when the beat commenced; I thought that the forest winds were in an
evil temper, but Sher Bagh cried to Baghni, 'Quick! we must go far, for
now comes the hate of the white-faced kind, for the beat is their way
of a kill.' We lay quiet in our _Nullah_, thinking they might pass.
'Tap, tap, tap!' I heard on one side, much like the klonk, klonk! of
Mis-gar (coppersmith bird). 'What is that?' I asked my Sire.
"'The sal trees cry because they are stricken by the Beaters,' he
answered. 'Tum, tum, tum-m!' I heard from the other side of the
_Nullah_. 'Is it the belling of a Nilgai?' I asked. 'The little Gonds
who are of this beat call with their drums,' answered Sher Bagh. 'All
the jungle is falling,' I cried. 'It is the coming of Hathi,' answered
my Sire, 'for it is a beat of many Hathi. Come, Baghela, come, Baghni,'
he called, and we stole like frightened Chinkara through the sal and
pipal jungle.
"'To the Baghni-wali nulla!' (tigress valley) cried Sher Bagh to us as
we followed. But as we sought to enter this place of many caves a
Beater smote at us with the thunder-stick from a tree, but that was
only to frighten us away, for Bagh whispered, 'The Beaters are not to
make the kill.'
"'Here will be little spoor for them to follow,' growled Sher Bagh as
we ran. Soon we thought we had lost those who sought our lives. As we
rested for a little while in some thick, wild plum bushes they came all
about us. There were many Hathi, and on three of the Hathi were little
caves----"
"Haudas," corrected Elephant. "That is the way the Men-kind ride on my
back when we are in the beat."
"And the Men had thunder-sticks with which they smote Sher Bagh and
Baghni. 'Waw, waw-houk!' roared my Sire when he was
struck--'Che-waugh!' he cried to me, 'flee, Baghela, while I charge.'
With a rush he sprang on a big Hathi's nose, and I think he got even to
the hauda, for the Hathi turned and ran, screaming with pain; and I,
seeing this, broke from my cover and charged back through the Beaters
who were on foot. Just in my path I saw one of the Beaters striking two
sticks together. Being cross because of my hot pads, and what they had
done to Sher Bagh, I seized this one, and took him with me.
"After that, I lived alone, and because the Jungle Dwellers had fled
from those parts, and because of the wrong we had from these Gonds, I
became a Man-killer, eating that which was put in my reach."
"How did they catch you?" questioned Wolf.
[Illustration: "MY SIRE ... SPRANG ON A BIG HATHI'S NOSE."]
"Because I sought to change my way of life," answered Bagh, "and
leaving the Man-kill I made to satisfy my hunger with a Goat. I heard
the Goat cry at night-time," continued Bagh, "and after a careful
stalk, finding nothing of the presence of Man, I sprang on Bakri the
Goat----"
"And the Goat captured you," cried Magh, gleefully.
"Together we fell into a deep hole that had been dug by the evil little
Gonds. Though I ate the Bakri I could not get out again, and in the
morning the Men were all about me, both white and black. How the little
Men reviled me! But it seemed the Sahibs wanted to take me alive, so
they dug another hole close to the one in which I was, put a big wooden
cage with a door to it down, and then with long spears broke through
the walls between the cage and the hole I was in. Of course, I was glad
enough to go any place; besides, they threw down on me their dreadful
fire. I sprang in the cage and the door dropped behind me. Then many of
the Men-kind pulled the cage out with ropes, and I was sent here to
Sa'-zada."
Fifth Night
The Story of the Tribe of King Cobra
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
FIFTH NIGHT
THE STORY OF THE TRIBE OF KING COBRA
It was the fifth night of the Sa'-zada tales. As usual, Hathi, Grey
Wolf, and all the other animals, jostling each other merrily like a lot
of schoolboys, had gathered in front of Tiger's cage.
Said the Keeper: "Comrades, you must all be very careful, for this is
Snake's night."
