Now shall ye see
Our Roman hunting.
SHAKESPEARE.
Never did I hear
Such gallant chiding; for besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, ev'ry region near
Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard
So musical a discord, such sweet thunder!
SHAKESPEARE.
At an early hour, Courtenay and his companions started with their
attendants for the scene of action. Several elephants, as well as
horses, had been provided, that the officers might mount them when they
arrived, and fire from their backs with more deliberate aim. In less
than two hours they reached the spot which they had surveyed the day
before. The game, which had been driven from jungle to jungle for many
miles round, was now collected together in one large mass of underwood
and low trees, three sides of which were surrounded by the natives, who
had been employed in the service, and who had been joined by many
hundreds from the town and neighbouring villages. As soon as the party
arrived, those who were on horseback dismounted, took their stations
upon the howdahs of the elephants, and collected at the corner of that
side of the jungle at which the animals were to be driven out. The
scene was one of the most animating and novel description. Forty or
fifty of the superior classes of natives, mounted upon fiery Arabians,
with their long, glittering boar-spears in their hands, and above one
hundred on foot, armed with muskets, surrounded the elephants upon which
the officers were stationed. The people who were waiting round the
jungle, silent themselves, and busy in checking the noise and impatience
of the dogs, held in leashes, whose deep baying was occasionally
answered by a low growl from the outskirts of the wood, now received the
order to advance. Shouts and yells, mixed with the barking of the dogs,
were raised in deafening clamour on every side. The jungle, which
covered a space of fifteen or twenty acres, and which had hitherto
appeared but slightly tenanted, answered as if endued with life, by
waving its boughs and rustling its bushes in every direction, although
there was nothing to be seen.
As they advanced, beating with their long poles, and preserving a
straight and compact line, through which nothing could escape, so did
the jungle before them increase its motion; and soon the yells of
thousands of men were answered by the roars and cries of thousands of
brute animals. It was not, however, until the game had been driven so
near to the end of the jungle at which the hunters were stationed, and
until they were huddled together so close that it could no longer
contain them, that they unwillingly abandoned it. The most timorous,
the rabbit and the hare, and all the smaller tribes, first broke cover,
and were allowed to pass unnoticed; but they were soon followed by the
whole mass, who, as if by agreement among themselves, had determined at
once to decide their fate.
Crowded in incongruous heaps, without any distinction of species or of
habits, now poured out the various denizens of the woods--deer in every
variety, locking their horns in their wild confusion; the fierce
wild-boars, bristling in their rage; the bounding leopards; the swift
antelope, of every species; the savage panthers; jackals, and foxes, and
all the screaming and shrieking infinities of the monkey tribe.
Occasionally, amongst the dense mass could be perceived the huge
boa-constrictor, rolling in convolutions--now looking back with fiery
eyes upon his pursuers, now precipitating his flight--while the air was
thronged with its winged tenants, wildly screaming, and occasionally
dropping down dead with fear. To crown the whole, high in the expanse,
a multitude of vultures appeared, almost stationary on the wing, waiting
for their share of the anticipated slaughter. And as the beasts threw
down and rolled over each other in their mad career, you might have
fancied from the universal terror which prevailed, that it was a day of
judgment to which the inhabitants had been summoned.
It was not a day of mercy. The slaughter commenced; shot after shot
laid them in the dust, while the natives, on their Arabians, charged
with their spears into the thickest of the crowd, regardless of the risk
which they encountered from the muskets of other parties. The baying of
the large dogs, who tore down their victims, the din occasionally
increased by the contention and growls of the assailed, the yells of the
natives, and the shrill cries of the elephants, raised, in obedience to
their conductors, to keep the more ferocious animals at a distance,
formed a scene to which no pen can do justice. In a few minutes all was
over; those who had escaped were once more hid, panting, in the
neighbouring jungles, while those who had fallen covered the ground, in
every direction, and in every variety.
"Very fine tiger-hunt, sar," observed the interpreter to Courtenay, with
exultation.
"Very fine indeed: Seymour, this is something like a battue. What would
some of your English sportsmen have given to have been here? But,
interpreter, I don't see any tigers."
"Great tigers? No, sar, no great tiger in this country. Call dis
tiger?" said the man, pointing with his finger to a prostrate leopard.
Such is the case--the regal Bengal tiger, as well as his rival the lion,
admits of no copartnership in his demesnes. On the banks of the
impetuous rivers of India, he ranges, alone, the jungles which supply
his wants, and permits them not to be poached by inferior sportsmen.
Basking his length in the sun and playing about his graceful tail, he
prohibits the intrusion of the panther or the leopard. His majestic
compeer seems to have entered into an agreement with him, that they
shall not interfere with each other's manorial rights, and where you
find the royal tiger, you need not dread the presence of the lion. Each
has established his dominion where it has pleased him, both respecting
each other, and leaving the rest of the world to be preyed upon by their
inferiors.
