The Land of Foam

by Ivan Yefremov

  “Are these forest or plains elephants?”

  “They’re plains elephants. Look for yourself.” Kidogo pointed to an old elephant that was hanging back not far from the rocks where the friends were hiding.

  The grey giant, knee-high in the grass, turned directly towards the watching friends. Its ears were spread out widely on either side, their skin stretched taut like sails. The elephant lowered its head. This movement brought the animal’s sloping forehead forward, deep pits appeared between the eyes and the crown of the head, and the whole head took on the appearance of a heavy pillar that tapered towards the bottom, unnoticeably changing to the vertically pendant trunk. Deep transverse folds, like dark rings, marked the trunk at regular intervals. At the base of the trunk two tubes jutted out at a sharp angle on either side, from which very short and thick tusks spread outwards.

  “I can’t understand how you knew that it was a plains elephant,” whispered Pandion after carefully examining the calm old giant.

  “Do you see his tusks? They’re not broken, they’re worn away. They don’t grow on an old elephant like they do on one in the prime of his life, and he has worn them away because they are soft. You never see such tusks on a forest elephant, they are mostly long and thin.”

  The friends conversed softly. Time passed and the leading elephants disappeared beyond the horizon, the entire herd turning into a dark strip.

  From the left came still another herd. At its head marched four bull elephants of enormous size, almost eight cubits high. They waved their heads as they walked, their long, slightly curved tusks rising and falling and at times touching the grass with their sharp points.

  There were many cows in the herd; these could be distinguished by their sunken backs and the huge folds of skin on their flanks. Baby elephants, pressing close to the hind-legs of the cows, toddled along uncertainly; while to one side, keeping to themselves, was the merry throng of the elephant youth. Their tiny tusks and ears, their small long heads, their big stomachs and the equal length of their fore- and hind-legs distinguished them from the grown-ups.

  The friends realized that the decisive moment of the hunt had come. It was difficult for the baby elephants to march through the swamp, and the herd moved farther to the right on to a strip of hard ground between the bushes and occasional trees.

  “Why is it that such a heavy animal as the elephant doesn’t get stuck in the swamps?” asked Pandion.

  “They have special feet,” began Kidogo, “they…”

  A thunderous noise, made by the hunters banging on sheets of metal and tom-toms, accompanied by their frenzied howls, spread so suddenly across the plain that the friends gasped in amazement.

  The elephant herd, panic-stricken, rushed for the swamp only to find there another line of men with tomtoms and trumpets that rose out of the grass. The leading elephants held back, checking the pressure from those behind. The piercing trumpeting of the frightened elephants, the thunder of metal sheets, the crackle of breaking branches — through all that hellish noise the thin, plaintive whine of the calves could occasionally be heard. The animals dashed here and there, at first bunching together, then again spreading out. The figures of the men could be seen in the dust clouds in the midst of that chaos of milling giants. The hunters did not approach the herd but ran from place to place, reformed their ranks and again beat their metal sheets. Gradually the friends began to understand what the hunters were doing; they were cutting the young elephants off from the adults and forcing them to the right into the open mouth of a dry watercourse that cut into the stone cliff and was protected by a strip of forest. The grey giants ran after the hunters, trying to trample on enemies that had appeared from they knew not where. The men, however, leaping high into the air, hid in the bushes and behind the trees. While the infuriated animals were waving their trunks and seeking their hidden enemies, new rows of hunters, screaming wildly and rattling their metal sheets, appeared from the other side. The elephants turned on the newcomers who repeated the same manoeuvre in an effort to cut off the young elephants.

  The herd moved farther and farther into the grasslands, grey bodies disappeared behind the trees and only the deafening noise and the clouds of dust that rose high into the air indicated the hunting ground.

  The astounded friends, amazed at the bravery and skill of the hunters in avoiding the maddened monsters who charged down on them, and continuing their dangerous business no matter what happened, gazed in silence at the empty land with its crushed bushes and broken trees. Kidogo’s face wore a worried frown as he listened to what was going on, and he said softly:

  “Something’s wrong. The hunt isn’t going the way it should!”

  “How do you know that?” asked the astonished Cavius.

  “They brought us here because they expected the herd to move to the east. The herd has moved off to the right, I suppose that must be bad.”

  “Let’s go over there, back along the ledge, the way we came,” suggested Pandion.

  Kidogo pondered over the suggestion for a moment and then agreed. In the bustle of the hunt their coming could not make any difference.

  Bending low and keeping concealed behind stones and grass, the three friends moved a distance of a thousand cubits back in the direction from which they had come until they were again opposite the open plain.

  They could see the gully in the rocks where the hunters had driven more than a dozen young elephants. The hunters were darting about amongst the trees, skilfully dropping nooses over the animals and fastening them to the tree-trunks.

  A line of warriors armed with broad spears closed the entrance to the gully. The noise and shouting was now at its height some two thousand cubits away; apparently the greater part of the herd was over there.

  Suddenly the loud trumpeting of elephants came from in front and from the left. Kidogo shuddered. “The elephants are attacking,” he whispered. A man let out a long moan, the angry cries of another sounded like words of command.

