Delta the Dancing Elephant

Sweet Memories:

Mother and Freedom

They say an elephant never forgets. It must be true because I can vaguely remember the very first moments of my life. It was a beautiful morning in the Malay Rainforest. The air was wet and warm and I could smell the earth under me through the tip of my trunk. The sun was shining bright into my newborn eyes through the rigid leaves of the betel palms that had created an embracing canopy over my birth site.

I could not really see much except sunlight and a distant green, but I could hear the music of the rainforest very well. The babbler birds and the other animals of the Asian jungle were singing their songs and they created the most beautiful, comforting music to welcome me into the world.

I can faintly remember looking up at my mother who looked back down at me with the most gentle, loving, big beautiful greyish-brown eyes in those very special first moments of my life. She put her face next to my forehead.

I looked up and blinked but could barely see her. She wrapped her large loving trunk around my small body and gave me a soft squeeze.

Mother was a beautiful twenty-one-year-old Asian elephant. Her name was Altamota.

She whispered to me in a low elephant rumble I love you.

I immediately felt an intense love back for her. She later told me how happy she was on this day, for she had been expecting her first-born elephant child: me.

My name is Delta.

My mother named me Delta because my Great Grandmother, Della, was born near the city of Delhi, India. And my mother’s name was Altamota, which means wise child in our language, hence the name Delta, a combination of the two. Both names were formed from our herd name Delamota, which, in elephant language means Team of Peacemakers.

And because I was the first elephant of the fourth generation in our family herd and Delta is the fourth letter in the Roman alphabet, or so my Great Grandmother once rumbled.

It was the year 1929 and I had been born free, so to speak.

Our family lived near the Tungan River along the West part of the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia. Our rainforest was just south of Siam, a country that would later be renamed Thailand.

My home Malaya, now referred to as Malaysia, was then ruled by the sixth Rama who, with the help of the European Empire, cultivated our land and built up the rubber industry. Our land was rich in palms and rubber trees and the humans were making a fortune ravaging the land of its resources.

We elephants, however, tried not to pay much attention to what the humans were up to. We didn’t realize at that time it would have been to our benefit to pay attention to the governing human laws that would affect us and at the same time, not protect us.

I had been born into a large family of aunts, great aunts, one grandmother and one great grandmother.

My Great Grandmother Della was indeed grand and great. She was the Matriarch leader of our family herd. She was very wise and brave and everyone in our family looked up to her.

As I grew and my eyes began to see clearly, I looked around and discovered the rainforest in Malaya was indeed the most beautiful place on Earth.

At that time I had no idea how right I was.

Over the next several months, my family members took turns giving me basic elephant lessons. I learned to use my trunk for many things.

I used it to suck up water and drink, to play with branches and rocks and to throw dirt on my back.

We must throw dirt and grass on our backs to protect our skin from sunburn, my Aunt Ramota told me.

I had a great deal of fun with this. As soon as I learned to throw things, I took full advantage of making a game of it and getting everyone else in my family wet and muddy.

Mother taught me that our trunks are much like an orangutan or human arm and at the same time, a sensory tool.

Our trunks are such wonderful things, Mother said. They are a very special gift. We Asians and our distant cousins, the Africans, are the only animals with such a gift left to walk the Earth now.

I looked up at her and blinked with wonder at her amazing knowledge.

Long ago, we had ancestors, the Mammoths, who also wore trunks, Mother told me.

Our trunks make us different from other beings like humans and orangutans. We use our trunks as a tool to touch, grasp, caress, smell, drink, bathe, move substances and food.

But, what’s a human? I asked, getting off the subject of trunks.

Mother replied, They are much smaller beings than us, but very intelligent. Too intelligent, I’m afraid. They have short noses, but like the orangutans, they have two arms that serve similar purposes as our trunks. You must beware and never trust the humans, Delta, she warned. They have not always been respectful to our kind.

I was also taught to use my ears to pay attention to sounds around me.

Elephants can hear sounds no other beings can, Great Grandmother told me.

We elephants are very attentive listeners. Listen carefully, Delta. Use your ears as a protective tool and they can save you.

I didn’t really understand what that was all about back then, but I knew I loved to use my ears to hear the sounds of music in the rainforest.

As I grew, I learned to love the music the other animals made every morning as the sun would rise. It was a jungle full of beautiful music every day and it helped keep all of us who lived there very happy and living a life filled with joy.

Every time I would lie down to nap, Mother would rumble a special song to me:

Beautiful brown-eyed child,

I want to tell you I love you.

Always remember me.

And I will always be with you.

Never forget our home in these trees.

For today we make special memories.

When I was about ten months old, my father paid a short visit.

Your father, the great Lytek, is coming out of musth and wishes to visit with you, my dear Delta, Mother told me. Your father is a grand, magnificent bull who acts as a teacher for younger bulls. He has been the father of many young elephants in the rainforest. He says you are very special, my darling Delta.

When will he be here and what is musth? I asked her. I was getting very anxious and excited to meet this magnificent father of mine.

He will be here as the sun falls, Mother replied as she looked down at me with her most loving eyes. Musth is a time when a big elephant bull is not so friendly, but a bit more demanding.

And so I waited.

But I was very impatient and Mother felt I needed to get my mind off of it so I went down by the bluff rocks near our camp to play and pass the time until he arrived.

Just as I neared the bluff, I slipped on a sloped area of mud and buckled my knee. I cried out loud. It hurt very badly. This was the first time I felt such intense pain.

I thought it must be broken at first. But after few moments, I was able to put pressure on the leg.

Mother came running.

What is the matter? she asked.

I tripped and hurt my knee, Mother, I replied.

I could not help but start to cry. Tears began falling down my face.

Oh now, it will be okay, Delta, she purred in her most gentle voice. Don’t cry, my love. Don’t cry.

She embraced me with her trunk.

Why do we cry, Mother? I asked her through my tears and pain.

Everyone who can feel will cry sometimes, she replied. We elephants are no exception. We feel emotions and pain just like anyone else with a central nervous system.

What’s a central nervous system? I asked.

It is something inside us that helps our bodies communicates with our minds, she explained. It helps us feel special trunk caresses, she said as she calmly ran her trunk over my forehead and back.

Mother continued patiently answering all my questions. I learned a lot about life that day. But nothing that would compare with my life experiences to come.

Then mother sang me her gentle rumble song and I closed my eyes and drifted off into my afternoon nap.

Beautiful brown-eyed child

I want to tell you I love you.

Always remember me.

And I will always be with you.

Never forget our home in these trees.

For today we make special memories

I awoke several hours later.

My father finally arrived that evening as the sun was setting. I was overtaken by his magnitude and gentle nature.

He was quite handsome looking with very long teeth, or tusks.

He approached my mother first and they looked into each other’s eyes. They stood there like that for a few moments and intertwined trunks.

Then my father slowly walked over to where I was playing with a bamboo branch, trying not to be too obvious. He said Hello my Delta, in a low rumble. He reached out and laid his huge trunk on my forehead just like Mother did. He inspected my injured leg with the tip of his trunk.

Then he gently touched me up and down my back and rolled the tip of his large