That First Night Tigers Came Very Near The House, Roaring
Discontentedly.
At 4 A.M. I was awoke by a loud noise, and looking out,
saw a wonderful scene.
The superb plumes of the cocoa-nut trees were
motionless against a sky blazing with stars. Four large elephants, part
of the regalia of a deposed Sultan, one of them, the Royal Elephant, a
beast of prodigious size, were standing at the door, looking majestic;
mahouts were flitting about with torches; Sikhs, whose great stature
was exaggerated by the fitful light - some in their undress white
robes, and others in scarlet uniforms and blue turbans - were grouped as
onlookers, the torchlight glinted on peripatetic bayonets, and the
greenish, undulating lamps of countless fireflies moved gently in the
shadow.
I have now been for three nights the sole inhabitant of this bungalow!
I have taken five meals in the society of apes only, who make me laugh
with genuine laughter. The sentries are absolutely silent, and I hardly
hear a human voice. It is so good to be away for a time from the
"wearing world," from all clatter, chatter, and "strife of tongues," in
the unsophisticated society of apes and elephants. Dullness is out of
the question. The apes are always doing something new, and are far more
initiative than imitative. Eblis has just now taken a letter of yours
from an elastic band, and is holding it wide open as if he were reading
it; an untamed siamang, which lives on the roof, but has mustered up
courage to-day to come down into the veranda, has jumped like a demon
on the retriever's back, and riding astride, is beating him with a
ruler; and jolly, wicked Mahmoud, having taken the cushions out of the
chairs, has laid them in a row, has pulled a table cover off the table,
and having rolled it up for a pillow, is now lying down in an easy,
careless attitude, occasionally helping himself to a piece of
pine-apple.
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