"Because of Python, and Cobra, and Karait, and Deboia, and the other
small Dealers of Death," answered Grey Boar, sturdily. "We roam the
Jungles, and when these Snakes, that are surely evil, rise in our
paths, we trample them, and tear them with our tusks----"
"And eat them, I know, cha-hau, cha-hau!" laughed Hyena, smacking his
watering lips.
"Yes," affirmed Grey Boar. "Are not we, alone, of all Animals for this
work? When Cobra strikes, and fetches home, does not even Hathi, or
Arna, or mighty Raj Bagh, die quickly? But not so with us. I can turn
my cheek, thus, to King Cobra, (and he held his big grizzled head
sideways), and when I feel the soft pat of his cold nose against my fat
jaw, I seize him by the neck, and in a minute one of the worst enemies
of Man is dead."
"What says King Cobra, then--Cobra and the others--crawling
destroyers?" asked Magh, maliciously.
"This is Boar's story," interrupted Mooswa, seeing that Sa'-zada looked
angry at the interruption.
"As I was saying," continued Grey Boar, "Cobra and his cousins kill
more of the Men-kind, many times over, than all the other Jungle
Dwellers put together. Think of that, Comrades--even when we are
searching the Jungles on every side for these evil Poisoners; so if it
were not for us, what would become of the Men? Yet in a hot time of
little Jungle food, if we but eat a small share from their fields, the
Men revile us. Also, there is cause for fear at times in this labor
that is ours. Once I remember I had a tight squeeze----"
"Going through a fence into a jowari field, I suppose," prompted Magh.
"I did not have my tail cut off for stealing cocoa-nuts," sneered Grey
Boar. "The tight squeeze was from Python; and do you know that to this
day I am half a head longer than I was before our slim Friend twisted
about my body. But I got his head in my strong jaws just as I was near
dead."
"Perhaps you would not have managed it if he had not squeezed you out
long," said Pardus.
"What I say," continued Boar, "is, that we are not the Evil Kind that
is in the mouth of everyone. Cobra crawls into the houses of the Men,
and for fear of their evil Gods they feed him; and one day in anger he
strikes to Kill. That is surely wrong. But we live in houses of our own
make."
"Certainly that is a lie," interrupted Magh. "Thou art a wanderer in
the Jungle, a dweller in caves, even as Pard the Panther."
"You are wrong, Little One," declared Hathi, "for I have seen Boar's
house. It's a sort of grass hauda."
"Yes," affirmed Wild Boar; "it is all of my own making, and of grass,
to be sure. For days and days at a time, I do nothing but cut the
strong elephant grass, and the big ferns, and the sweet bowlchie, and
pile it up into a house. Then I burrow under it, and the rain beats it
down over my back, and soon I have a nice, clean, waterproof nest. I am
not a homeless vagabond like Magh and her wandering tribe----"
"And that's just it," broke in Big Tusk, the Nagpore Boar. "We, who are
quiet and orderly in our manner of life, living in houses of our own
building, as Grey Boar has said, are hunted and killed by the
White-faced ones as a matter of sport. What think you of that,
Sa'-zada--killed just for our tusks--for a pair of teeth?"
"It is likewise so with me, my narrow-faced Brother," whispered Hathi.
"Many of my kind are slain for their tusks; I, who have lived amongst
the Men, know that."
Continued Big Tusk: "Yes, this is so; I have been in many a run in the
corries of Nagpore. You see, I learned the game from my Mother when I
was but a 'Squeaker,' for be it to the credit of the White ones, they
kill not the Sows with their sharp spears."
"Was that pig-sticking?" asked Sa'-zada.
"It was," declared Big Tusk; "and my Mother, who was in charge of a
Sounder of at least thirty Pigs, knew all about this game. We'd be
feeding in the sweet bowlchie grass, or in a _thur khet_, when suddenly
I'd hear her say, 'Waugh! Ung-h-gh!' which meant, 'Danger! lie low.'