"Oo-o-oh!" whimpered Jackal, "is Nag the Cobra to come here among us?"
Even Hathi trembled, and blowing softly through his trumpet, said: "Oh,
Sa'-zada, I who am a Lord of the Jungle, fearing not any Dweller
therein, feel great pains this evening. I am sure that hay is musty and
has disagreed with me. If you do not mind, Little Brother, I will go
back to my stall and lie down."
"Will Deboia the Climber come also, Little Master?" asked Magh. "If so,
I think my Terrier Pup is feeling unwell; I will take him to my cage
and wrap him in his blanket. I hate snake stories, anyway."
"Hiz-z-z!" laughed Python, who was already there. "Lords of the Jungle
indeed! When I strike or throw a loop, or go swift as the wind through
the Jungle--Thches-s-s! but I am no boaster. See our friends. When the
smallest of my kind are to be here each one makes his excuses."
"Never fear, Comrades," Sa'-zada assured the frightened animals, "Nag
the Cobra, and Karait, and all the others will behave themselves if
they are left alone. Only don't move about, that's all. The first law
when Snakes are about is--keep still."
"Yes, we like quietness," assented Python. "Once there was a fussy old
Buffalo Bull who used to come to my pool and stir up the mud until it
was scarce fit to live in. In the end I threw a loop around his neck,
and he became one of the quietest Bulls you ever saw in your life."
"Now, Comrades," said Sa'-zada, as he returned accompanied by the
Dwellers of the Snake House, "Hamadryad, the King Cobra, has promised
us a story."
"Look at my length," cried Hamadryad, drawing his yellow and black
mottled body through many intricate knots like a skein of colored silk;
"think you I was born this way just as I am? At first--that was up in
the Yoma Hills in Burma--I was not much larger than a good-sized hair
from Tiger's mustache, and since then it has been nothing but
adventure. Even my Mother, where she had us hid in a pile of rocks
covered with ferns, had to fight for our lives."
"Phuff!" retorted Boar, disdainfully, "many a nest of Cobra eggs have I
rid the world of."
"Not of my kind, I'll warrant," snorted Python, blowing his foul breath
like a small sirocco almost in Pig's face. "Of Nag, or Hamadryad's
family, perhaps, yes, for, know you, Comrades, what Nagina does with
her eggs? Lays them in the sun to hatch _apsi_ (of themselves). But my
Mother--ah, you should have seen her, Comrades; all the eggs gathered
in a heap, and her great, beautiful body--much like my own in
color--wound tenderly about them until the young came forth. Perhaps a
matter of two moons and never a bite for her to eat all the time.
That's what I call being a genuine Mother."
"Very wise, indeed, and thoughtful," cried the Salt Water Snake. "My
Mother--well I remember it--carried her eggs about in her body till
they were hatched, which seems to me quite as good a plan. Also, nobody
molests us--if they do, they die quickly. We all can kill quite as
readily as Nag the Cobra, though there is less talk about us."
"Even so," assented Hamadryad, "the proof of the matter is in being
here; and, as I was going to say, it is this way with my people; in the
hot weather when there is no rain we burrow in the ground for months at
a stretch. And then the rains come on and we are driven out of our
holes by the water, and live abroad in the Jungles for a time. It was
at this season of the year I speak of; I had just come up out of my
burrow and was wondrous hungry, I can tell you; and, traveling, I came
across the trail of a Karait. I followed Karait's trail, and found him
in a hole under a bungalow of the Men-kind. It was dry under the
bungalow, so I rested after my meal in the hole that had been Karait's.
It was a good place, so I lived there. Every day a young of the
Men-kind----"
"I know," interrupted Mooswa; "a Boy, eh?"
"Perhaps; but the old ones called him 'Baba.' And Baba used to come
every day under the bungalow to play. He threw little sticks and stones
at me; but nothing to hurt, mind you, for he was small. The things he
threw wouldn't have injured a Fly-Lizard as he crawled on the bungalow
posts. He laughed when he saw me, and called, as he clapped his little
hands, and I wouldn't have hurt him--why should I? I don't eat Babas.
