07
Pembe Kubwa, The Big Tusker
Mrs. Bradley, whose home is in Chicago, has made a number of trips to Africa to study the wild animals and the tribes of people who live there. In this story she tells of a very wise and a very wicked elephant—how he won and kept the leadership of the herd.
WHEN KUBWA WAS YOUNG
Pembe Kubwa was a very wise and wicked elephant. He was so big that he stood shoulders high over the rest of the herd and so old that his tusks had grown to such a length that they were crossed in front of him.
He had no idea how old he was—perhaps a hundred, perhaps two hundred years old, but he was still so strong that he was the leader of the herd, and no bull had dared turn against him now for a long, long time.
As a matter of fact, his tusks were not so dangerous in a fight now as when they were shorter and he could thrust deeper with them, but no elephant had fought with him for so long that none of the herd had found this out. However, he suspected it himself.
Kubwa did not remember very much about his young days. He knew that he had trailed about with his mother in a big herd, and he knew that he had given his mother a good deal of trouble, because her temper was often very short with him. He had a way of straying off that particularly
provoked her, and he did remember very clearly one day when she finally grabbed him with her trunk and just boosted him along, bumpity bump, through the forest trail.
It was good luck for him that he did not get into trouble, because at first he did not learn except from his own experience. Elephants and people who depend upon experience alone often get into trouble.
After a time, because as I said, he was a wise elephant even when he was young, he learned from the experiences of others, from those he saw and those he heard about. But in the beginning it was just luck that saved him. For instance, there was the adventure with the crocodile. Ever since he could remember, his mother had always been cautioning him not to put his trunk in the river to drink until he had looked out for crocodiles. His mother always used to wade in the stream and cast her bright beady eyes upstream and down and thrash around a bit; then she would put her trunk swiftly into the river and drink in the delicious water.
But Kubwa never saw any sense in waiting for something he wanted. So one day he scrambled out of the line of march and ran on ahead toward the river. Another little elephant ran along with him, because a bad example is as contagiousas the measles. Down to the bend in the stream went Kubwa, and in went his trunk. Down went the other elephant, and in went his trunk. And suddenly the other elephant gave a gurgling cryof fright and then a shrill, terror-stricken squeal. Something under water had seized that trunk in its firm jaws and was pulling him in.
The little elephant, squealing for all he was worth, pulled and pulled, until it seemed that his trunk would come off, but the crocodile was the stronger, and the baby elephant was forced out farther and farther into the water. Then his trunk was hurting so much that, to avoid the pain, he took more steps forward into the deeper water.
Kubwa didn't know what on earth to do! They had gone so far ahead of the herd that it seemed as if help would never come. However, he heard the wild, faraway trumpeting of the other baby's mother who had recognized his voice. He had jerked his own trunk out of the water as if it had been stung and held it high above his head, galloping out of the water as fast as his frightened legs could carry him. Now he wrapped his trunk about the hind legs of his friend and pulled with all his strength, and suddenly the two elephants began to go backward and with them, drawn against its braced feet, showed the head and body of a long and powerful crocodile.
And then, snap! the crocodile fell back with his mouth full of one bite of the elephant's trunk, and the elephant himself was saved.
Just at this moment the herd came tearing down the trail. The angry cow, the mother of the injured baby, was in the lead. She was so grateful to see her child alive and so angry with him for his disobedience and for scaring her nearly to death that she promptly began to spank him for dear life with her trunk.
As for Kubwa, she had nothing but praise for his strength and help! She said nothing at all about his disobedience, because if he had not been there, her child could not have been saved. However, Kubwa's mother had some ideas of her own about that. After that she did not need to warn Kubwa any more about crocodile waters.
He remembered that he used to play about a good deal with a big ball of mud that he and the other youngsters rolled up for themselves. He liked getting up games, and he was always stirring about and disturbing the elders of the herd when they were taking a noonday forty winks.
But one day of his youth seemed very much like the next. Life was not really exciting until he began to get his strength and discovered that he could bully the others and have his way with them.
LEADING HIS OWN HERD
It was not only Kubwa's strength that made him win, for often he tackled elephants who were really stronger than himself. But he was quick to think and could get into action before the other fellow had decided on his plan of attack. As Kubwa got bigger and bigger, he got deadlier and deadlier in action.