Then, watching, we'd see those of the Black-kind here, and there, and
all over, with flags in their hands to drive the Pigs certain ways, and
to show the Sahibs which way we went. Mother would always make us lie
still until the very last minute; but almost always, sooner or later,
the Sahibs would come galloping on their horses right in amongst us.
'Ugh-ugh-ugh-ugh!' Mother would call to us, and this meant, 'Run for
it, but keep to cover'; and away we'd go, from _sun khet_ to _dol_
field, and then into _shur_ grass, from Sirsee Bund to Hirdee Bund, or
into the tall, thick bowlchie. Now the trouble was this way: Mother was
so big and strong that the Sahibs on their ponies always galloped
after, thinking her a Boar. Even the Black Men with the flags would
cry, '_Hong! Hong! Burra dant wallah!_' which means in their speech, 'A
Boar of big tusks.' Many a time I've heard Mother chuckle over the run
she'd given the Horsemen, for we'd lie up in the grass, and listen to
the White-faced ones, the Sahibs, curse the Black Men most heartily for
their foolishness in calling Mother a big-tusked Boar. It was all done
to save the Tuskers, for while the Sahibs were chasing Mother, many an
old chap has saved having a spear thrust through him by clearing off to
some other _bund_."
"You did have a good schooling," remarked Gidar, the Jackal. "But did
the Sahibs never spear any of your young Brothers?"
"No; as I have said, it was only a big-tusked one they cared for. But
to me it seemed such a cruel thing, even when I was young; killing us
with the sharp spears--for, more than once I've heard the scream of a
Boar as he was stabbed to death."
"But what were you doing in the _dol_ grass, you and your big Mother?"
asked Bagh. "Were not you eating the grain of the poor villagers? I
remember in my time, when I was a free Lord of the Jungles, that a poor
old _ryot_ (farmer) had a little field--a new field it was--just in the
edge of the Jungle. I also remember it was _raji_ he grew in it, and he
prayed to me as though I were one of his Hindoo Gods, asking me to keep
close watch over his field, and to kill all the Pigs, and the Chital,
and Black Buck that might come there to destroy his _raji_. Even, to
give me a liking for the place, that I might mark it down in my line of
hunt, he tied an old Cow there for my first Kill. I was the making of
that Man," declared Bagh, sitting down and smoothing his big coarse
mustache with his velvet paw--"the making of him, for he had a splendid
crop of _raji_, and I, why I must have killed a dozen Pigs in and about
his field."
"Oh, dear me!" cried Magh. "Sugared peanuts! Every Jungle Dweller is
growing into a benefactor of the Men; even Pig is a much abused,
innocent chap; and here's Bagh a protector of the poor _ryot_."
"But what were you doing in the _dol_ field, Grunter?" queried Cobra;
"that's what Bagh wants to know."
"Looking for Snakes," answered Boar, sulkily. "But what if we did eat a
trifle of the grain; was that excuse for the Sahibs killing us? With
their Horses did they not beat down and destroy more than we did? And
have not the people of the land, the Black-kind, taken more from us in
the way of food than we ever did from their fields? Many a time have
they been saved from starvation by the meat of my tribe. And yet,
through it all, we get nothing but a bad name, and that just because we
stick up for our rights. Bagh talks about keeping us from the Man's
field; that is just like him--it is either a false tale or he ate
'Squeakers'--little Pigs that couldn't protect themselves. Would he
tackle Me? Not a bit of it! If he did I'd soon put different colored
stripes on his jacket--red stripes. He's a big, sneaking coward, that's
what Bagh is. Why, I've seen him sitting with his back against a rock,
afraid to move, while six Jungle Dogs snapped at his very nose--waiting
for him to get up that they might fight him from all sides. Ugh, ugh! a
fine Lord of the Jungle! a sneak, to eat little Pigs!
"But I did more than keep a _raji_ field for a poor villager; I saved
his life, and from Bagh, too. I don't know that he had ever given me to
eat willingly, or even made _pooja_ to me, but I was coming up out of
his _thur_ field one evening, and he was fair in my path, with one of
those foolish ringed sticks in his hand. 'Ugh!' I said, meaning, 'Get
out of the way,' but he only stood there.
