Stories about elephant calf Lanchenkar. Ayusha Erdyneev

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ a special riddle, I can’t tell it to everybody,” announced Lanchenkar with an air of importance.

      “Come on, tell me. If I fail, I’ll give you one bunch of bananas or even two!”

      “You don’t understand. It’s really a puzzling riddle.”

      “I’ll give you all bananas,” persisted Lanchenak.

      “Very well. Listen: ‘A trunk at the front, a trunk at the end and ears in between.’”

      Lanchenak was thinking hard and long but could not guess. He gave his bananas to Lanchenkar and said:

      “It’s a difficult riddle. I don’t know the answer, I give up. You tell me: who?”

      “Take one bunch of bananas – I don’t know the answer either. As I told you, no one does,” Lanchenkar replied.

      Reflection

      At their next meeting Lanchenkar asked Lanchenak: “Want another riddle?”

      “Yes, I do,” answered Lanchenak. “But now the deal is this: one riddle, one bunch of bananas.”

      “Good. Listen: ‘My eyes, my ears, my trunk, but it’s not me. When I extend my trunk to it, its trunk extends to me too.’”

      “It’s your father! Your mother! An elephant-werewolf! A twin extraterrestrial!” tried his luck Lanchenak.

      “You couldn’t find the correct answer. If you want to know it, give me bananas.”

      “Take it and tell me what it is.”

      “My reflection in the water,” answered Lanchenkar treating himself to bananas.

      “I thought so but I was too shy to say it,” muttered Lanchenak and hurried home.

      Lanchenak summoned all elephants of his herd and said: “I am going to offer you a riddle. If you don’t guess it, you give me a bunch of bananas each.”

      The elephants loved riddles, so they gladly accepted the terms.

      “These are my eyes, my ears, and my trunk. When I extend my trunk to him, he extends his trunk to me. But that’s not me. Who’s that?”

      Lanchenak’s congeners offered one answer after another, but all of them were wrong. Finally they said, “All right, Lanchenak, we give up! You are a friend of the wise Lanchenkar; we are no match for you. So take the bananas and give us the answer!”

      Lanchenak grabbed his trophies, looked at the crowd of elephants with an air of superiority and said, “Why, there’s nothing to it! Makes me think I live among such a stupid herd! The answer is that it is Lanchenkar’s reflection in the water!”

      Two Elephants

      It happened a long time ago when India was a part of Africa. It’s hard to believe this but India was not then in south Asia but in the western part of Africa. Millennia ago India broke away and took a long way to join the Asian continent.

      ***

      Since Africa and India were one once, similar animals can be found there such as huge elephants with their big, round ears and a long nose which is called the trunk and which they use as an arm and a water pipe.

      Elephants inhabit both India and Africa. In India they serve people devotedly: they carry logs for building homes and give a ride to humans on their broad backs. African elephants do not help people. If they are too many, they can destroy all trees around. No less dangerous are African wild elephants for villagers: a herd of 16-foot giants can trample down a village without noticing it.

      ***

      So, India was one with Africa, only a narrow river separated the Indian jungle from the African tropical forest.

      On the day this happened a scorching wind was blowing from the African shore. It was unbearably hot.

      The Indian elephant’s calf, Lanchenkar, was taking a walk around the jungle, as usual. It was hot and he was thirsty. He came to the frontier river, sank his trunk deep to reach the cool stream and quenched his thirst. Like other elephants, he pumped water with his trunk into his mouth.

      After that he had a shower. He took in some water, tossed back his head and hosed his hot sides. He felt so good that he even closed his eyes. When he opened them, he saw an African elephant calf on the other bank. The elephant was tall and tanned.

      “Look at this underling and his small ears. It’s not an elephant, it’s a dwarf,” the African exclaimed arrogantly.

      “What matters is not the size of the body and ears but what’s in your head,” parried Lanchenkar calmly.

      “I am the smartest elephant in Africa!”

      “Oh really? Then tell me: Was one of us born in Africa?”

      “Of course he was!”

      “Was one of us born by an elephant?”

      “Sure.”

      “Is one of us a living creature with his specific features?”

      “No doubt.”

      “Is one of us one being and not several?”

      “Right.”

      “Does it follow from this that one of us may be an elephant because he has a trunk?” continued Lanchenkar.

      “Granted.”

      “Then one of us wasn’t born in Africa!”

      “Why not?”

      “Because one of us was born in India.”

      “Why so?”

      “Because I am one of us!”

      “And who am I then?” asked the African, scratching his head with his trunk pensively.

      “I’ll show you that one of us completely depends on me.”

      “How’s that?”

      “If there is no me, there won’t be one of us, right?”

      “I won’t deny that.”

      “It means he is my slave.”

      “Suppose one of us was born in both Africa and India?”

      “Which of them has a trunk?”

      “What do you mean?”

      “You said one of us has only one trunk, didn’t you?”

      “Yes, I did. It means he was born just in one place, not necessarily Africa and India.”

      “Right. But since he СКАЧАТЬ