The temple Elephant

Part 5

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Albert looked out of the window and saw that the weather was getting colder. Some leaves on the Motely were already changing their col-ors. He thought how nice it would be to go somewhere warm. Then he grinned. All he had to do was to go to the Motley and think himself in a hot climate and KABOUM! He would be magically transported there!

On his way to the tree he passed Herold who had had exactly the same idea. They decided to travel together. “I was thinking of meeting some elephants, what do you think Herold?” said Albert once they were inside the tree.

“Marvelous idea”, said Herold, “but we have to decide whether we want to meet Asian or African elephants”.

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“Hm”, said Albert, “I didn’t know that they are different. We have already been to Africa meeting Gira. I think it is more interesting to go to a new place. Let’s go to India.”

Herold, agreed and before he could even nod his head, they found themselves standing in front of a huge elephant. They were standing in the gardens of a magnificent temple. The sun was shining and it was very hot. Albert noticed the scent of unusual spices and perfumes coming from the many different types of exotic flowers and bushes scattered around them.

The elephant looked down on them. “Well, hello there” it said, “where have you come from? I was just strolling around the temple grounds before my grooming session begins. I have to attend a procession for an important wedding today.”

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“Hello to you too” said Albert, “I am Albert, and my spiky friend here is called Herold and he is a hedgehog. We come from a place called the Motley and we would like to learn all that you can tell us about elephants.

And then, if you would like it, we can invite you to join us every full moon at the Motley, so you can meet all our animal friends from around the world.”

“Now that does sound exciting, and a bit un-usual”, said the elephant. Herold felt that he might have been a little hasty in telling her about the invitation, and decided to find out more about their new acquaintance.

“May I ask what the other elephants call you?“ asked Herold.

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The elephant smiled and said: “I am Erla and I have been around this part of the world for quite some time. If you want to know anything about anybody in this area you have found the right person to ask”, she said.

Albert was easily impressed and was just about to ask a question when Herold cut in, “we would really very much appreciate it if you could tell us as much as you can about elephants”, he said.

Erla shook her ears and said: “Well then, as you have travelled such a long way, I will tell you all about Indian elephants and of the interesting things that we can do.

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“I do know that there are also elephants in Africa and they are bigger and taller than we Asian elephants.

We can live for a very long time, up to 70 years, and although we are big we can swim for long distances, and our trunks work like a snorkel.

Our eyesight is poor and, we usually have really small eyes. But we do have the largest brains in the animal kingdom!

We live in families, and several families will form a large group, which is called a herd. The leader of the herd is usually the oldest female elephant. I am the leader of my herd and I am called a matriarch, which means“ female leader”.

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All the babies and the other females follow my lead. Young male elephants stay with the herd until they are fourteen or fifteen years old. Then they will try to find a female elephant as a com-panion so that they can start their own family.

We are plant-eaters and we like leaves, grass and tree bark. We spend most of our time eat-ing and grazing.

The tusks of elephants – the long horn-like parts that come out of the side of the mouths – are made of ivory. Unfortunately humans find ivory very valuable and sometimes shoot us so that they can steal our tusks.

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Here in Southern India we are very much loved and respected and there is even a deity, called Ganesh, who has the face of an elephant. The great celebration in his honor took place just last month and the whole place was decorated beautifully!

As we are an endangered species so many of us live in temples, where we feel safe. We lead a good life in the temples. I have three mahouts – these are men who look after me, and bathe and massage me regularly.“ There are even more interesting things about elephants. Did you know that we have been known to avert disaster, or even to solve crimes? We also teach our little ones important rituals.”

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“What do you mean when you say that you can avert disaster?” asked Albert.

Before Herold could stop her Erla began to tell a story.

“One time, after I had been groomed for a pro-cession and we were about to parade through the streets, I had a strange feeling and could sense that something out of the ordinary was going to happen.

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Here in India our bodies are painted in beauti-ful designs and colors for special ceremonies. We usually attract a large crowd of cheering people. They love to look at us, with our stun-ning decoration and we feel very proud to be a part of the celebrations. On this day, while I was moving through the crowd, I started to smell something strange. At first I couldn’t quite make out what it was. But then I re-alized that something was on fire and heard people screaming as they began running around in panic.

I turned to the other elephants and told them to hurry to the river to fill our trunks with water.

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As we rushed, our trunks filled with water, we could already make out where the fire was coming from. We blew the water from our trunks onto the flames and after only a couple of runs to the river to refill our trunks, we were able to put out the fire.

We saved a whole lane of wooden shacks from the fierce flames, and as a re-ward we were given special fruit treats. It was a remarkable day for both human and elephants alike”, explained Erla.

Herold and Albert were impressed. Erla had an air

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of confidence about her. Albert wanted to hear more stories but it was late, and they had to return home.

Before they left, Albert explained how Erla could travel to the secret place they call the Motley during a full moon so that she could join them with their other friends. It was time now to say their good-byes. They were all of them very much looking forward to meeting soon again.

Next up – some pre-Christmas fun with reindeer facts