Master of the Spirits Series
A Mnong Child

Mnong tribesmen from Vietnam’s southern high plateaux ride their elephants into the jungle to catch monitors and snakes.

Kwan is a Mnong child.  He has just turned ten. 
Tomorrow, he will go hunting in the forest with his father, Ma Kwan.  His uncle Mabé will go along with them. 
Of all the peoples of the high southern plateaux, the Mnong are among the last to go regularly into the forest.
They capture a sort of big lizard there, the varanus, as well as snakes, which they sell to the Vietnamese. 
The Mnong also have a special relationship with elephants which they capture wild in the jungle and then train to the point where they become part of the family. 
But only on one condition: that every elephant must be born free in the jungle.