“He manage it cleverly,” was the reply.
And the creature did manage the descent cleverly. A sudden movement, which jerked Io and Maha backward in the howdah, and made them cling to its sides, gave notice that the huge beast which they rode had knelt on his hinder legs; then, putting the thick fore legs together, the elephant slid down the steep incline, and perfectly preserving his balance, landed safely at the bottom.
“I say, that’s what I call clever!” cried Thud. “I should not like to have been on the back of the beast!”
“My brave wifie!” exclaimed Oscar; “you did not look in the least afraid.”
“But I felt so—rather; and I held on very fast,” was the candid reply.
The descent was also cleverly managed by the active little tat and the sure-footed mules. Only Thud concluded his performance of the feat by a roll in the dust.
After proceeding for another hour the travellers came in sight of a village nestling under the shelter of a palm-crowned height.
“What a picturesque little place, with its bamboo huts and thatched roofs!” exclaimed Io. “I wish, Oscar, that you had brought your sketch-book as well as your gun.”
“The village would make a good subject for a picture, and is pleasing at a distance,” said Oscar. “But peaceful and fair as it looks, how much of vice, misery, superstition, and idolatry are likely to be found in its dwellings!”
“I do not like to think that,” said Io. “See the cattle grazing about, and the goats with their kids; look at the buffaloes enjoying themselves in the big pond, with only their snouts and horns above the surface of the water.”