Sinbad the Sailor | | el 263

‘But tell me,’ replied he, ‘can you shoot with a bow?’

I answered that the bow was one of my exercises in my youth,
and I had not yet forgotten it. Then he gave me a bow and arrows,
and, taking me behind him upon an elephant, carried me to a vast.
forest some leagues from the town. We went a great way into
the forest, and when he thought fit to stop he bade me alight;
then showing me a great tree, ‘Climb up that tree, said he, ‘and
shoot at the elephants as you see them pass by, for there is a
prodigious number of them in this forest, and, if any of them fall,
come and give me notice of it’ Having spoken thus, he left me
victuals, and returned to the town, and I continued upon the tree
all night. |

I saw no elephant during that time, but next morning, as soon
as the sun was up, I saw a great number: I shot several arrows
among them, and at last one of the elephants fell; the rest retired
immediately, and left me at liberty to go and acquaint my patron
with my booty. When I had told him the news, he gave me a
good meal, commended my dexterity, and caressed me highly. We
afterwards went together’ to the forest, where we dug a hole for
the elephant ; my patron intending to return when it was rotten, and
to take the teeth, etc., to trade with.

I continued this game for two months, and killed an - elephant
every day, getting sometimes upon one tree, and sometimes upon
another. One morning, as I looked for the elephants, I perceived

' with an extreme amazement that, instead of passing by me across
the forest as usual, they stopped, and came to me with a horrible
noise, in such a number that the earth was covered with them,
and shook under them.. They encompassed the tree where I was
with their trunks extended and their eyes all fixed upon me. At
this frightful spectacle I remained immoveable, and was so much —
frightened that my bow and arrows fell:out of my hand.

My fears were not in vain; for after the elephants had stared