OF BIRDS
"Birds, companions more unknown
Live beside us, but alone;
Finding not, do all they can,
Passage from their souls to man.
Kindness we bestow, and praise,
Laud their plumage, greet their lays;
Still, beneath the feather'd breast,
Stirs a history unexpress'd."
MATTHEW ARNOLD.
The Parrot.--The parrakeet (_Palæornis eupatrius_) is in some regions
believed to have earned the gratitude of man by its services in bringing
the seeds of fruit and grain from the garden of Paradise after the Flood
and sowing them abroad on the earth for his use. Ages of shameless larceny
have nearly effaced the memory of that fabled feat, but the creature is
still tolerated, and is the familiar bird of the fields and groves as well
as the favourite cage bird of India.
The parrot plays a leading part in many folk tales, and has thus come to be
regarded as a guardian of domestic honour. In such ballads as "Lord
William" and "May Colvine and fause Sir John," the popinjay's share in
romance is shown to British readers as a curious survival, but in India we
are nearer to the time when creatures spoke and thought, and the literary
curiosity of the West is still the belief of the East. The parrot is also
reckoned an auspicious or lucky bird to have in the house. An augmentation
of honour is its appointment as the vâhan or steed of Kama or Kamdeo, a
Hindu god of love.
Unfortunately for its comfort, it has a powerful beak, and quickly destroys
a wooden cage. So it is usually confined in a small dome-shaped cage of
hoop-iron with an iron floor. During the hot season, when it is painful to
touch any metal surface, these cages must be cruel torture-chambers; and
when one watches the free birds darting to and fro like live emeralds in
the sun, with the wild scream and reckless flinging of themselves on the
air peculiar to parakeets, one cannot but grieve for the captive slowly
roasting in his tiny oven-like prison. Leaving the general question that is
sure to arise some day as to our right to imprison creatures for our
pleasure at all, the confinement we inflict should be at least as little
irksome as possible; but it is hard to persuade people that creatures have
rights, and a polite smile is the only answer to a plea for these
prisoners.
[Illustration: THE PARROT'S CAGE]
Hindus teach their pet birds the sacred words, Gunga Rām, Rama, and Sri
Bhugwān, names of God, grateful to the Hindu ear and easy to parrot speech,
while Muhammadans say Miān Mittū, which is only a caressing name from the
vast vocabulary of endearing nonsense in which Indian domestic life
excels. In Northern India a household parrot verse among Hindus is:
_Latpat, panchhi, chatur Sujān
Sub-ka dada Sri Bhugwān
Parho Gunga Rām!_
or roughly in English: "Pretty bird, clever and knowing, God is the giver
of all; say Gunga Rām!" The word here translated "say" means to read or
study, and also to recite aloud, and is constantly used for bird song. "My
lark is reading very nicely this morning," a bird-fancier will say. "Little
parrot" is a pet name for children, and "parrot talk" is a woman's
expression for their conversation when it is pretty and respectful.
"Parrot eyed" is a common phrase for an ungrateful or deceitful person,
not, as might be imagined, from the expression of the bird's eyes, but
because, after years of cherishing, it will fly away if the cage door is
left open. In spite of the opinion of my native friends, I cannot help
thinking the phrase was derived originally from the parrot's habit of not
looking at the person he is supposed to be talking to; for when one thinks
of it, a parrot's eyes have always a curiously indifferent and
"other-where" kind of expression. A certain type of face is well described
in "a mouth like a purse, a nose like a parrot's." As a hero of song and
story this bird takes part in some domestic observances. A mother will on
several consecutive days divide an almond between her parrot and her baby.
This will prevent the child from stammering, and make it bold and free of
speech. In the Punjab Himálaya there is a whimsical superstition that when
a parrot's cage hangs over the door whence a bridegroom issues to be
married, it is highly auspicious, but that something dreadful will happen
if he passes under it on any other errand. This fancy once caused some
trouble to a political officer of Government in charge of a Hill State. The
youthful Raja was to be married, and on the eve of the event, while there
was still much business to be done, he was inveigled into the zenana, or
feminine side of the palace, the inmates of which promptly hung a parrot
over the door. It was necessary, for many and urgent reasons, to withdraw
the boy from his female relatives; but the little council of the State was
sorely puzzled. It would be an awful thing to make the Raja pass under the
cage. Could he not be brought out by some other door behind, or even fished
up through a hole made in the roof? At last a grave old Wazir came in and
asked with an innocent air: "Is it quite certain that the cage is there?"
