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Updated: May 25, 2025
Advancing to within a few feet of the master-mahout, she stood facing him, teetering her whole body from side to side, swinging her chain as she rolled. Horace flashed away and ran in among the massed elephants and mahouts. Coming back to Skag, he said breathlessly: "A mahout says the other one went before we came! That means, if Nut Kut comes there'll be no one to manage him.
Ram Yaksahn protested in plaintive tones, as Nut Kut wheeled away with him. Seeing Horace in the hands of a strange native and certainly recovering Skag looked away toward Hurda and wonder aloud if Nut Kut would be punished. It was the master-mahout who answered him: "Nay, Sahib. He has done no harm." "I'd like to have a chance with him," said Skag.
It is this, there is no sign of what she means; the masters are all quiet to-day there is no warning of tamasha." The master-mahout spoke with grave consideration; but just as he finished, the "mother-thing" wheeled into place and went down to take her load. "Cheer up, son, I guess it's all right," comforted Skag. "It's all right if Nut Kut doesn't come," said the boy, whimsically.
That every good night, spoken to every separate elephant, was different peculiar to itself was no less astounding. It was never as if addressed to an animal, or even to a child; but always as if to a mature and understanding intelligence. As when the master-mahout said to one female: "Fortune to thee, great Lady. May the gods guard that foot.
The master-mahout smiled a mystic-musical smile, like his voice. "I have come from my place for a moment," he said, looking intently into Skag's eyes, "for a purpose. We have heard of you, Son-of-Power. The wisdom of the ages is to know the instant when to act; not too late, not too soon.
Why, they know she knows! . . . Master-mahout!" he called in brave tones that trembled, "I am Dickson Sahib's son of the grain-foods department " "We know you, Sahib, salaam!" interrupted the master-mahout, with a smile. "Is it not the unwritten-law that the great 'mother-thing' shall be obeyed?" the boy quavered. "It is the unwritten-law, Sahib; and we will not impose our will on her.
It came to where the master-mahout stood, close to a pile of tenting, wheeled to face the way it should go presently, and sank down to be loaded. Men did the lifting into place and the lashing on. There was detail in the process, to which the elephant adjusted his body as intelligently as they adjusted theirs.
The extra loaded elephant rose and started again. Then a great shout went up. Tones of many voices filled the slanting sun-rays in all the glamour of dust. The wonderful voice of the master-mahout loomed above all: "Wisdom and excellence are thy parts, oh Thou! Justice and kindness we who are poor in them will learn of thee! Thou son of strength, thou child of ancient knowledges and worth!"
We have seen you work this day; and the fame of it will go before and after you, the length and breadth of India among the mahouts." He turned, pointing toward the elephant regiment. Many mahouts were shouting something together; their right hands flung high. "It is right for you to know," the master-mahout went on, "that mahouts are a kind of men by themselves apart.
Little Horace Dickson answered in a hushed way as one in the presence of a miracle: "It is one of the regulars, come back to take a part of what belongs to the sick elephant." Skag looked at the boy's face, in incredulous amazement. It was lit awe and exaltation were both there. Then he noticed the look of the master-mahout that was a revelation.
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