The time came when he only snorted when his mother spoke to him, and he threw dust in his older brother's eyes, which was not a respectful thing to do. Finally he fought his uncle, who started out to teach him his place, and gave his uncle such a horrid poke in the shoulder with his long sharp tusks that the old leader went off in a huff. Several of the older ones went with his uncle, but the others stayed and listened politely and lazily to this energetic young boss, and Kubwa began to lead his own herd.
Kubwa adored commanding! He said when it was time to go into the swamp, and when into the forest, and he led the way to the grazing grounds and sampled all the best places for miles around. Soon he began bullying any strangers or any small groups that wandered into the grazing grounds when he was there; mild-mannered elephants, who wanted a quiet life and good food, began to come and join his herd in order to get the benefit of his protection and his leadership.
Year by year, too, more little elephants were added to the herd. Now, some fathers have a way of slipping off into the forests when the youngsters are trotting around, letting the mothers have all the bother of bringing up the children, but Kubwa was too much of an overlordfor that. He never left his herd. He bossed the mothers, and he saw to it that the mothers bossed the children. None of the tricks that he used to play on his mother for him!
Every year he grew bigger and stronger, and his tusks grew heavier and longer. They were very long for their weight, sharp and fierce like swords, and very curving, growing toward each other. He used to thrust them into an enemy with such wicked force that no elephant would stand up to him. After a time they grew so long that they began to cross in front of him. They were about seven feet long when they began to cross, and they grew so long that they extended about two feet more beyond the crossing.
He could do a great deal with two feet of tusks, but not nearly so much as he wanted the other elephants to keep on believing he could. That crossing would stop his thrust short! He lost all the seven-foot length behind it. He knew this, and he wondered if the other elephants of the herd ever thought of it. Those crossed tusks of his gave him a good deal of secret uneasinessas he grew older and older.
OLD KUBWA'S WICKED TRICKS
The first real fear he had ever known was this terrible fear that some elephant would be able to defeat him. He made up his mind that he would never be driven away. He told himself that he would die first. He began to watch out for rivals. Whenever he met any elephant that he thought might prove of danger to him, he began to plot against that elephant. And always the elephant came to an unlucky end.
There was a big, broad-backed fellow who had talked back to him and showed in several ways that he felt himself to be a coming champion. Kubwa let the big fellow walk ahead one day, and he fell into an elephant pit. Kubwa led the others carefully around the pit, chuckling quietly to himself. He was a wicked old fellow, as I said, for he did not stop to put down his trunk and try to give the other a lift out. He had known all about that pit for years. Every year the natives covered it with fresh branches, hoping he would forget and fall into it, but he never forgot.
There was another elephant who began to think himself more than a match for Kubwa. He had sharp, wide-apart tusks, and a very hasty, irritable temper. Kubwa told him about a fruit tree one day in the forest, and the elephant hurried over to it and walked between two little trees in front of it. Between the trees a poisoned spear fastened to the end of a log arm fell down and put an end to him. Kubwa had known all about that trap.
There was very little about the natives' way of doing things that Kubwa did not know. He had taken a liking to their food, especially to their bananas, and he used to make a business of raiding the villages. He knew the difference between a fire on the ground that stayed there, and one in the hand that could be thrown; he knew all about spears and about sharp sticks stuck in the ground; and whenever the natives played any of those tricks on him, he used to tear down the huts of the villages and trample the fields under foot, just for revenge.
After a while he got to trampling just for the fun of it. When he was in the banana groves at night, he used to chuckle over the way the youngsters were smashing over the young trees not bearing fruit. It was wasteful, but it was good fun, and the natives could always plant others. Altogether he lived a lordlylife, helping himself to what he liked and taking care to keep what he got; his herd was the biggest in the country, and his name was the most feared by elephants and natives.
NOTES AND QUESTIONS
1. What happening does Mrs. Bradley tell about to show that Kubwa at first never learned by what was told him?
2. What kept Kubwa from being such a good fighter as he grew older?
3. When he could not fight so well, how did he get rid of his rivals?
4. Tell three things Kubwa did for the herd that made him a good leader.
5. From what this story tells, which word do you think best describes elephants? wicked savage wise
6. Name three kinds of traps the natives used to catch elephants.
7. Write or tell of ways in which elephants are useful to men.
8. Name two other kinds of animals that run in herds and have a leader. Perhaps you can name more than two.
9. Write or tell of a wise thing some other animal has done.