hich are so wonderful that engineers in America and
Europe do not know exactly how those buildings were erected. There is a
particular temple on the top of a mountain; and that mountain is 6000
feet high. The ceiling over the center of the temple is a huge circular
piece of marble; and that marble ceiling is so large that for a long
time people in America and Europe did not know how it was dragged up to
the top of the mountain, and then placed over the temple. But now we
know that a team of trained elephants was used to do that.

You will be pleased to know, too, that the people who built that temple
are called Jains, whom I mentioned in Book I, page 163 (footnote), as
the people who are kind to all animals, and who never hurt even the
smallest insect. Instead, these mild and gentle people have taught dumb
animals to help them build one of the greatest wonders of the world.

[Illustration: Trained Elephants at the Court of a King]

How the elephants were taught to do that, I shall tell you in the next
Book.

CHAPTER II

War and Neutrality in the Jungle

Now I must tell you about another duty of the president of the elephant
herd: he must avoid another kind of danger that may come to the herd
from outside.

I am sorry to say that herds of elephants sometimes fight with one
another, just as nations of people do. Alas, although elephants are
usually such wise animals, they are sometimes as foolish as men! Two
herds of elephants may find the same feeding ground, which has plenty of
trees to eat from, and a convenient stream of water to drink from. Then
the two herds may start fighting for that new feeding ground--just as
two nations sometimes fight for a new land.

Among elephants the herd that first finds the feeding ground usually
keeps it; but another herd may come there at about the same time, and
claim to have found it first--and may fight the other herd for that new
feeding ground. Or it may happen that the second herd really came there
later, but is stronger than the first herd, as it has more bull
elephants in it. Then the second herd may try to drive away the other
herd, which really found that feeding ground first.

_Wise Elephant Leader Avoids War_

Then what does the president of the first herd do? Alas, he usually
stays there to fight it out. But he gains nothing by it; instead, some
of his bulls get killed or wounded--and in the end his herd has to flee
just the same. A very wise leader w