"When I heard the heavy feet of the Men I always slipped in the hole;
but, one day, by an evil chance I was to one side looking for food, and
Baba was following, when his Mother saw me. Such a row there was, the
Men running, and Baba's Mother calling, and only the little one with no
fear. Surely it was the fear of which Chita and Hathi have spoken which
came over the Men-kind.
[Illustration: "AND BABA USED TO COME EVERY DAY UNDER THE BUNGALOW TO
PLAY...."]
"There was one of a great size, like Bear Muskwa, with a stomach such
as Magh's. He was a native baboo. He had a black face, and his voice
was like the trumpet of Hathi; but when I went straight his way, and
rose up to strike, his fat legs made great haste to carry him far away.
Then I glided in the hole."
"Ghur-ah! it seems a strange tale," snarled Wolf; "even I would not
dare, being alone, to chase one of the Men-kind."
"It may be true," declared Sa'-zada, "for it is written in the Book
that Hamadryad is the only Snake that will really chase a man, and show
fight."
"I could hear the Men-kind talking and tramping about," continued King
Cobra, "and meant to lie still till night, and then go away, for I
usually traveled in the dark, you know. But presently there was a soft
whistling music calling me to come out; and also at times a pleading
voice, though of the Men-kind, I knew that, 'Ho, Bhai (brother), ho,
Raj Naga (King Cobra)! come here, quick, Little Brother.' Then the soft
whistle called me, sometimes loud, and sometimes low, and even the
noise was twisting and swinging in the air just as I might myself.
"Hiz-z-z-za! but I commenced to tremble; and I was full of fear, and I
was full of love for the soft sounds, and with my eyes I wished to see
it. So I came out of the hole, and there was a Black Man making the
soft call from a hollow stick."
"A Snake Charmer with his pipes," exclaimed Sa'-zada.
"I raised up in anger, thinking that he, too, would soon run away; but
he pointed with his hand, now this way, from side to side, even as the
sweet sound from the hollow stick seemed to twist and curl in the air;
and following his hand with my eyes, I commenced to swing as the hand
swung.
"'Ho, Little Brother!' he called, 'come here.'
"It was to a basket at his side; for, though I meant not to do it, I
glided into it."
"That was the manner of your taking?" asked Chita.
"Better than having one's toes squeezed in an iron trap," declared
Jackal.
"Or being beaten by chains," murmured Hathi.
"Yes, the taking was simple enough; but if Baba had not cried, the Men
would have killed me, I think."
"And that was how you came to Lower Burma?" asked Sa'-zada.
"Yes," answered Hamadryad, "this man who made music with the hollow
stick took me with him, and at every place where there were any of his
fellows he brought me forth from the basket, and made me dance to his
music. That was what he called it--dance."
"Why didn't you bite him?" queried Rattler, making his tail rattles
sing in anger.
"He pulled out my fangs," declared Hamadryad.
"He-he," sneered Magh; "now surely it is a great lie, this wondrous
tale of Cobra's, for in his mouth are the very fangs he says the
black-faced player of music pulled."
"Most wise Ape," said Hamadryad, ironically, "what your big head, like
unto a Jack fruit, does not understand, is a lie, forsooth. Even though
my teeth were pulled three times, they would grow again; but you do not
know that--therefore it is a lie. Even now, behind these that you see,
and perhaps yet may feel if you keep on, are others waiting the time
when these may be broken. Was it not Hathi said some wise animal
arranged all these things for us?"
"Sa'-zada says it is God," interrupted Hathi.
"This man made me fight with a Mongoos, that those of his kind might
laugh."
"What is a Mongoos?" queried Magh.
"Our natural enemy," answered King Cobra, "just as Fleas and other
Vermin are yours. But I killed the squeaky little beast with one drive
of my head--broke his back. At Ramree a Sahib bought me from the black
man."
