and tigers. I will try to do so.

2. Yesterday your uncle and I went out to shoot pigeons. An Indian
chief, or rajah, lent us an elephant to carry us to the shooting ground.

[Illustration: AN INDIAN RAJAH.]

3. A driver sat on the neck of the huge animal. Instead of a whip he had
a goad of sharp steel. I did not see him prick the elephant with this
goad. He guided the animal with voice and hand.

4. On the elephant's back there was a large pad upon which we were to
sit. I could see no ladder, so I wondered how I was to climb up. Just
then the elephant knelt down on his hind legs.

5. Your uncle showed me how to get up. "Here," he said, "is a ladder of
two steps. The first step is the elephant's foot, the second is the loop
of his tail."

6. He held the end of the elephant's tail in his hand and bent it to
make a loop. When I put my foot on it he lifted the tail, and in this
way helped me on to the elephant's back.

7. When your uncle had climbed up, the elephant jogged off at a good
pace. He went along rough, narrow paths, over ditches and the beds of
streams. Never once did he make a false step.

8. An elephant costs a great deal of money. Only princes and rich men
can afford to keep them. Sometimes a great prince has as many as a
hundred elephants in his stables.