It was quite certain. "Then," said the old gentleman slily, "my eyes are
dim, for I did not see it as I passed but now." The Council went to see,
were greatly relieved to find the cage gone, and made a great pretence of
wondering how it came about. While they were deliberating with
characteristic Hindu hesitation and timidity, he had ordered a menial,
indifferent to omens, to carry it off. So the young Raja was rescued from
his factious women folk and came out.
The parrakeet is often trained as a public performer. In the streets of
Delhi I used to see one that went through gymnastic and military exercises,
whirling a tiny torch lighted at each end, loading and firing a small
cannon, lying dead and coming to life again; all done with a comic air of
eagerness and enjoyment which it seemed hard to impute to mere hunger for
the morsels that rewarded each trick. It is seldom a bird in native hands
speaks really well. Orientals are easily contented, and, though they can
take pains in some matters, are inclined to think that parrot speech comes,
as Dogberry said of reading and writing, by nature. The Indian bird,
moreover, has less natural aptitude for speech than the true parrots of
other countries.
[Illustration: A PERFORMING PARROT]
The British soldier in India, at a loss how to employ his leisure, is
frequently a butterfly-collector or a bird-fancier. Sometimes a stalwart
trooper may be seen all alone, leaning over the parapet of a well,
apparently in earnest converse with some one who has fallen in. Parrots are
believed to learn to talk more readily when taught in a darkened and silent
room. There are no such rooms in his barracks, so the soldier lets his cage
half-way down a well and spends hours in teaching his pet. The practice is
probably an indigenous one, but I have never seen a native engaged in it.
The Baya Bird.--As a performer of tricks, however, the parrakeet is
excelled by the little _baya_, the weaver bird (_Ploceus baya_). The
plumage of this clever creature is of quaker-like simplicity, but it is a
favourite cage-bird and easily acquires tricks, especially of a "fetch and
carry" nature. The table servant or waiter of a friend of mine has one that
flies to a tree at the word of command, selects a flower or leaf, plucks
it, and, returning, places it daintily between its master's lips. Some
thread beads with great dexterity, others draw up seed or water, like the
European goldfinch; but, judging from the skilful construction of its nest,
it is probably more intelligent than the goldfinch. A popular rhyming
proverb contrasts the housebuilding talent of the _baya_ bird with the
helplessness of the shelterless monkey, which, having human hands and feet,
is yet incapable of protecting itself against the weather. This verse is
often quoted for the benefit of idle boys and girls who object to learn.
The _baya_ is believed to light up its nest at night with captured
fire-flies, stuck against the fibrous wall over the head of the brooding
hen. The bird certainly catches flies, and pellets of clay are occasionally
found stuck on the inside of the nest, but further evidence is wanted
before one can do more than envy the unquestioning belief of the Oriental
in a charming fancy which may be true.
It is true that at nesting time play nests are made with a loop across the
opening, on which the birds play and the male sits and sings to solace the
female. Some say these are experimental or preliminary studies in the art
of nest-weaving.
