The Adventures of Indian elephants or why the African elephants have larger ears than the Indian.
This was longer ago than when tea was exported from India and China. This was before tea clippers to Europe and America, and even before the conquests by the British, Dutch and Portuguese, and before Athanasius Nikitin travelled to India. In general, it was then when the population of the island of Ceylon did not think to separate and organize the state of Sri Lanka. So, that was before once upon a time.
Indian workers uploaded their luggage onto the elephants and went at weekends to Ceylon to relax and work a little bit on the tea plantations .
It was the time when little elephants were left on the East Coast of the Indian subcontinent, and large elephants together with Hindus went to Ceylon.
In that historical and geographical day a Little Elephant was all alone. He was bored. Gulls flew over him without paying any attention.
Once there was a tiger, but it was friendly and lazily disappeared in thickets of jungle.
A fallen tree was laying on the shore. Maybe blown down by the wind and maybe tired of standing on the sun. In general, the tree had fallen down recently and its branches were still green.
The elephant clambered up on the trunk, hiding his head under branches.
-Very good! A gentle wind blowing and close to the water is not so hot!
He gently pushed off and floated. The first time it was interesting, but going away from the coast the elephant was surprised not to see the bottom and later the coast was not visible too. Neither the coast of India nor Ceylon were visible! Nearby floated some toothy fishes, and one remarked sympathetically.
Well, you've got in a pretty mess. The Little Elephant did not pretty mess, but it was scary.
A huge disk of the sun hid behind the horizon for a long time. The surface of the ocean looked like the golden road on which sailed little elephant.
It was scary, but interesting.
The wind blew. The sky was black and the stars were lit.
Suddenly, the еаr of the Little Elephant was itching. He tried to scratch it with a twig sticking out of the trunk branch, but almost fell into the water. And it would be quite bad. Behind him followed toothy big fish, which followed on the heels and just wait for the moment to bite or even to eat something from the Little Elephant. The big fish was very wicked and do not hide it predatory purposes.
The Little Elephant flapped his ears, trying to cope with the upcoming ear scratching
At this moment he felt that the ear was inflated, and the speed of the timber was increasing, because the bloodthirsty big fish began to lag behind. Then the Little Elephant spread out both his ears. They were immediately filled by the wind and carried Little Elephant towards new adventures. Behind of him was a toothy big fish, asking him to slow down.
But the Little Elephant was an Indian, and smart. He did not hide his ears, and with them outstretched was crossing the waters of the Indian Ocean.
The sun was rising and all the leaves had been eaten. The island covered with greenery dissolved away, and the sun began to burn even more. But the little elephant was not taken aback. The little elephant, slightly crouched and lowered his trunk into the oncoming waves and sprayed water. He had already known that the water was warm and not tasty, because it was salty, and he therefore spat it out. The drops of water, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow, rain felt on his back and delighted him! A little elephant with spread out ears climbed the trunk and trumpeted victoriously!
The wind grew stronger, the waves amplified and the sky became cloudy.
-Cyclone - thought little Elephant.
The Little Elephant saw the shore on the crest of the next wave . It was the East Coast of Africa.
A little bit later the trunk carrying the Little Elephant, struck the African coast
That was not far from the confluence of the Limpopo River. The Little Elephant was alive. In a couple of days his mom and dad sailed to find him on the fallen trees from the jungles of India. They reached African coast the same way as their son and gave a joyful howl as they explored the African forests
This arrival of the elephants with ears spread out marked the beginning of a kind of African elephants. Using their ears as sails is the reason that African elephants have bigger ears than their Indian relatives.