Buldeo, male, a hunter from the village.
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BULDEO
Toomai held on tightly to his elephant’s back as the elephant ran on and on and on. The night only grew darker. The elephant slowed down and Toomai saw he was surrounded by hundreds of elephants, wild elephants and they were all going in the same direction. They plowed through the thick walls of the jungle trees, to a small clearing, barely large enough to fit three elephants. But the elephants kept coming and the clearing grew larger and larger, expanding with each elephant until the edges of the trees couldn’t be seen across all the wrinkled grey backs. Then a loud trumpeting sound rose among the crowd. Ahooo! Each elephant picked up the call until all 10 hundred of them were trumpeting. Then just as quickly as it started, the call ended. The stamping began. One foot, the next foot, right foot, left foot, front foot, back foot. All the elephants stamping their feet together. But still my friend Toomai hung on to his elephant. He was scared of falling off and being trampled. The elephants stamped together until the sun began to rise in the sky. It’s true. Toomai was a dear friend of mine. He saw it all with his own eyes. He saw the elephants dance.