  On the far side of the open space in front of them, where two wide-spreading trees cast a huge patch of shadow, the friends could see some movement. A moment later a huge elephant appeared from there with his ears outspread and his trunk stretched out in front of him like a log. He was followed by two other similar giants. Pandion recognized in them the monsters who had led the herd. The fourth, accompanied by several other elephants, was a little distance behind. From the bushes on the right hunters ran out to cut off the elephants. They ran between them and as they ran they threw spears at the elephant that had last appeared. The latter trumpeted furiously and turned on the men who were running as fast as their legs could carry them towards the swamp. The other elephants followed him. The three leaders paid no attention to the hunters’ scheme to separate them from their fellows, and continued their race towards the valley between the rocks, most probably attracted by the cries of the young.

  “That’s bad, that’s bad, the leaders have turned in the other direction,” whispered Kidogo excitedly, squeezing Pandion’s arm till it hurt.

  “Look… Look, there’s bravery for you,” shouted Cavius, forgetting himself.

  The hunters that barred the entrance to the valley stood firm and made no attempt to conceal themselves from the infuriated monsters. As they moved forward, strung out in a long chain, the low, burned-out grass offered them no cover.

  The leading elephant rushed straight at the middle of the line of hunters. Two men stood stock-still while their neighbours on either side sprang forward towards the approaching giant. The elephant slackened his pace, raised his trunk high into the air, trumpeted maliciously and set out to trample the hunters underfoot. No more than ten cubits separated the brave men from the elephant when they leapt aside like lightning. At that same moment two men rose out of the grass beside each of the elephant’s hind-legs; two of them thrust their broad spears into the animal’s belly and the other two leaned back to strike at the elephant’s legs.

  A high-pitched, whistling note es
caped the leader’s raised trunk. Lowering it the elephant turned his head towards the nearest man on the right. The hunter could not escape him or was too slow in his movements.

  Blood spurted from his body and the three friends could see from their vantage point the bare bones of his side and shoulder. The wounded man fell to the ground without a sound, but the elephant also collapsed heavily on to its hind-quarters and began slowly crawling away sideways. The hunters that had stopped the leading elephant then joined their comrades who were engaging the other two. These were either cleverer or had previous experience of man; they dashed from side to side, giving the hunters no opportunity to creep up behind them, and crushed three men underfoot.

  The clouds of dust that hung over the scene of the hunt turned red in the rays of the setting sun. The elephants looked like huge black towers at the base of which fearless men were darting to and fro. They leaped into the air to escape the long tusks, met the animals’ trunks with spears thrust shalt downwards into the ground and with loud shouts ran behind the elephants, attracting attention away from other hunters who would otherwise have been trampled to death.

  The frenzied animals kept up their incessant trumpeting. When they turned their heads towards the rocks on which the three friends were sitting, they seemed extraordinarily tall, their widespread ears waved high above the hunters. Seen from the side the elephants, their heads lowered, looked smaller, their tusks almost raked the ground, ready to gore their enemies. Pandion, Cavius and Kidogo realized that they were looking — at only part of the battle; it was going on far away beyond the trees where the herd was concentrated, and away to the left in the swamp where the hunters had drawn off the fourth leader and the elephants that had come with him. The three friends had no idea what was going on there, but they had no time to think about it, for the bloody struggle being enacted before their eyes demanded all their attention.

  From behind the trees came the rumble of approaching tom-toms as several dozen hunters came to the aid of their comrades. The leaders of the elephant herd halted in indecision, the men shouted and waved their spears, and the elephants retreated. They ran to the third, wounded leader, stood one on either side of him, pushed their tusks under his heavy body and lifted him on to his feet. Squeezing him between their huge bodies, they dragged him behind the trees, dropped him, picked him up again and made off. Several of the hunters started out to follow up the elephants, but they were stopped by the chief hunter.

  “He won’t get away… they’ll soon leave him… you’ll infuriate them again…” Kidogo translated his words.

  The noise away to the right died down, apparently the battle had been won. A group of hunters that appeared from the north, from the direction of the swamp, were carrying two inert bodies. Nobody paid any attention to the three friends who made their way cautiously down to the plain to survey the field of battle. They went towards the place where the main herd was concentrated. As they pressed their way through the bushes, Kidogo suddenly jumped back in fright — a dying elephant, the tip of its trunk still quivering, lay on the crown of a tree that he must have broken down by falling against it. Farther on, where the trees were sparser, a second elephant lay in a grey heap on its belly, with bent legs and its back hunched up. As it scented the approach of men it raised its head; the deep folds of skin that lay around its dull, sunken eyes gave the animal an expression of the infinite weariness of old age. The giant lowered its head, leaning” on its tusks, and then with a dull thud fell on its side. The hunters were calling to each other all round. Kidogo waved his hand and turned back — another herd of elephants had appeared from the south. The friends hurried back to the rocks, but this time it was a false alarm — the trained elephants of the Elephant People were approaching.

