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various forest habitats frequented by elephants in order to forage, collect raw mate-
rials, or tend their fi elds. Elephants will also wander close to human settlements to
raid grain fi elds and banana plantations, and to drink from artifi cial reservoirs in the
dry season. An unexpected encounter with an elephant can very easily prove fatal,
and the Solega are always on the alert for the primarily auditory cues that signal the
presence of elephants:
Ondu maravo murritave, “bu:r” endave, ada hiḍiya bahudu. Matte kĩvĩya ondu taradalli
“moṭṭakko moṭṭakko moṭṭakko” endu hoḍda:de. A: saddadalli hiḍitivĩ na:vu. Ondu ondu
a:ne alli murda:de, adave murda:de. “Kirri” enda:de, idalli “goḍrrr” enda:de, e:vadondu
sadda koṭṭa:de. I: he:ḷu “boddo boddo boddo boddo” endu surda:de. A: tara nanaga
gotta:gi “idu a:netta, be:re oṭṭo:gõ”, enda:ki oṭṭo:itivĩ.
They’ll shake a tree, you hear “ bu:r ”, that’s how you know. Then they fl ap their ears, mak-
ing the sound “ moṭṭakko... moṭṭakko... moṭṭakko ”. That’s how we know they’re there. The
elephants trumpet, going “ kirri ” or “ goḍrrr ”, one of those sounds. They make the sound
“ boddo boddo boddo boddo ”. That’s how we know, “There are elephants here, lets go else-
where,” and we go away.
While the sounds made by elephants tell a human that the animals are danger-
ously close, visual signals serve to provide an earlier warning of an elephant ’s
whereabouts:
Hosa ajje biṭṭide, o: illi a:ne ade, illi ho:gu be:ḍi i: gaddega endivi. va:saneli gotta:itade,
jiḍḍoḍetade, laddi ha:kirtade, i: mara giḍa ella murdu tindukoṇḍu ho:girtave, inta
ja:gadalli a:ne ade
There are fresh tracks. “Oh! There’s an elephant here, don’t go into this forest!” we say. We
know from the smell—the elephant urinates, defecates, it breaks branches and tramples
plants as it passes along, eating. Places like these have elephants.
Sometimes, however, one fi nds onself face-to-face with an elephant. In such a
situation, it is important to try and predict what the animal might do next, by looking
for crucial signs:
Ti:rtade ka:la, munga:la ti:rtavane avã, avã ro:puga:rã endu. A:ga na:vu tappisuma:ku.
It scrapes the ground with its foreleg, with its foot, to let you know that it’s angry. That’s
when you need to fl ee.
Humans also give off signals that may be picked up by other animals. This cat-
egory of signs was rarely mentioned in my recordings, but two instances of animals
reacting to the presence of humans were mentioned by a few speakers. In both
cases, elephants were the recipients of both physical and ‘metaphysical’ signs ema-
nating from humans, and reacted appropriately. In the following extract, the speaker
explains how elephants are able to detect the presence of humans in the forest, even
before the human might be aware of the elephant ’s proximity:
Namma va:sane a:neka gotta:dde. A:neka to:rrda:de, a: va:sane. A: va:sane to:rrda:ga
a:ne alli suṇḍilu etti a:ga no:ḍda:de. Adakka gotta:go:da:de, namage gotta:ga:dille.
The elephant knows our smell. It alerts them, and when it smells us, it lifts up its trunk, and
looks around. That’s how it knows; you wouldn’t know that it’s there.Elephants also react to the taint of wrongdoing emanating from one who has broken
social or religious norms, and can unleash the ultimate divine retribution upon the
offender:
6 Signs and Relationships