"This made me cross, and I thought he was disputing the road with me,
for I am not like Bagh, the Lord of the Jungle, who slinks to one side.
Then I spoke again to the man, 'Ugh, ugh, wungh!' meaning that I was
about to charge. All the time I was coming closer to him on the path.
Then I saw what it was; my friend, Stripes the Tiger, was crouched just
beyond the Man, lashing the grass with his long, silly tail.
"Now as I had made up my mind to charge something that was in my path,
and as the sight of Bagh in his evil temper drew my anger toward him, I
drove full at his yellow throat. Just one rip of my tusks, and with a
howl like a starved Jackal he cleared for the Jungle. He meant to eat
that Man, you see."
"Now we are getting at the truth of the matter," cried Magh, gleefully.
"When these Jungle thieves fall out, we get to know them fairly well."
"But tell us more of this hunting of your kind with the spears, O
brother of the Big Tusks," pleaded Hathi. "It does seem an unjust
thing."
"Well," continued the Seoni Boar, "as I have said, while in my Mother's
keeping, she taught me much of the ways of the Boar Hunters. Many a run
from the Spear Men I've been in. But while I was small, and had not
tusks, of course I was allowed to go, even when they came full upon the
top of us; but in a few years my tusks grew, and each run became harder
and more difficult to get away from. Besides, early in the Cold Time,
at the time the Men call Christmas, we Boars all went off by ourselves,
and left the Sows and Squeakers in peace; and, while I think of it,
I've no doubt it was at this time that Bagh killed so many of my people
in the _raji_ fields. Had there been a big Tusker or two there, Tiger
would have been busy looking for Chital or Sambhur.
"Well, through being away from my Mother this way, and mixing with the
other Boars, I got to be quite capable of taking care of myself; and,
as I lived year after year, finally the Black Men, Ugh! also the
White-faced ones, gave to me the name of the Seoni Boar. So, with the
more knowledge I gained with my years of being, the more I required it,
for the closer they hunted me.
[Illustration: "IT WAS AT THIS TIME THAT BAGH KILLED SO MANY OF MY
PEOPLE."]
"Strange how it is that every Jungle Dweller's hand is against the Pig.
I declare here, before all you Comrades, that more than once I have
been lying dog-oh, close hid in the _bowlchie_, when a screech-voiced
Peacock has commenced to cry, 'Aih-ou, aih-ou!' as plain as you like,
'Here he is, here he is!' and down on my heels would come the Spear Men
on their rushing Ponies. But I soon learned to take to the
Scrub-Jungle, knowing that the ponies would not follow me. But even
there in the Jungle I've been hunted by the Black-kind; and then it was
the same way, enemies afoot, and enemies overhead. Langur, a
fool-cousin of Magh's there, many a time has betrayed my hiding-place
to the hunt Man. 'Che-che-che, wow, wow!' over my head the silly
thieves would chatter and well the Huntsmen would know that I had gone
that way.
"Once when I was started out of the Seoni Bund, and was making with
full speed through the _dol khet_, a meddlesome white Dog came chasing
after me, snapping at my heels, and crying, 'Bah, ki-yi, bah, ki-yi!'
Well I knew that as long as that noise kept up, I might as well be
running out in the open in full view, so I checked my pace a little,
and the Dog, with more pluck than good sense, laid me by the ear. With
one rip of my tusk sideways, I cast him open from end to end. But such
matters take some time, and check one when the run is close, and
before I could take to cover again, a Pony was fair on top of me.
