The Journey by John Marsden Page A

what’s happening to them, whereas humans do. Maybe that’s one of the differences between animals and humans. Humans know that one day they have to die, but I don’t think animals know that.’
    â€˜I don’t know which is worse,’ Cassim said.
    â€˜Some animals understand,’ Tiresias said quietly. Unnoticed by Argus he had drawn closer to the fire. The flames were reflecting on his dark face. ‘Elephants understand.’
    â€˜Elephants?’ Temora asked, a little astonished.
    â€˜Yes, elephants,’ Tiresias repeated. ‘I’ve seen an elephant deliberately sacrifice its own life to save another, and I believe that it knew what it was doing.’
    â€˜Tell us,’ someone said, but Tiresias, unaccustomed to speaking in front of others, paused a long while before going on.
    â€˜Many years ago,’ he finally began, ‘I was watching a big herd of elephants grazing at the bottom of quite a steep cliff. Near me was a family group — a mother and three of her calves. The oldest was perhaps four or five. Suddenly I heard a rumble like distant thunder and at the same time the ground began to tremble. The elephants looked around them in fear, as indeed I did. But it was from above that the danger was coming. High above us a landslide had started, and was coming down a funnel in the rock with frightening speed. The shape of the funnel meant that the landslide itself was restricted to a narrow area, and I was well clear of its path. But the big cow elephant was not. She had been feeding a little bit away from her calves, and a massive boulder the size of a caravan was hurtling towards her. It was at the heart of the landslide, but the old elephant, confused by the echoes coming off the cliffs opposite us, did not see it. Her oldest calf saw it, however. Flinging his trunk in the air and lifting his front feet, he charged across the empty ground and threw himself in front of the boulder. He took the full impact of it. It killed him instantly, I think, but he slowed its progress and by then his mother had time to get out of the way.’
    â€˜What happened then?’ Ruth asked. Argus suppressed a giggle at the thought that Ruth of all people would be concerned about elephants.
    â€˜Well, the other members of the herd reacted the way elephants nearly always react when they come across a dead or dying elephant. They gathered around him and tried to lift him with their tusks and trunks. The mother seemed to be especially distressed. They stayed around him for the rest of the day and, although some would wander off for a few hours, they would always come back. At times there would be a circle of elephants around the corpse, packed so tightly that I couldn’t see what they were doing; at other times there’d only be one or two. Late in the afternoon one of the big bulls seemed to be tugging at the tusks of the dead calf, as though he wanted to remove them. I’d heard of that happening, but I’d never seen it before. Anyway, if that’s what he was trying to do, he was unsuccessful, and round about dusk they ambled away, although some still lingered till well after dark. When I came back the next morning, they’d covered the body with branches and mud.’
    â€˜Oh, that can’t be true,’ Mayon protested.
    Tiresias smiled. ‘It’s amusing to hear a storyteller objecting to a story on those grounds. Nevertheless it is true and it’s quite common behaviour among elephants. And that’s not the only thing about them that surprises people. For instance, with this calf I was telling you about, for six weeks or so, every elephant that passed that spot would come over and inspect the body, even if they were from a different herd. And, as the process of decomposition took over, the elephants would frequently pick up bones and wave them around as though they were examining them. Don’t ask me what they were doing. I’ve