midnight
One of many mysteries connected with the elephant is that his huge body needs less sleep than anything else that lives . Four or five hours in the night suffice -- two just before midnight , lying down on one side ; two just after one o'clock , lying down on the other . The rest of the silent hours are filled with eating and fidgeting and long grumbling soliloquies . At midnight , therefore , Moti Guj strode out of his pickets , for a thought had come to him that Deesa might be lying drunk somewhere in the dark forest with none to look after him . So all that night he chased through the undergrowth , blowing and trumpeting and shaking his ears . He went down to the river and blared across the shallows where Deesa used to wash him , but there was no answer . He could not find Deesa , but he disturbed all the elephants in the lines , and nearly frightened to death some gipsies in the woods .