"I jinked, as only a Boar who has been in many a run knows how. My jink
was so sudden that the rider, seeking to spear me under his Pony's
neck, came a full cropper in the black cotton-earth. Ugh-huh-huh! it
makes me laugh now when I think of it. Of course I hadn't time to laugh
then, for I had no sooner jinked clear of his spear than I saw coming
up on the other side, the longest one of the Men-kind that was ever in
the Jungle, and what with his spear he seemed like a tree. At once I
remembered what my Mother had told me to do if ever a Spear-hunter got
full on top of me. 'Into the horse's legs,' the old Dame had said;
'that's your only hope.' I must say that I charged Bagh that other time
with greater joy than I slashed into that long Sahib's Pony.
"Of course, the Hunter thought I was going to run for it, so when I
jinked short about and ripped his Pony's foreleg the full length of my
nose, he was taken quite off his guard.
"It seemed as though part of the Jungle had fallen on me, for Pony and
Huntman came down like ripe fruit off the Mowha tree. I got one rip at
the Man's leg, and thought I'd made a fine cut, but I learned
afterward, after they'd caught me, of course, that it was his boot-leg
I had ripped----"
[Illustration: "'INTO THE HORSE'S LEGS,' THE OLD DAME HAD SAID."]
"Oh, Sa'-zada, I believe the Seoni Boar is the best liar we've struck
yet," said Magh.
"Not so," declared the Keeper, "this tale of the pig-sticking is a true
tale, for it is written in The Book."
"I only tell that which is true," declared Big Tusk, the Seoni Boar.
"And before I had got to the Scrub-Jungle, I had a spear driven into my
shoulder from another Sahib, but I put my teeth through the giver's
foot as I knocked his pony over from the side. It was a rare fight that
day, but I got away at last."
"How were you caught?" queried Magh.
"Oh, that was long afterwards, and happened because of Bagh's evil
ways. The Huntman had spread a big net in the Jungle to take Bagh, who
had slain a Woman; and in the drive, not knowing of this evil thing, I
came full into the net, and got so tangled up that I could not move.
When the White Hunter saw that it was I, the Seoni Boar, he said, 'Let
us take him alive, for he has given us mighty sport and fought well.'
So they made a cage and I was forced into it from the net."
"Is that all?" asked Magh.
"Yes," replied Boar.
"Well," continued the Orang-Outang, "from your own account you appear
to be a very fine fellow. I can't understand why all the Jungle
Dwellers, even the Men-kind, connect your name with everything that's
evil. I doubt if one of them could speak as well for himself, were he
allowed to tell his own story."
"As I have said before," commented Sa'-zada, "it's hardly fair to give
an animal a bad name without knowing all about him, and Boar's stories
have all been true, I know. But it's late now, so each one away to his
cage or corral, and sleep."
Eleventh Night
The Stories of Oohoo, the Wolf, and Sher Abi, the Crocodile
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
ELEVENTH NIGHT
THE STORIES OF OOHOO, THE WOLF, AND SHER ABI, THE CROCODILE
"To-night," said Sa'-zada, the Keeper, "we shall have a story from
White Wolf of his home in the frozen North, and also one from Sher Abi,
the Crocodile, of the warm land in which he lived, Burma."
"I am glad there is to be a tale of the North-land," said Mooswa, "for
it's a lovely place."
"And Sher Abi is so stupid," added Magh the Orang, "that he's sure to
fall to boasting of some of his murders."
"There's little to choose between them in that respect," commented
Muskwa, "except that for cunning there is no one but Carcajou of the
same wit as Wolf."
"Thank you, Comrade," cried Oohoo, the Arctic Wolf; "those of my land
who are short of wit go with a lean stomach, I can tell you. But yet it
is just the sweetest place that any poor animal ever lived in."
"It is," concurred Mooswa; "forests of green Spruce trees----"
"Not so, Brother Tangle-leg," objected Oohoo; "true I have been within
the Timber Boundaries, but that was far to the south of my home. I
remember, once upon a time, thinking to better my condition, for it was
a year of scarce Caribou; I trailed down past Great Slave Lake to the
home of my cousin, Blue Wolf, who was Pack Leader of the Timber Wolves.
Ghurrh-h! but they led a busy life. Almost day and night they were on
the hunt, for their kill was small; a Grey Rabbit, or a Grouse, or a
Marten--a mere mouthful for a full-hungered Wolf.