"Well, Prose, how many did you kill?"
"Why, to tell you the truth, Seymour, I never fired my musket. I was so
astonished and so frightened that I could not; I never believed that
there were so many beasts in the whole universe."
"I am convinced," observed Macallan, "that I saw an animal hitherto
undescribed--I fired at it, but an antelope bounded by as I pulled my
trigger, and received the ball--I never regretted anything so much in my
life. Did you see it?"
"I saw a number of most indescribable animals," replied Courtenay; "but
let us descend, and walk over the field of slaughter."
The party dismounted, and for some time amused themselves with examining
the variety of the slain. The deer and antelopes were the most
plentiful; but, on enumeration, nine panthers and leopards, and fifteen
wild-boars, headed the list. Prose and Seymour were walking side by
side, when they perceived a monkey sitting on the ground, with a most
pitiful face; it was of a small variety, with a long tail; it made no
effort to escape as they approached it, but on the contrary appeared to
court their notice, by looking at them with a melancholy air, and
uttering loud cries, as if in pain.
"Poor little fellow," said Seymour, apostrophising the animal, "it looks
as if it were a rational being.--Where are you hurt?"
The monkey, as if it were a rational being, looked down at one of his
hind legs, and put his finger into the wound where the ball had entered.
"Well, now, I do declare," said Prose, "but the poor beast understands
you."
Seymour examined the leg without any resistance on the part of the
monkey, who continued to look first at the wound, and then in their
faces, as if to say, "Why did you do it?"
"Macallan, come here," ejaculated Seymour, "and see if you can assist
this poor little fellow."
Macallan came up, and examined the wound. "I think it will recover; the
bone is not broken, and no vital part is touched. We'll bandage it up,
and take him home."
"How very like a human being it is," observed Courtenay; "it appears
only to want speech--it's really excessively annoying."
"Rather mortifying to our pride, I grant," replied Macallan.
"That's exactly what I mean."
Seymour tore up his handkerchief for bandages, and the monkey was
consigned to the care of a native. (_Par parenthese_, it eventually
recovered; and from the peculiarity of its history, and the request of
Seymour, was allowed by Captain M--- to remain on board of the frigate,
where it became a great favourite. HIGH CASTE, on the contrary,
disappeared a few days after his reception, having been thrown overboard
by some of the people that he had bitten, and Captain M--- made no
inquiries after him. So much for the two monkeys.)
By this time the natives had collected the game, which was carried in
procession before the officers. The leopards and panthers, which they
skinned and rudely stuffed with grass, in an incredibly short time,
leading the procession, followed by the wild boars, deer, and antelopes,
each carried between two men, slung under bamboos, which rested on their
shoulders. The procession having passed in review before them,
continued its course to the town, followed by crowds of people who had
come out to join the sport.
"Gentlemen, like dine here?" inquired the interpreter--"soon make dinner
ready, but no ab tent."
"Thanks to _you_, doctor, they won't trust us with another. I vote we
dine here; for I am hungry enough to eat a buffalo, without anchovy
sauce--eh, Mr Prose? Let us dine under yon acacia, on the little
mount. There is a fine breeze blowing, and plenty of shade from the
tree."
Courtenay's proposal was agreed to, and the interpreter gave the
directions. He then told the doctor, that if Saib wished to see
snake-man, he come now, and bring very fine snake.
The man made his appearance, holding in his hand a small earthen chatty,
or pot, in which he had confined the snake, covered over with a linen
rag. He exchanged a few sentences with the interpreter, who explained
that "man not afraid of bite of snake, and if gentleman give him rupee,
he let snake bite him--man eat herb, same as little beast that kill
snake."
"Oh, that plant that the ichneumon resorts to when bitten," exclaimed
Macallan. "This will be a most curious fact, and I must witness it.
Interpreter, tell him that I will reward him handsomely."
"How does he catch the snakes?" inquired Seymour.
"Blow little pipe, sar," replied the interpreter, pointing to a small
reed, perforated with five or six holes, suspended by a string to the
man's neck; "snake like music."
He then proceeded to explain the manner of taking the snakes, which was
effected by lying down close to the hole where the snake was, and by
playing a few soft notes with the pipe. The snake, attracted by the
sound, puts his head out of the hole, and is immediately firmly grasped
by the neck, by which he is held until his fangs are extracted, by
jerking them out with a piece of rag, held for him to bite at.
"Strange," observed Courtenay, "that snakes should be fond of music, and
still stranger that people should have discovered it."
