The angry elephant herd

In the middle of the night, I was awakened by the sound of elephants roaring and got up to see that the whole village was in chaos, with dogs barking and people crying out. The men were carrying hunting rifles, long knives, and bows and running to the cattle ranch, while the women and children were crowding onto the balcony of the bamboo building in fear. I hurriedly grabbed a long knife and followed the crowd to the cattle ranch.

The cattle ranch was the high point of the fortress, and dozens of torches were lit up, turning the night into daylight. The village headman, Parfait, with an unusually grim face, stood on an earthen platform next to a broken head stake, looking down the slope with his hand on the cool tent.

In the woods at the bottom of the slope, elephants roared like muffled thunder; in the grass, which was red by the fire, there were small mountains of dark shadows moving.

My scalp tingled with a kind of fear of a great disaster. I had heard the old hunter say that in the past, there is a village named Yapi in this area, fifty years ago was attacked by a herd of elephants, wild elephants will be surrounded by Yapi, although the men of Yapi village fought back, shot and killed several large male elephants, but the elephants are many, tons of body slamming the pillars of the bamboo building, the twenty or so bamboo buildings were razed to the ground, see people with long trunks rolled up and thrown into the sky, and then stomped with elephant hooves, with the elephant's hoofs, with the bamboo building. Then trampled with elephant hooves, and stabbed with elephant tusks, the entire Yapizhai was brutally bloodbath.

Is the tragedy of history going to be repeated in our Manguanglao fortress?

The elephant herd has surrounded the fortress, unless there are three heads and six arms, no one can break out to get help. We and the nearest Man Beng cottage, about ten kilometers away, even if our cottage by the wild elephant trampling flat, do not expect others will hear the movement of the initiative to rescue.

Suddenly, a particularly rough elephant roar came from the plantain forest, which was chilling. A tile gray elephant, he appeared in the clearing about sixty to seventy meters from the fortress. This is an old elephant, the years in its face carved a crease, tusks covered with yellow spots, and the left tusk is broken in half. Almost all the men, women, and children in the village know this old elephant, giving it a very charming name of a half. One and a half is the head elephant of the Garo elephant herd, which is the largest herd in the area, with about 70 to 80 elephants, large and small. I saw a confused look in the eyes of the village headman, Pawe.

I think all the people in the village must be confused at this moment. The herd of elephants of Jaros can be said to be harmonious neighbors with our Manguanglao village, a half well-governed, the elephants never steal crops and never come to the village to cause trouble, and we do not shoot them even when we meet them on the road. We can say that the Manguanglao village and the Jia Luo elephant herd share the same landscape and are a model of peaceful coexistence.

How did the neighbors suddenly turn against each other?

In the light of the fire, a half-raising trunk, step by step, pink mouth issued a roar, two elephant eyes like a stream flowing two streams of tears, looking unusually sad and angry. It kept shaking the pair of tusks of different lengths, demonstrating to us.

All the men, all flat shotguns, and crossbow strings hold a tight long knife, ready to fight.

"Elephants don't pick at us for no reason, someone must have hurt them!" The village chief, Pawe, looked around the crowd and asked sternly and sharply, "Who did the wrong thing? Who is it?"

The men looked at each other and looked at each other. After a moment of silence, the old hunter Bonontin whispered in a hoarse voice: "This afternoon, I went to the mountains to cut firewood and saw Iwan Pian crawling out of the turnip gully covered with blood, sneaking around ......"

"Where is Yan Wenbian? Stand out!" The village headman, Parfait, shouted sternly.

He was hiding behind the crowd, but was immediately held up by two boys and dragged to the earthen platform. Item Bian was a well-known drunkard in the village, often getting drunk.

"I was wronged, I didn't mess with these sons of bitches elephants." Rockin Bian's mouth spewed a breath of wine as he struggled and shouted.

Strangely enough, as soon as one and a half and the other elephants saw Iwami Bian, they coincidentally stopped. One and a half's high trunk slowly descended and stretched out flatly like the barrel of a cannon, with the tip of its deft trunk pointing straight at Iwami Bian.

"Iwawinpian, you better tell the truth, what is going on?"

Under the repeated questioning of the village headman Pawe, the alcoholic Iwamunpian gave an honest account of what had happened. In the afternoon, he went up to the mountain to hunt a wild rabbit for wine, but he saw a young male elephant in the ravine, with two white tusks glowing in the sun. He looked around and saw no other elephants, so he took a shot at the elephant's head, sawed the tusks, and then dug a hole to bury the elephant.

The angry herd was demanding the elephant's killer!

The village chief, Pawe, was silent, and the men with the weapons were silent.

A tusk and a half puckered up and let out another thunderous roar, which was immediately followed by the restless elephants in the grass and woods down the slope. One and a half hooves keep kicking the earth, raising a cloud of dust, anyone can understand that it is a roll of war dust. The elephant herd was not satisfied with this silent confrontation and issued an ultimatum to us.

"Rockin Pian, I do not say, you also understand, if we wish these eyes have burned red elephants too hard, what kind of end will be." The village headman Pfaff said with great effort, word by word, "you also have two children, you also do not want to let them die at a young age under the hooves of elephants. You know what you should do now. I swear, we will take care of raising your mother-in-law and your two children."

The drunkard Iwam Winpian hung his head, and only after a long time said in a trembling voice: "I ...... want a drink."

"Bring the wine!" Parfait, the village chief, exclaimed.

Iwamun Pian poured bowl after bowl into his mouth and drank the large jar of rice wine almost dry. I saw that his face was wet, but could not tell whether it was sweat, wine, or tears. This must have been the most bitter meal he had ever had in his life.

Finally, he dropped the bowl, stripped off his shirt, and staggered down the slope with drunken steps. A half-long trunk tied a knot in the air, the herd dodged a way, and then several large male elephants escorted Iwami Pian in a great hurry, disappearing into the dark forest.

The next morning, someone found Iwan Pian lying beside the dead elephant in the turnip gully, its head crushed.