"But in the Northland where one could travel for days and days over the
white snow and the hunt meant a free run with no chance of cover for
the prey, it was all a matter of strength and speed. Leopard has
boasted of the merit of his spotted coat for hiding in the sun-splashed
Jungle; and also Bagh has told how the stripes on his sides hide him in
the strong grass. But look at me, my Comrades----"
"You are pretty," sneered Magh.
"Here I am dirty brown," resumed Oohoo, paying no attention to the
taunt, "and what does that mean?"
"That you are dirty and a Wolf," answered Magh, innocently.
"It shows that I live in a dirty brown place," asserted Wolf. "We are
all dirty brown here."
"I'm not," objected Python.
[Illustration: "ONE COULD TRAVEL FOR DAYS OVER THE WHITE SNOW."]
"You would be if you didn't lie in the water all day; but, as I was
going to say, in that land of snow I was all white, and, by my cunning,
with a careful stalk I always got within a running distance of--of--I
mean anything I wanted to look at closely, you know."
"A Babe Caribou, I suppose," grunted Muskwa; "just to see how he was
coming on. Have I not said that he has the cunning of a great thief?"
Bear whispered to Hathi.
"But if he talks much the truth will come out," answered the Elephant.
"There were just three of us Plain Dwellers in all that great Barren
Land," proceeded Oohoo; "my kind, and Caribou, and Musk-Ox."
"Eu-yah! the Musk-Ox are cousins of mine," remarked Bison. "Queer taste
they have to live in that terrible land of rock and snow. What do they
eat, Oohoo? Surely the sweet Buffalo Grass does not grow there?"
"They do not mind the cold," answered Wolf; "they have the loveliest
long black hair you ever saw on any Animal. And under that again is the
soft grey fur----"
"Yes," interrupted Sa'-zada to explain, "the Musk-Ox seems to have
hair, and fur, and wool all on one pelt--much like a Sheep, and a Goat,
and a Bison combined."
"And as for eating," resumed Oohoo, the Wolf, "the rocks are thickly
covered with moss----"
"Engh-h-h! what a diet!" grunted Bison. "But you know of their manner
of life, Brother Wolf--you must have paid much attention to their ways.
Now in my land when Wolves came too close we gathered our Calves in the
center of the herd----"
"A most wise precaution," asserted Mooswa. "In the Calf time with us
the moan of the Wolf pack caused us to make ready for battle; the Grey
Runners seemed always in the way of a great hunger."
"And what of grass-eating for those cousins of mine, the Caribou--what
ate they?" sharply demanded Elk.
"Caribou have this manner of life," answered Oohoo. "Just at the end of
the great Cold Time all the Mothers go far into the Northland, for that
is the Calf time with them; and by the shores of the great Northland
water their Babe Caribou come forth in peace. And for food the Mothers
eat moss, even as Musk-Ox does, for there is nothing else. Near to the
coming of the Cold Time again the Mothers come back with their Calves,
and the Bulls, who have been in the Southland, meet them."
"Do you eat moss, Oohoo, the Wolf?" queried Magh.
"Am I a Grass-feeder? Did I eat my straw bedding and become ill, like a
wide-mouthed Monkey that I know of?"
"But have you not said, Brother Wolf, that in the Northland Musk-Ox and
Caribou eat moss because there is nothing else? Then what manner of
food do you find?"
"Ghurr-r-h! Eh, what?" gasped Oohoo, feeling that Magh had laid bare
his mode of life.
"Am I different from the others?" he snarled, seeing a broad grin
hovering about the mouth of even Sher Abi, the Crocodile. "Because I am
a Wolf, is there a law in the Boundaries that I shall not eat? Bagh,
and Pardus, and Python, and Sher Abi, they are the Blood Kind, and do
they eat moss or grass? Boar has said that all the evil of the Jungle
is fastened upon the Pig, and in my land it is the Wolf that is wicked.
