-
Главная
-
- Книги
-
- Авторы
-
- Редьярд Киплинг
-
- Маугли
-
- Стр. 91/123
Для того чтобы воспользоваться озвучкой предложений, необходимо
Войти или зарегистрироваться
Озвучка предложений доступна при наличии PRO-доступа
Купить PRO-доступ
I
will
revisit
my
lost
loves
,
and
playmates
masterless
!
Kala
Nag
,
which
means
Black
Snake
,
had
served
the
Indian
Government
in
every
way
that
an
elephant
could
serve
it
for
forty-seven
years
,
and
as
he
was
fully
twenty
years
old
when
he
was
caught
,
that
makes
him
nearly
seventy
--
a
ripe
age
for
an
elephant
.
He
remembered
pushing
,
with
a
big
leather
pad
on
his
forehead
,
at
a
gun
stuck
in
deep
mud
,
and
that
was
before
the
Afghan
War
of
1842
,
and
he
had
not
then
come
to
his
full
strength
.
His
mother
Radha
Pyari
--
Radha
the
darling
--
who
had
been
caught
in
the
same
drive
with
Kala
Nag
,
told
him
,
before
his
little
milk
tusks
had
dropped
out
,
that
elephants
who
were
afraid
always
got
hurt
.
Kala
Nag
knew
that
that
advice
was
good
,
for
the
first
time
that
he
saw
a
shell
burst
he
backed
,
screaming
,
into
a
stand
of
piled
rifles
,
and
the
bayonets
pricked
him
in
all
his
softest
places
.
So
,
before
he
was
twenty-five
,
he
gave
up
being
afraid
,
and
so
he
was
the
best-loved
and
the
best-looked-after
elephant
in
the
service
of
the
Government
of
India
.
He
had
carried
tents
,
twelve
hundred
pounds
'
weight
of
tents
,
on
the
march
in
Upper
India
.
He
had
been
hoisted
into
a
ship
at
the
end
of
a
steam
crane
and
taken
for
days
across
the
water
,
and
made
to
carry
a
mortar
on
his
back
in
a
strange
and
rocky
country
very
far
from
India
,
and
had
seen
the
Emperor
Theodore
lying
dead
in
Magdala
,
and
had
come
back
again
in
the
steamer
entitled
,
so
the
soldiers
said
,
to
the
Abyssinian
War
medal
.
He
had
seen
his
fellow
elephants
die
of
cold
and
epilepsy
and
starvation
and
sunstroke
up
at
a
place
called
Ali
Musjid
,
ten
years
later
;
and
afterward
he
had
been
sent
down
thousands
of
miles
south
to
haul
and
pile
big
balks
of
teak
in
the
timberyards
at
Moulmein
.
There
he
had
half
killed
an
insubordinate
young
elephant
who
was
shirking
his
fair
share
of
work
.
After
that
he
was
taken
off
timber-hauling
,
and
employed
,
with
a
few
score
other
elephants
who
were
trained
to
the
business
,
in
helping
to
catch
wild
elephants
among
the
Garo
hills
.
Elephants
are
very
strictly
preserved
by
the
Indian
Government
.
There
is
one
whole
department
which
does
nothing
else
but
hunt
them
,
and
catch
them
,
and
break
them
in
,
and
send
them
up
and
down
the
country
as
they
are
needed
for
work
.
Kala
Nag
stood
ten
fair
feet
at
the
shoulders
,
and
his
tusks
had
been
cut
off
short
at
five
feet
,
and
bound
round
the
ends
,
to
prevent
them
splitting
,
with
bands
of
copper
;
but
he
could
do
more
with
those
stumps
than
any
untrained
elephant
could
do
with
the
real
sharpened
ones
.
When
,
after
weeks
and
weeks
of
cautious
driving
of
scattered
elephants
across
the
hills
,
the
forty
or
fifty
wild
monsters
were
driven
into
the
last
stockade
,
and
the
big
drop
gate
,
made
of
tree
trunks
lashed
together
,
jarred
down
behind
them
,
Kala
Nag
,
at
the
word
of
command
,
would
go
into
that
flaring
,
trumpeting
pandemonium
(
generally
at
night
,
when
the
flicker
of
the
torches
made
it
difficult
to
judge
distances
)
,
and
,
picking
out
the
biggest
and
wildest
tusker
of
the
mob
,
would
hammer
him
and
hustle
him
into
quiet
while
the
men
on
the
backs
of
the
other
elephants
roped
and
tied
the
smaller
ones
.
There
was
nothing
in
the
way
of
fighting
that
Kala
Nag
,
the
old
wise
Black
Snake
,
did
not
know
,
for
he
had
stood
up
more
than
once
in
his
time
to
the
charge
of
the
wounded
tiger
,
and
,
curling
up
his
soft
trunk
to
be
out
of
harm
's
way
,
had
knocked
the
springing
brute
sideways
in
mid-air
with
a
quick
sickle
cut
of
his
head
,
that
he
had
invented
all
by
himself
;
had
knocked
him
over
,
and
kneeled
upon
him
with
his
huge
knees
till
the
life
went
out
with
a
gasp
and
a
howl
,
and
there
was
only
a
fluffy
striped
thing
on
the
ground
for
Kala
Nag
to
pull
by
the
tail
.
"
Yes
,
"
said
Big
Toomai
,
his
driver
,
the
son
of
Black
Toomai
who
had
taken
him
to
Abyssinia
,
and
grandson
of
Toomai
of
the
Elephants
who
had
seen
him
caught
,
"
there
is
nothing
that
the
Black
Snake
fears
except
me
.
He
has
seen
three
generations
of
us
feed
him
and
groom
him
,
and
he
will
live
to
see
four
.
"
"
He
is
afraid
of
me
also
,
"
said
Little
Toomai
,
standing
up
to
his
full
height
of
four
feet
,
with
only
one
rag
upon
him
.
He
was
ten
years
old
,
the
eldest
son
of
Big
Toomai
,
and
,
according
to
custom
,
he
would
take
his
father
's
place
on
Kala
Nag
's
neck
when
he
grew
up
,
and
would
handle
the
heavy
iron
ankus
,
the
elephant
goad
,
that
had
been
worn
smooth
by
his
father
,
and
his
grandfather
,
and
his
great-grandfather
.