"That was the Sahib who sent you here, I fancy," suggested Sa'-zada.
"Perhaps. At any rate he seemed fond of Snakes of my kind, for he put
me in a box wherein was one of my family. But he should have known more
about our manner of life, for he nearly starved us through ignorance of
our taste. He puts Rats and Frogs, and Birds and such Vermin as that
in, with never so much as a Green-Tree-Snake. The yellow-faced Burmans
used to come in front of our cage and touch us up with sticks until my
nose was skinned with striking at them and hitting the bars.
"Our getting something to eat was a pure accident. One night this Sahib
stepped on a Snake--a young Rock Snake, which had curled up in the path
for the warmth of the hot earth. 'Oh, ho!' said the Sahib, bringing
this new Snake to our cage, 'you are looking for trouble, little _Samp_
(snake). Let us see how you get on in there,' and he threw him in our
box, expecting to see a fight."
"And did he?" queried Magh.
"Hiz-z-z-za! I should say so. My mate and I fought half an hour before
we settled who was to eat the visitor."
"You two Comrades fought over it?" asked Mooswa.
"Yes; that is our way. Two Snakes cannot eat one--how else should we
settle the question? we were both hungry. Why, one day my mate flew at
me, and I could see in his eye that he meant eating me, and in
self-defence I was forced to put him out of the way of mischief, but
the Sahib pulled us apart.
"But if I hated the Yellow Men who came to my cage, I liked the
Mem-Sahib (white lady). I think it was her voice. Hiz-z, hiz-z, hiz-z!
It was as soft as the song the man had brought forth from the hollow
stick. Sometimes I would hear her voice-song near my box, and it would
put me to sleep; only, of course, I had to keep one eye open lest my
mate would try to eat me----"
"I had no idea Snakes were so fond of each other," said Magh,
maliciously.
"Yes; I think I should have eaten _him_ to have saved that worry. But I
must tell you about the Mem-Sahib and the Cook. He was small and so
black--a perfect little Pig. One day when the Sahib was away, the Cook
became possessed of strange devils."
"Became drunken on his Master's liquor, I suppose," remarked Sa'-zada.
"Perhaps, for he came and took me out of the box, wound me around his
shoulders and waist, and went with a clamor of evil sounds, in to my
Mem-Sahib."
"Just like a Man," sneered Pardus.
"Even I was ashamed," continued Hamadryad. "My Mem-Sahib cried out with
fear, and her eyes were dreadful to look into.
"I glided twice about the Man-devil's neck, and drew each coil tight
and tight and tighter, and swung my head forward until I looked into
his eyes, and I nodded twice thus," and the King Cobra swayed his
vicious black head back and forth with the full suggestiveness of a
death thrust, until each one of the animals shivered with fear.
"I think he died of the Man-fear Hathi has spoken of, for I did not
strike him--it may be that the coils about his throat were over-tight.
But I glided back to my box, and I think the Mem-Sahib knew that I did
not wish to even make her afraid."
"Most interesting," declared Sa'-zada. "Is that all, Cobra?"
"Yes; I'm tired. Let Python talk."
The huge Snake uncoiled three yards of his length, slipped it forward
as easily, as noiselessly as one blows smoke, shoved his big flat head
up over the Keeper's knee, ran his tongue out four times to moisten his
lips, and said: "I am also from the East, and I do not like this land.
Here my strength is nothing, for I can't eat. A Chicken twice a
month--what is that to one of my size? Sa'-zada will eat as much in a
day; and yet in my full strength I could crush five such as our Little
Brother. Many loops! in my own Jungle I could wind myself about a
Buffalo and pull his ribs together until his whole body was like loose
earth. I have done it. Sa'-zada knows that for months and months after
I came I ate nothing, and in the end they took me out on the floor
there, six of them, and shoved food down my throat with a stick.