This has been said by the Man, but are they not worse than we are? When
the hunger, which is not of my desire, comes strong upon me, I go forth
to seek food. I kill not Man; but if Caribou comes my way, and that
which is inside of me says to make a kill, shall I do so, or lie down
and die because of hunger? If a Wolf makes a kill, and feasts until his
hunger is dead, and lies down to sleep, and kills no more until he is
again hungered, it is all wrong, and evil words are spoken of him. But
the Men kill, and kill, never stopping to eat, showing that it is not
because of hunger--they kill until there is no living thing left; then
they boast together of the slaughter.
"I have seen this happening at Fond du Lac, which is a narrow crossing
between two lakes in my own land. There the Caribou pass when they go
to the Northland; and I have seen the Redmen killing these Moss-eaters
as they swam from land to land--killing them beyond all count. In the
Northland the Caribou were even as Buffalo on the Plains, they were
that many; and they came like a running river to the crossing at Fond
du Lac. The Men-kind were hidden behind stones, and when the Caribou
were in the water these Red Slayers followed in canoes, and killed with
their spears, and their knives, and their guns, until everything was
red with blood. Not that they needed the sweet flesh because of hunger,
for from many they took out the tongue, and left all the rest to rot.
We, who are Wolves, and of evil repute, are not so bad as the Men, I
think.
"And also the killing of the Musk-Ox is by the Redmen," declared Oohoo.
"I am afraid we must believe that," muttered Magh, "for Musk-Ox is not
here, and it is a long way to the Northland for proof."
"Neither here nor in any other animal city are there Musk-Ox,"
explained Sa'-zada; "for none have been brought out alive."
"None!" added Wolf solemnly. "The Redmen say that if any are taken
alive the others will all pass to some other land as did Buffalo. Not
but that one of the White Men tried it once; but there is also a story
of Head-taking I could tell."
"Tell it," snapped Pardus; "one lie is as good as another when told of
a distant Jungle."
"Well I remember that year," began Oohoo. "It was colder than any
other time that I have memory of. We had gathered into a mighty Pack,
Comrades; all white we were--all but our Leader, who was Black Wolf.
And such hunger! E-u-uh, au-uh! I was almost blind because of the
hunger pains.
"The Caribou that should have passed did not come; why, I cannot say,
for it was their time of the year, the ending of the Cold Time."
"Were there no Musk-Ox?" insinuated Magh.
"A Wolf can make few kills of Musk-Ox," explained Oohoo, unguardedly;
"that is--I mean--a bad Wolf who might seek a Kill of that sort. They
are like Bison, or Arna, bunching up close in a pack with their
big-horned heads all facing out; and even if the circle is broken, what
then? their fur is so thick that it would take longer jaws than I have
to cut a throat."
"You've tried it, Oohoo," suggested Magh.
"No, I've heard of this matter," he answered. "But the story was this
way. That time two White Men came to the Big Lake----"
"Artillery Lake, I think," explained Sa'-zada.
"I know not, but it is a Big Water, and far north. And there they built
a shack."
"You were interested," remarked Muskwa.
"There were cousins of ours, the Train Dogs, with them, so I sometimes
went close for the chance of a chat----"
"The chance of a Pup, most likely," growled Gidar.
"Then one Man, with two Redmen and the Dog Train, went north after
Musk-Ox. Some of us followed, for we knew that where the Men were there
would be much killing, and much eating left for those of a lean
stomach. It might be that some of the Dogs would die of toil, and we
were that hungry, that starved, that even a Huskie would be sweet
eating.
"As you know, Comrades, there is no timber grows in all that land
beyond the Big Lake, so the Man carried a little wood in the Dog Sled
to make hot his drinking----"
"Tea," suggested Sa'-zada.
"Day after day he tramped to the North, not seeing anything to kill;
and all the time we were getting hungrier and leaner of stomach. At
night we would come close to the little tepee wherein the Hunter slept,
and I fear that something would have happened to him if it had not been
for the wisdom of our Leader, Black Wolf.