CHAPTER XXXIII
"Dona praesentis cape laetus horae, ac Lingue severa."--_Horace_.
Leonie's first long-distance journey was just like other people's firstlong-distance journey in India.
And being of the type which revels in the new and unknown, she loved it.
Who wouldn't!
The seething masses of dusky humanity enchanted her; she delighted inthe glaring colouring, the clank of the holy man's chains, theincessant call of the water carrier and sweetmeat vendor, and the clangof iron on iron which announces the train's departure.
She absolutely thrilled on disrobing the first night in the littlebathroom while her ayah spread her sheets and pillows and blankets uponthe lower berth; and when her bodywoman disappeared through the doorleading to the servants' compartment, she lay for a time watching thestars, and the glimmer of passing mosque, or temple, or tomb.
Then she laughed aloud in sheer content, wedged Jan Cuxson's box ofchocolate biscuits safely into the side of the bunk, and turned to theside table to look for light literature in the shape of a magazine.
Having acquired the pernicious habit of eating biscuits and readingbefore going to sleep, she frowned upon the discovery that her ayahappeared to have left the books upon Howrah Station; and had stretchedher arm to rap upon the wall to summon the woman, when her eye caughtsight of a paper volume lying under the opposite bunk.
India is certainly a most dusty land, but a traveller can keep hisrailway compartment and boots spotless by distributing a few _pice_ tothe dusky, cheery youngsters, who, salaaming, solicit the favour ofusing boot polish, or floor brush, to the mutual benefit of self andthe sahib. Leonie, therefore, felt no repugnance when, clutching thetable with her left hand, she made a long arm and secured the book,which proved to be a guide to India's most famous beauty spots.
She turned the leaves casually and laughed.
"Why! I'd completely forgotten it," she said aloud, turning the booksideways to look at an illustration. "The wonderful tomb Guy Deaninsisted upon my visiting if I ever went to Benares. How beautiful!Must be the tomb of some ancestor of that young prince he was talkingabout. Oh! how beautiful, and--oh! how helpful! I suppose someEnglishman must have left the book in the train by mistake."
She had picked up a bit of paper which had fallen from the book; arough time-table with directions in English as to the best means ofgetting to the world-famed monument.
"That decides it," she said sleepily as she switched off the light,pulled a miniature mosquito net, deftly arranged by the ayah, over herhead, and the sheet up to her neck. "We get to the stationto-morrow--sometime--disembark--put luggage into cloak-room--findelephant and--and dak bungalow--and--oh! almost full moon--how--_how_delicious---ride out and see the--the----"
She slept, oblivious of the fact that she was carrying out implicitlythe programme mapped out for her.
Travelling in India is real sport when the train doors are likely toswing open at no given spot, soft-footed natives to entersurreptitiously and disappear as quietly upon sight of your open eyes;and guards to clamour for your ticket, while a mob collects outsideyour door at the junction to look at the pretty unveiled mem-sahibawakened from her slumber by a dignified bearer with his offering of_chotar hazri_, which means the thrice blessed early tea-tray.
Her restless spirit was soothed by the rush of the train through theendless plain; strange scenes, strange sights wrenched her mind fromthe terrible question everlastingly throbbing in her brain; and her eyewas not quick enough to distinguish one delicate oval face fromanother, or to notice that at each stopping place her ayah meandereddown the length of the train to a compartment where, in consequence ofhis high caste and rank, a man sat utterly alone--unconcerned andtotally oblivious of the screaming, chattering crowd upon the platform,of beggars, pilgrims, and _bona fide_ native travellers.
True, for one moment at the station where she alighted for theworld-famed tomb, she glanced back hurriedly at a native who placedhimself between her and an unsightly epileptic; and she looked backonce again as her intuition rapped out a message she did not grasp, andher ayah suddenly besought her help with the coolies.
A dilapidated tonga, drawn by a pony of the same description, took herand her servant to the dak bungalow, built on a concrete platform in ajungle clearing about two miles outside the village.
There she gave carte blanche for the arrangement of the evening trip tothe guide who materialised serenely, all smiles and extreme deference.Bathed, and fed, she had her hair brushed for half an hour by her ayah;refused the offer of massage, which process she abhorred, and turned inand slept the afternoon away upon her own bedding spread on a charpoy.
Later she bathed again, attired herself in a simple low-cut, white silkdress, dined, and wrapping herself in a heavy white Bedouin cloak,wedding present from Jill Wetherbourne, who had got it from hergodmother in Egypt, seated herself on the verandah to await the arrivalof whatever means of locomotion the guide had chosen to take her to thetomb.
And down the jungle path loomed the shape of a great elephant, movingat a gentle shuffle but an almost incredible speed.
Without audible instructions it stopped in front of the verandah, threwback its trunk, twined it gently about the middle of the _mahout_ ordriver, lifted him from his seat behind its ears and placed him on theground; then on a word, trumpeted shrilly in greeting to Leonie.
"Oh!" said she as she almost sprang from her chair in delight. "Oh!"
The _mahout_ salaamed, standing in the moonlight at the animal's head.