"Once I had run down a Barking Deer, and swallowed him, and was having
a little sleep, when I wandered into the most frightful sort of
nightmare. It came to me in my sleep that Bagh had charged me of a
sudden, and gripped my throat in his strong jaws. I opened my eyes in
fright, and, sure enough, I was being choked with a rope in the hands
of the Men-kind. Each end of it was fastened to a long bamboo, and the
Men were on either side of me. I made the leaves and dry wood in that
part of the Jungle whirl for a little, but it was no use--I couldn't
get away. Also a man of the White-kind was sitting on a laid tree, and
in his hands was a loud-voiced gun. But I nearly paid him out for some
of the insult. They dragged me on to the road, and I lay there quiet
and simple-looking. He thought I was asleep, I suppose. At any rate he
came up and touched me on the nose with his toe.
"I struck; but, though I knew it not, the rope was tight held by one of
the Yellow-kind who stood behind me, and I but got a full choking;
though, as I have said, the other, he of the White Face, was stricken
with fear.
"They put me in a box, but though I have no appetite here, I could eat
there, and they gave me so many chickens that I shed my beautiful skin
almost monthly. I nearly died from the over-diet, not being used to
such plenty."
"Tell us of your food-winning in the Jungle," craved Sa'-zada.
"Though I go wondrous swift," began Python, "yet if any of the
Deer-kind passed me on foot I could not catch them. Because of this I
was forced to take great thought to outwit them. You, Gidar, and you,
Hathi, know of the elephant creeper that is in all those Jungles, how
it runs from tree to tree for many a mile--so strong that it sometimes
pulls down the biggest wood-grower. Well, having knowledge of a Deer's
path, I would stretch my body across it much after that fashion, and
the silly creatures with their ribbed faces, always coughing a hoarse
bark, and always possessed of a stupid fear, would walk right into my
folds, thinking me a part of the creeper. Once, even, as I think of it,
a hunter--of the White-kind he was--ate his food sitting on a coil of
my body as I lay twisted about a tree. To tell you the truth, I was
asleep, having fed well, and only woke up because of his sticking his
cutting knife into my back, thinking, of course, he was standing it in
the wood, when I suddenly squirmed and upset him, and his food and
drink.
"But when it was the dry season and the leaves were off the trees, the
Jungle was so open that even the silly Deer could see the rich color of
my beautiful skin, and for days and days I went hungry. Then I would go
to the small water ponds, _Jheels_, and curling my tail about a tree on
one side, put myself across, and catching a tree on the other side with
my teeth, swing my body back and forth and throw the water all out on
the land. Then I would eat all the Fish-dwellers, and go to sleep for a
week.
[Illustration: "I WOULD STRETCH MY BODY ACROSS IT MUCH AFTER THAT
FASHION."]
"Once in a land of many pigs, I worked for days and days in that part
of the Jungle bending down small trees, and arranging the creepers
until I had a _keddah_ with two long sides running far out into the
Jungle. Then, going beyond, I made a great noise, rushing up and down,
and many of these Dwellers being possessed of fear, fled into the
_keddah_ and I devoured them."
Chita sat on his haunches and looked at Python in astonishment, his big
black head low hung, and a sneer of great unbelief on his mustached
lips.
"Surely this is the one great liar!" he exclaimed. "If these things be
not written in the Book, then Python has most surely had such a dream
as he has told us of."
"Without doubt it is a lie," declared Magh, "but for my part I am ready
to believe anything of his kind. In my Jungle home never once did I
climb out on a tree limb without pinching it to see whether it was wood
or a vile thing such as yon mottled boaster."
"Are the stories of Python written in the Book, O Sa'-zada?" queried
Mooswa.
"No," answered the Keeper, "but Python may have had this strange manner
of life."
"Whether they be true tales or false tales," hissed Python, "I am now
tired, and they are at an end."
"Well," said Sa'-zada, stroking the glistening scales of the big
Snake's head, "it is time to cage up now. Perhaps we'll all have
strange dreams to-night."
