y danger that may come to the herd from outside. In the jungle
there are other wild animals; most of them are, of course, too small to
be able to hurt so large an animal as an elephant; but a tiger is so
strong and so fierce that he could kill a small, half-grown elephant.

The tiger could hide in the jungle, and if the small elephant happened
to stray from the herd, the tiger could spring upon it and kill it. So
the president of the herd usually keeps the elephants away from any part
of the jungle which he knows to be infested by tigers.

How does he know that? By the paw marks made on the ground by the
tigers. For the tigers leave plenty of paw marks on the ground in coming
in and out of their dens to hunt their prey every day. So if the
president of the elephant herd comes across a line of such paw marks, he
turns aside and leads the herd in another direction.

Of course, if the herd happened to meet a tiger quite suddenly, they
would at once face the tiger. And the tiger would never dare to attack
even the smallest elephant if the big ones were near, for they could
drive him off with their tusks or trample upon him.

But the greatest danger that can come to an elephant herd from outside
is from men. Men sometimes go into the jungle to shoot wild elephants
with guns, or to catch them alive in huge traps. So the leader of the
herd must find out where the traps are, or where the hunters are hiding;
and then he must avoid such places.

You will remember what I told you about Salar and his father in Book I.
Salar was the boy elephant who nearly fell into a most tricky trap, but
his wise old father suspected the trap and called to Salar to halt; and
because Salar obeyed his father and halted at once, he just escaped
falling into that awful trap.

Well, in the jungle hunters lay all kinds of traps to catch wild
elephants alive; and sometimes for several years the hunters try over
and over again to catch the elephants, if they fail to catch them at
once. So the president of an elephant herd has to look out for traps all
the time; and the herd that has the wisest president escapes capture for
the longest time.

In fact, as Salar is an actual elephant, not an imaginary one, I may
tell you that his father was such a wily leader of his herd that he kept
them from capture for ten years longer than the leader of any other
elephant herd in that jungle.

As for hunters who seek to kill wild elephants with guns, the leader o