"And yet it has long been known--perhaps, from time immemorial,"
answered Macallan. "The comparisons of Scripture are all derived from
eastern scenery and eastern customs. Do you not recollect the words of
the Psalmist, who compareth the wicked to the deaf adder, who `will not
harken to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely'?"
"I recollect it now," answered Courtenay; "from which I infer, that as
snakes are not caught for nothing, they danced before King Solomon."
"Perhaps they did, or at least in his time."
The man carefully removed the cloth from the top of the chatty, and
watching his opportunity, seized the snake by the neck, who immediately
wound itself round his arm. Holding it in that position, he rapidly
chewed leaves which he had wrapped in the cloth which encircled his
loins. After having laid a heap of the masticated leaves near him, he
swallowed a large quantity, and then applied the head of the snake to
his left ear, which the animal immediately bit so as to draw blood. It
was a cobra di capella of the largest size, being nearly six feet long.
As soon as the snake had bitten him, he replaced it in the chatty, and
at the same time that he continued to swallow the leaves, rubbed the
wounded part with some of the heap which he had masticated, and laid
down beside him.
There was a silence, and a degree of painful anxiety, on the part of the
spectators, during the process. The man appeared to be sick and giddy,
and lay down, but gradually recovered, and making a low salaam, received
his largess, handed the snake, in the chatty, to Macallan, and departed.
"A most curious fact--an excessively curious fact," observed the doctor,
putting up his tablets, and a handful of the leaves, which he had taken
the precaution to obtain.
"Now, gentlemen, dinner all ready," observed the interpreter.
The dinner had been spread out on the little mount pointed out by
Courtenay. It rose, isolated from the plain, to the height of about
thirty feet, with a steep and regular ascent on every side. The summit
was flat, and in the centre the acacia waved its graceful and pendent
flowers to the breeze, each moment altering the position of the bright
spot of sunshine, which pierced through its branches, and reflected on
the grass beneath. The party (consisting of the officers of the ship,
the grave deputy, and his immediate suite, about fifteen in number),
whose appetites were keen from their morning exercise and excitement,
gladly hailed the summons, and seating themselves in a circle round the
viands, which were spread under the tree, crossed their legs, after the
Mahometan custom, and made a furious attack upon the provender.
Macallan, to secure his newly-acquired treasure, hung the chatty, by its
string, upon one of the long thorns of the acacia, and then took his
seat with the rest. Ample justice having been done to what had been
placed before them, mirth and good-humour prevailed. Courtenay had just
persuaded the grave old deputy to break through the precepts of his
religion, and partake of the forbidden cup, in the shape of a tumbler of
madeira, when the chatty, which the doctor had suspended aloft, by the
constant waving of the tree to the wind, worked off the thorn, and
falling down in the very centre of the circle, smashed into atoms, and
the cobra di capella met their gaze, reared upon the very tip of his
tail, his hood expanded to the utmost in his wrath, hissing horribly,
and darting out his forked tongue,--wavering, among the many, upon whom
first to dart.
Never was a convivial party so suddenly dispersed. For one, and but one
moment, they were all paralysed; no one attempted to get up and run
away--then, as if by a simultaneous thought, they all threw themselves
back, tossing their heels over their heads, and continuing their
eccentric career. Mussulmen and Europeans all tumbled backwards, heels
over heads, down the descent, diverging in every point of the compass,
until they reached their respective situations at the bottom of the
mount; while the cobra di capella still remained in his menacing
attitude, as if satisfied with the universal homage paid to his dreadful
powers.
They all recovered their legs (as they had gained the bottom of the
hill) about the same time. Courtenay and Seymour, now that the danger
was over, were convulsed with laughter--Macallan in amazement--Prose,
with his eyes starting out of his head, uttering his usual "I do
declare"--the deputy as grave as ever--and the remainder, fortunately,
more frightened than they were hurt.
One of the native servants put an end to the scene, by reascending the
hill with a long bamboo, with which he struck the animal to the ground,
and subsequently despatched him. By this time all had recovered from
their alarm, and in a few minutes their seats were resumed. The doctor,
who was vexed at the loss of his snake, commenced an examination of the
body, and was still more mortified to find that the wily Hindoo had
deceived him, the venomous fangs having been already extracted.
"It is positively a fact," observed he to Courtenay, in ill-humour, "he
has cheated me."
"A most curious fact," replied Courtenay, shrugging up his shoulders,
and lowering the corners of his mouth. "Now, Macallan, what's the use
of your memoranda about time of biting, appearance of patient, etcetera?
Allow, for once, that there are some things which are `excessively
annoying.'"
The party soon after remounted, and proceeded to the town. The next
morning they repaired on board, and the queen having, at last, concocted
the letter of thanks, the _Aspasia_ weighed, and proceeded to Bombay.