he has just punished you?" Sudu felt so
ashamed of himself that he got angry with all of us and went home
alone. But by the next day, we had made it all up and the
elephant had forgiven him. As a proof of friendship, when we went
to the jungle on a picnic, Kari carried Sudu on his back. Since
that day Sudu has never hurt a living creature.

An elephant must be taught when to sit down, when to walk, when
to go fast, and when to go slow. You teach him these things as
you teach a child. If you say "Dhat" and pull him by the ear, he
will gradually learn to sit down. Similarly, if you say "Mali"
and pull his trunk forward, he will gradually learn that that is
the signal to walk.

Kari learned "Mali" after three lessons, but it took him three
weeks to learn "Dhat." He was no good at sitting down. And do you
know why an elephant should be taught to sit down? Because he
grows taller and taller than you who take care of him, so that
when he is two or three years old, you can only reach his back
with a ladder. It is, therefore, better to teach him to sit down
by saying "Dhat" so that you can climb upon his back, for who
would want to carry a ladder around all the time?

The most difficult thing to teach an elephant is the master call.
He generally takes five years to learn it properly. The master
call is a strange hissing, howling sound, as if a snake and a
tiger were fighting each other, and you have to make that kind of
noise in his ear. And do you know what you expect an elephant to
do when you give him the master call? If you are lost in the
jungle and there is no way out, and everything is black except
the stars above, you dare not stay very long anywhere. The only
thing to do then is to give the master call and at once the
elephant pulls down the tree in front of him with his trunk. This
frightens all the animals away. As the tree comes crashing down,
monkeys wake from their sleep and run from branch to branch--you
can see them in the moonlight--and you can almost see the stags
running in all directions below. You can hear the growl of the
tiger in the distance. Even he is frightened. Then the elephant
pulls down the next tree and the next, and the next. Soon you
will find that he has made a road right through the jungle
straight to your house.

CHAPTER II

HOW KARI SAVED OUR LIVES IN THE JUNGLE

When Kari grew to be five years old,