  The young elephants tied to the trees stuck up their tails and made frantic efforts to get at the men, trying to reach them with their trunks. The elephant drivers placed their trained animals one on either side of the captives. They squeezed them between their bodies and led them away to the village. As a precaution ropes were fixed to the neck and hind-legs of every young elephant; fifteen men in front and behind held the ropes. The tired faces of the hunters, haggard from the terrific strain of the hunt, were filled with gloom. Eleven motionless bodies had already been laid out on the wattle platforms on the backs of elephants, and hunters were still beating the bushes in search of another two missing men.

  The elephants with the captives were led away, and the hunters sat or lay on the ground resting after the fray. The friends went up to the chief hunter and asked him whether there was anything they could do to help. The chief hunter looked at them ‘angrily and said brusquely:

  “Help? What can you do to help, strangers? It’s been a hard hunt and we’ve lost many brave men. Wait where you were told and don’t get in our way!’’

  The friends went back to the rocks and sat down apart from the hunters, afraid to quarrel with people on whom their entire future depended.

  Cavius, Pandion and Kidogo lay down to wait until they were called, and talked softly amongst themselves. The sun was going down and long shadows from the battlemented rocks stretched out into the plain.

  “Still I can’t understand why the huge elephants don’t kill all the people in battle,” said Cavius thoughtfully. “If the elephants were to fight better, they could crush all the hunters to dust…”

  “You’re right,” agreed Kidogo. “It’s the good luck of man that the elephant is fainthearted.”

  “How can that be?” asked the astonished Etruscan.

  “It’s simply because the elephant isn’t used to fighting. He’s so big and strong that no other animal ever attacks him; he’s not threatened with danger since only man is bold enough to hunt him. This is why the grey giant is not a reliable fighter, his will is easily broken, and he can’t stand up to a long fight if he doesn’t crush his enemy immediately. The buffalo is a different case. If the buffalo possessed the size and intellect of the elephant, all those who hunt him would be killed.”

  Cavius muttered something indefinite under his breath; he did not know whether to believe the Negro or not; but then he recalled the indecision which he himself had seen the elephants display at the most decisive moment of the battle and said no more.

  “The spears the Elephant People use are quite different from ours; the blades are eight fingers wide,” put in Pandion. “What enormous strength must be needed to strike with such a spear.”

  Kidogo suddenly stood up and listened. Not a sound came from the side where the hunters had been resting. The sky, golden in the setting sun, was rapidly darkening.

  “They have gone away and forgotten us,” exclaimed the Negro and ran out from behind the rocks.

  Not a soul was to be seen anywhere. In the distance scarcely audible voices were calling to one another; the hunters were on their way back to the village without the three friends.

  “Let’s follow them immediately, the journey is a long one,” said Pandion hastily, but the Negro held his friend back.

  “It’s too late, the sun will disappear soon and we’ll lose our way in the dark,” said Kidogo. “Better wait until the moon comes up, it won’t be long.”

  Pandion and Cavius agreed and lay down to rest.

  VIII. THE SONS OF THE WIND

  Hyenas barked and jackals howled plaintively in the impenetrable darkness. Kidogo was worried, he kept looking towards the east where an ash-grey strip of sky above the treetops heralded the rising moon.

  “I don’t know if there are any wild dogs here or not,” muttered Kidogo. “If there are we’ll be in trouble. Dogs attack together, the whole pack of them, and overcome even the buffalo…”

  The sky grew lighter, the grim, black rocks turned to silver, and the trees in the plain showed up as black silhouettes. The moon had risen.

  The three friends, their spears grasped firmly in their hands, set out southwards along the chain of rocky hills. They hastened away from the gloomy battlefield where t
he carrion eaters were feasting on the dead elephants. The howls died away behind them, the plain around them seemed dead, and only the swift steps of the three men broke the silence of the night.

  Kidogo carefully avoided dense groves of trees and thickets of bushes that formed mysterious black hills towering here and there above the grass. The Negro chose his path through open spaces that gleamed like white lakes in a labyrinth of black islands of vegetation.

  The chain of rocky hills turned to the west, and a narrow strip of forest kept the friends close to the rocks. Kidogo turned to the right and led the way across a long, stony open space, that sloped down in a southerly direction. Suddenly the Negro stopped, turned abruptly round and stood listening. Pandion and Cavius strained their ears but not a sound could they hear in any direction. As before, absolute silence reigned supreme.

  The Negro went hesitantly forward, increasing his pace, and did not answer the whispered questions of the Etruscan and the Hellene. They had advanced a further thousand cubits, when the Negro again stopped. His eyes showed a troubled gleam in the bright moonlight.

  “Something’s following us,” he whispered and lay down with his ear to the ground.

  Pandion followed his friend’s example, but Cavius remained standing, straining his eyes to see through the silver curtain of moonlight.

  Pandion lay with his ear pressed to the hot stony earth and at first could hear nothing but his own breathing. The silent, menacing uncertainty alarmed him.

  Suddenly a weak, scarcely audible sound was transmitted through the earth from a distance. The regularly repeated sounds grew more frequent — click, click, click. Pandion held up his head and the sounds stopped immediately. Kidogo continued listening for some time, pressing first one, then the other ear to the ground; then he leaped to his feet like a spring released.