St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-04-26
Old Soup.

The following curious anecdOte Is
from book about elephants, written by
French gentleman, named JacOlllot.
and We We will let the author tell his
own story:
In the autumn of 1876 | was living in
the interior of Bengal, and | went to
spend Christmas with my friend, Major
DAILY. The majors bungalow was Oh
the banks of The Gauges near CawnpOre.
He had lived there Il good many years,
being chief of the quartermaster's de-
partment at that station, and had Il
great many natives, elephants, bullock
carts aud soldiers under his command.
On the morning after my arrival, at
ter cup of eaIly tea, (often taken be-
fore daylight in India,) | sat smoking
with my friend in the veranda of his
bungalow, looking out upon the wind
ings OF the sacred river. And, directly,
| asked the major about his children ia
boy and a girl,) whom | had not yet
seen, and begged to know when | should
see them.
''SOupramany has taken them out fish
ing" said their father.
"Why, isn't Soupramany your great
war-elephant 2" | cried.
Exactly so. You cannot have for
gotten SOupramany
''Of course not. | was here, yOn
know, when he had that fight with the
elephant who went mad while loading
transport with bags of rice down yOn-
der. | saw the mad elephant, when he
suddenly began to fling the rice into the
river. His 'mahOut' tried to stop him,
and he killed the mahout. The native
sailors ran away 10 hide themselves, and
the mad elephant, trumpeting, charged
into this Enclosure. Old SOupramany
was here, and so were Jim and Bessie.
When he saw the mad animal, he threw
himself between him and the children.
The little ones and their nurses had just
time to get into the house when the
fight commenced.
"Yes," said the major. ''Old Soup
was a hundred years old. He had been
trained to war, and to fight with the
rhinOceros, but he was too old to hunt
them
"And yet" said 1, becoming animated
by the recollectiOns of that day, ''what
d SdrrdHu- nSi-t - .Iiaei Do you remem-
Der how we all stood on this porch aud
watched it, not daring to fire a shot lest
we should hit Old SOupramauy =? D.
you remember, too, his look when he
drew off, after an hour and half, leav-
ing his adversary dying in the dust, and
walked straight to the corral, shaking
his great ears, which had been badly
torn, with his head bruised, and great
piece broken from one of his tusks ,"
Eyes, indeed" said the major. "Well,
since then, he is more devoted to my
dear little ones than ever. He takes
them out whole days, and am perfect
ly content to have them under bis
charge. don't like trusting Christian
children to the care of natives but with
Old Soup | know they can come to no
harm"
Beside the children, on the banks of
the Gauges, stood Old Soup with a
bamboo rod in his trunk, with line,
hook, bait and cork, like the children's
had not watched him long before he
had a bite; for, as the religion of the
Hindoos forbids them to take life, the
river swaTms with fishes.
The old fellow did not stir; his little
eyes watched his line eagerly; he was
no novice in "the gentle craft He was
waiting till it was time to draw in his
prize.
At the end of his line, as he drew it
up, was dangling one of those golden
tench so abundant in the Ganges.
When Soupramany perceived what a
fine fish he had caught, he uttered one
of those long, low grugling notes of sat
isfaction by which an elephant express
ses joy and he waited patiently, ex-
pecting Jim to take his prize off the
hook and put on some more bait for him.
But Jim, the little rascal, sometimes