He made a vivid eastern picture, dressed as he was from head to foot inwhite, with two pleated side-pieces to the turban, hanging in suchwiseas to conceal half the face; and the guide, who had been squatting onthe edge of the path, also salaamed, smiling in glee at the mem-sahib'sdelight.
"Behold, mem-sahib," he said, "is the elephant even Rama, the pearl ofthe prince's stables." His English was not quite as intelligible asthese printed words, but Leonie made shift to understand.
"I have never seen such a beautiful elephant," she said, walking up tothe great beast, followed by the guide, the ayah and the bungalowfactotum.
The mem's statement was quite within the range of possibility seeingthat her elephant lore had been gathered from the Zoo and otherlow-caste specimens with their straight backs, mean tails, and longstringy legs.
"Does the--the _mahout_ speak English, because my Hindustani is notvery good. I would like to have the--the beauty of the animalexplained to me, and why it has its face and body painted; and why doeshe, the _mahout_, I mean, wear those side pieces to the turban, theyare very unusual."
A moment's pause, during which the _mahout_ stood like a rock, and thenthe guide, shuffling his feet, answered to the effect that the drivercould not speak English, but that her humble servant would translate ifthe mem-sahib would deign to listen to his mean speech; that the manwas the prince's best beloved--_mahout_, he added after a second'spause, and that the side pieces were part of the uniform worn by theprince's head-mahouts.
Not a bit of which information was true, _mais que voulez vous_?
So they all walked round Rama the beautiful, the guide translating thesoft Hindustani into lamentable English.
Rama, it seemed, was a _koomeriah_, a royal or high-caste elephant, andstill a youth, being but forty years of age, _vide_ his ears. Hisheight was ten feet at the shoulder, and would the mem-sahib note theperfect slope of the back down to the beautiful, long, feathery tail.Also the massive chest and head, with the prominent lump between theeyes so bright and kind, and full of knowledge. Notice also the deepbarrel, and short, so very short, hind legs, the heaviness of thetrunk, the plump cheeks which would indeed grace a comely elephantmaiden; count the eighteen nails upon the lovely feet, and place herhand upon the soft skin which fell in folds about the tail.
Leonie did as she was bid and ran her hand also down the nearestmagnificent tusk, with tip cut off and ringed about the middle withbands of gold inlaid
with precious stones.
"Perfect ivory," continued the guide, "five feet in length with tip,curving upwards with the curve of the sickle moon, and sloping slightlyfrom each other as though in anger."
Leonie smiled at the guide's verbal imagery, and put her hand upon acream coloured mark near the base of the broad trunk.
"Why, I thought it was paint!" she said, speaking over her shoulder tothe _mahout_, who, unperceived, held a fold of her white cloak in hishand. "This is paint, surely," she added, running a finger-tip downthe vermilion and white lines which covered the great beast's face andsides.
It seemed that the yellowy-white blotches raised the animal's valueabove that of sacksful of rubies, and the painting of the face andsides served two purposes; one to render it easier for the animal tofind favour in the eyes of the gods, the other to bring about the sameresult in the eyes of man; even as does woman when she accentuates thenight blackness of her eyes with antimony; and the slenderness of herfinger-tips with henna.
In state procession it seemed that Rama the perfect carried a gold andjewel encrusted howdah upon his beautiful sloping back; that what wasleft uncovered of his anatomy was hung with a net of silver, withtassels of pearls; that strings of seed pearls were entwined in theglorious meshes of hair in the beautiful tail; and that his nails weremanicured, bracelets of golden bells hung about the ankles, and bucketsof perfume poured into his bath.
"The _mahout_ has placed the humble cushioned seat this night upon theback, mem-sahib, so that nothing shall be between the mem-sahib and thelight of the moon."
Leonie gave orders that a succulent cake full of currants and flavourshould be brought forthwith from her hamper, and having pushed it asfar back into the mouth as possible, where it was demolished to theaccompaniment of the most disgusting masticatory noises, laughed aloudwhen the elephant stood on its short hind legs to show itsappreciation, and said thank you by means of a soft purring sound inthe throat.
The process of getting to the knees reminded Leonie somewhat of asailing vessel she had seen rolling in a rough sea, but she settledherself comfortably in the cushioned seat and waited with glee for the_mahout_ to get into position upon the animal's neck and order it torise.
"What is he waiting for?" she asked, as he made no movement.
"He wishes to know where the ayah is to sit," answered the guide.
"_Ayah_!" said Leonie, and laughed gently. "But I am going alone!"
The _mahout_ said something swiftly.
"The way is many miles through the jungle, mem-sahib; there is no dakbungalow, no people, the mem-Sahibs and also the sahibs go alwaysaccompanied."
"I am going alone," said Leonie quietly. "Tell the _mahout_ to get up."
Upon a word of command the elephant got to its feet, and raised oneknee; the _mahout_ placed one foot upon it and swung himself up to hisseat upon the short neck, said something to the elephant, who moved offup the jungle path, while the servants salaamed deeply to Leonie, andagain even more deeply in the direction of the elephant's head.
Leonie of the Jungle Page 34