Soon the animals were sound asleep, all but Magh, who spent an hour
chattering to Blitz, her Fox Terrier Pup, on the enormity of telling
false tales.
Sixth Night
The Story of the Monkeys
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
SIXTH NIGHT
THE STORY OF THE MONKEYS
Such a row there had been all day in Animal Town.
Sa'-zada, the Keeper, had told Magh, the Orang-outang, that the Monkeys
were to tell stories that night at the usual meeting. That was the
cause of the excitement.
All day the Monkeys, living in a row of cages like dwellers in tenement
houses, had chattered to each other through the bars, and admonished
one another to think of just the cleverest things any of their family
or ancestors had ever done.
"We are like the Men-kind," Magh kept repeating; "we are the
Bandar-log, the Jungle People.
"Listen, Comrades, what is my name even? Orang-outang, which means
Chief of the Jungle People.
"See, even I have my Dog, as do the Men-kind," and she held up Blitz,
the Fox-Terrier Pup, by the ear until he squealed and bit her in the
arm. "See, he has bitten me even as he would a man," she cried,
triumphantly.
Two doors down were three little brown Monkeys caged with an Armadillo
who looked like a toy, iron-plated gun-boat.
"Oh, we are people who think," cried one of these, pouncing down on the
Armadillo. The little gun-boat drew his armor plate down about him like
a Mud-turtle. The Monkey caught the side of it with his hand, lifted it
up, bit the Armadillo in the soft flesh, and raced up on his shelf
where he chattered: "Oh, we are the people who think. That is not
instinct--my father was never caged with an Armadillo."
At last night came, and Sa'-zada, throwing down bars and opening cages,
had gathered as usual his animal friends in front of Tiger's cage.
"Ho, Little Brother," began Black Panther, speaking to Sa'-zada, "why
should we who are great in our own jungles listen to these empty-headed
Bandar-log? Was there ever any good at their hands?"
"Oo-oo! A-huk, a-huk!" cried Hanuman, "you of all the thieving slayers
should know of that matter. How many times have you been saved from
danger because of our watchfulness--and also Bagh the Killer! Many a
hard drive, the hunt drive of the Men-kind, has come to nothing because
of us--because we never sleep. When your stomach is full you sleep
soundly, trusting to a warning from us, the Bandar-log. Nothing can be
done in the jungles that we do not know. And do we steal silently away
as is your method? Not a bit of it. By the safety of Jungle-dwellers!
we give the cry of beware! Listen----
"A-huk, a-huk! Chee-chee-chee! Waugh, waugh, a-huk!" and the voice of
the gray-whiskered, black-faced ape reverberated on the dead night air
through the houses of Animal Town like the clangor of a cracked bell.
"That is quite true," declared Mor, the Peacock; "I also am one of the
Jungle Watchers--though I get little credit for it. None of the
Dwellers thank us; and sometimes in their anger the Sahibs who are
making the drive shoot us for our trouble, saying that we have spoiled
sport. Many a jungle life have I saved through my cry of 'Miaou!
Miaou!'"
"Disturbers of sleep!" sneered Black Panther; "there is little to
choose between you--you're a noisy lot of beggars."
"You are hardly fair, Pardus," remonstrated Sa'-zada. "I quite believe
what Hanuman says, for it is well known that some of the Monkey-tribe
saved Gibraltar to the British by their watchfulness, and the men are
more grateful than you, for to this day monkeys are protected and made
much of there."
"It was my people did that," cried Magot, the Rock Ape, blinking his
deep, narrow-set eyes. "We have lived there for a long time."
"And in Benares, where I lived once, we are people of great honor,"
added a white-whiskered Monkey. "I should like to see Black Pardus harm
one of us there."
The speaker was Entellus, the sacred Hanuman Monkey, whose rights of
protection in the City of Temples, Benares, was almost greater than
that of the human dwellers.
"You can't twiddle your thumbs! You can't twiddle your thumbs!" cried
Cockatoo, mockingly.