Sufinama

The Elephant Devourers - Daftar-e-Som

Rumi

The Elephant Devourers - Daftar-e-Som

Rumi

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    Interesting Fact

    अनुवादः मिर्ज़ा निज़ाम शाह लबीब

    In India, a group of men had been travelling for days without food or drink. They became severely undernourished due to their unfamiliarity with the region they were traversing and their inability to feed themselves. Despite this, they proceeded on their trek, hungry and upset but eager to get at their objective.

    A wise man who had gone through the area many times previously and was familiar with the fauna of the area occurred to cross their way by chance. He instantly deduced that they were hungry foreigners based on their attire and pale appearance and felt impelled to warn them about the elephants that roamed the countryside.

    Greetings, my nice men, I understand you're tired and hungry, he admitted, since there's not much prey around here. However, be aware that elephants wander free in this area, and their plump babies are sometimes separated from their moms and readily captured. You must never, ever try to hunt an elephant calf, since his mother will track you down no matter how far you believe you've gone from where the calf was caught. She'll smell her child's scent on you and trample you to death as soon as she catches up with you. Mark my words: if you can find them, stick to eating herbs and fruits!

    The worn-out travelers listened to the wise man's words, saluted him for his guidance, and kept going on their way. They looked beneath each shrub and up every tree that may give fruit, desperate for food, but they found nothing eatable. Suddenly, one of the men noticed an elephant calf who had wandered away from his family. Except for one who heeded the wise man's advice, the men attacked the young beast without hesitation and, facing the least of backlash, killed him then and there.

    The men were too hungry to listen to the learned man's advice, so they lit a fire and fried the plump animal, gorging on his flesh. They cleaned their hands and faces in a nearby creek and quickly fell asleep on the banks, having finally satiated their hunger. The conscientious man, who had not taken part in the massacre or eaten a scrap of flesh, resolved to stay awake and watch their camp, instinctively believing that the wise man had not warned them without reason.

    Meantime, the mother elephant was already looking everywhere for her baby elephant, becoming increasingly enraged and frustrated with each passing minute. She sniffed everything with her long, muscular trunk until she found the fragrance of her young in the distance and increased her pace. She was at the convicts' camp in the blink of an eye. She approached the only man awake and smelled him from head to toe, particularly around his lips, to see if she could smell her kid. The man was frozen in place, speechless from fear. She orbited him thrice to make sure she hadn't made a mistake, then walked by him without hurting him, rapidly moving on to the other males sleeping a short distance away.

    She smelled her baby in the first man's mouth, then crushed him under her stone-pillar-sized forelegs and hurled him up in the air with her powerful trunk, breaking practically every bone in his body. Then she went around to the other people who had gorged on her child, one by one, subjecting them to the same torturous treatment without displaying any remorse.

    The mother elephant came back to the man who had refused to eat her babies after the last guilty man had been slain. She kindly crouched down in front of him and swiftly raised him onto her back with her trunk, gallantly carrying him to his final destination.

    In India, a group of men had been travelling for days without food or drink. They became severely undernourished due to their unfamiliarity with the region they were traversing and their inability to feed themselves. Despite this, they proceeded on their trek, hungry and upset but eager to get at their objective.

    A wise man who had gone through the area many times previously and was familiar with the fauna of the area occurred to cross their way by chance. He instantly deduced that they were hungry foreigners based on their attire and pale appearance and felt impelled to warn them about the elephants that roamed the countryside.

    Greetings, my nice men, I understand you're tired and hungry, he admitted, since there's not much prey around here. However, be aware that elephants wander free in this area, and their plump babies are sometimes separated from their moms and readily captured. You must never, ever try to hunt an elephant calf, since his mother will track you down no matter how far you believe you've gone from where the calf was caught. She'll smell her child's scent on you and trample you to death as soon as she catches up with you. Mark my words: if you can find them, stick to eating herbs and fruits!

    The worn-out travelers listened to the wise man's words, saluted him for his guidance, and kept going on their way. They looked beneath each shrub and up every tree that may give fruit, desperate for food, but they found nothing eatable. Suddenly, one of the men noticed an elephant calf who had wandered away from his family. Except for one who heeded the wise man's advice, the men attacked the young beast without hesitation and, facing the least of backlash, killed him then and there.

    The men were too hungry to listen to the learned man's advice, so they lit a fire and fried the plump animal, gorging on his flesh. They cleaned their hands and faces in a nearby creek and quickly fell asleep on the banks, having finally satiated their hunger. The conscientious man, who had not taken part in the massacre or eaten a scrap of flesh, resolved to stay awake and watch their camp, instinctively believing that the wise man had not warned them without reason.

    Meantime, the mother elephant was already looking everywhere for her baby elephant, becoming increasingly enraged and frustrated with each passing minute. She sniffed everything with her long, muscular trunk until she found the fragrance of her young in the distance and increased her pace. She was at the convicts' camp in the blink of an eye. She approached the only man awake and smelled him from head to toe, particularly around his lips, to see if she could smell her kid. The man was frozen in place, speechless from fear. She orbited him thrice to make sure she hadn't made a mistake, then walked by him without hurting him, rapidly moving on to the other males sleeping a short distance away.

    She smelled her baby in the first man's mouth, then crushed him under her stone-pillar-sized forelegs and hurled him up in the air with her powerful trunk, breaking practically every bone in his body. Then she went around to the other people who had gorged on her child, one by one, subjecting them to the same torturous treatment without displaying any remorse.

    The mother elephant came back to the man who had refused to eat her babies after the last guilty man had been slain. She kindly crouched down in front of him and swiftly raised him onto her back with her trunk, gallantly carrying him to his final destination.

    Source :
    • Book : Hikayat-e-Rumi Hisaa-1 (Pg. 116)
    • Publication : Anjuman Taraqqi Urdu (Hind) (1945)
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