Toomai of the Elephants

{{Short description|1893 short story by Rudyard Kipling}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

File:T2JB503 - illustration.jpg (Rudyard's father)]]

"Toomai of the Elephants" is a short story by Rudyard Kipling about a young elephant-handler. It was first published in the December 1893 issue of St. Nicholas magazine and reprinted in the collection of Kipling short stories, The Jungle Book (1894).{{cite web|title=Toomai of the Elephants|url=http://www.kipling.org.uk/rg_toomai1.htm|work=Reader's Guide|publisher=The Kipling Society|access-date=17 March 2013|quote=Notes edited by Alan Underwood and John Radcliffe}} The character Petersen Sahib is thought to be modelled on India-born English naturalist George P. Sanderson (1848–1892).{{cite journal |url=http://www.johnradcliffe.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/textfiles/KJ180.txt |author=Tasker, Sir Theodore |title=Petersen sahib |journal=The Kipling Journal |year=1971 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120124213/http://www.johnradcliffe.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/textfiles/KJ180.txt |archive-date=20 November 2007}}

The story was filmed in 1937 as Elephant Boy directed by Robert Flaherty and Zoltan Korda, starring Sabu. The story was also produced in 1973 as the TV series Elephant Boy starring Esrom Jayasinghe.

==Plot==

Big Toomai, the boss driver of elephants, takes little pleasure from his work, but his 10-year-old son, Little Toomai, loves the elephants and they understand his kindness. Asking to go on a hunt, his father tells him he can go when he sees the elephants dance, which is something that no man has ever seen an elephant do but later he will.