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Reading Notes: Santal, Part B

 The Elephant and the Ants

I immediately knew I would like this story due to the fact that it had elephants in it. However, due to my past experiences reading stories about elephants, I guessed that this one would be no different in the way it portrayed the elephants. It seems as all stories leading up to this portray elephants and the largest beasts that are unruly and unkind to others. When I began reading, it was no surprise to me that this is how the elephant was once again displayed. 
The story begins with an elephant walking up on two ants burrowing and tells them he will trample their work. The ants take a stand for themselves and tells the elephant to not be rude to them just because they are small, and there are surely other things that the ants are better at than the elephant. The elephant says that this is nonsense and ends up accepting a challenge from the ants to have a race. They end up starting the race right then and there and the elephant storms off. After sprinting for some time, the elephant looks down and seeing two ants running besides him. He once again speeds up, but after some time he looks down again and sees the ants. The elephant became exhausted and ended up running itself to death. The story ends explaining that the two original ants never actually began the race, but how there are numerous ants that cover the ground so whenever the elephant looked down he only thought he saw the original ants. The morale of the story is to not put anyone down, because we never know when they will be better than us at some things. Also, that the Creator intentionally made some animals large and few (like the elephant), and others small and plentiful (like the ants). 

[Elephant and Ants. Image Information.]

Bibliography

Bompas, Cecil. The Elephant and the Ants. Folklore of the Santal Parganas. Link.

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