[Illustration: A BIRD-SINGING MATCH (DELHI ARTISANS)]
Caged Song Birds.--Working people in the cities of Northern India are
great bird-fanciers, and find, as they sit for hours over their embroidery,
weaving, or shoe-making, that a singing bird is good company. The bulbul
(_Molpastes intermedius_), the _chendūl_ or tufted lark (_Galerita
cristata_), the Shāmā (_Cittocincla macrura_), the hill maina (_Eulabes
religiosa_), are most commonly seen, and there are several others. Like the
operatives of manufacturing England, Indian workmen arrange singing matches
between their birds, and enjoy sitting in groups in shady places round the
cages in which their pets are shrilling their loudest notes. It is a cruel
rule among them that a bird to sing well must be kept always in the dark. I
have heard a lark-fancier say that the cage holding a good lark should have
a fresh cloth cover every year--the old ones being allowed to remain. The
hill maina, one of the best talking birds, however, is generally allowed
to look about him; and the tiny lals or male avadavats (_Sporœginthus
amandava_), kept mainly for their minute prettiness, a dozen or more in a
cage together, are not covered up except at night as a protection against
mosquitoes. In Delhi bird-fanciers often take their birds out tied to a
small crutch-shaped perch of bright brass carried in the hand. It is
curious that precisely the same practice obtains in Pekin, where hundreds
of grave Chinamen may be seen, each carrying a small bird. In the English
midland counties linnets and bull-finches are occasionally tied to perches
and known as "braced birds."
Fighting Birds.--These Arcadian enjoyments are too simple for many tastes,
so bulbuls, quails, partridges, and even the small avadavats are encouraged
to fight. Twenty-five rupees is by no means an unusual price for a fighting
quail, and in Hyderabad (Deccan), the capital of the Nizam, a hundred and
fifty rupees is often given for a good bird. Besides the gray partridge
(_Ortygornis pondicerianus_), which is the best fighting bird, the chikōre
(_Caccabis chukor_) and the black partridge (_Francolinus vulgaris_) are
kept as pets. The house-kept artisan goes out in the cool of the morning or
evening, carrying his cage with him, and in some garden or open place
releases his bird for a run. The creature follows its master with a rapid
and pretty gait that suggests a graceful girl tripping along with a full
skirt well held up. The Indian lover can pay his sweetheart no higher
compliment than to say she runs like a partridge. In poetry the semblance
is one of the most hackneyed of Indian metaphors. In poetry, too, the
partridge is associated with the moon, and, like the lotus, is supposed to
be perpetually longing for it, while the chikōre is said to eat fire.
Indian house-wives dislike the quail, and it is by some considered an
inauspicious bird to keep; but the partridge, in spite of the taint of
blackguardism attached to fighting birds, is thought lucky, for he attracts
to himself any ill luck that may be hovering about the house,--a function
of most Indian household pets. When treated merely as house pets and
allowed to run free at times, partridges develop a good deal of
intelligence and become entertaining companions, as they are inquisitive,
pugnacious, and perfectly fearless. In cities where there are large
populations of artisans and many Muhammadans, as Delhi, Amritsar, Lahore,
Hyderabad (Deccan), Agra, Cawnpore, etc., quail and partridge fighting is
as popular a diversion as cock-fighting used to be in England, and large
sums are betted on their contests. No artificial spurs, however, are worn
by Indian birds.
The great London bird market, I am told, now that the "Dials" have
disappeared, is St. Martin's Lane on a Sunday morning. In most Indian towns
there are bird-dealers, and in some, as at Lucknow, there is a regularly
established bird bazaar, where all kinds of birds are sold,--quails, cocks,
and partridges for fighting, hawks for the chase, fancy pigeons, singing
and talking birds, and others for pets. The variety is much greater than in
any European bird market, yet there is a family likeness among
bird-fanciers everywhere. A Spitalfields weaver or a Staffordshire potter,
if he could speak the language, would find himself quite at home with
Indian bird folk in all details of handling, feeding, bargaining, and
swapping, and in most appreciations of bird points.
What Birds say.--Good Muhammadans think the black partridge pious, since
its call fits itself to the words "Sobhān teri qŭdrăt"--"Thine, O Lord, is
the power"; but more worldly ears distinguish the words "Lăssăn, piāz,
ădhrăk"--"Garlic, onions, ginger"; or, according to some, "Nūn, tel,
ădhrăk,"--"salt, oil, ginger," the chief condiments of curry. The Indian
ring-dove (_Turtur risorius_) is similarly endeared to Muhammadans by its
pious persistence in the cry "Yusuf ku"--"Joseph is in the well," which it
first raised when the wicked brethren said he was slain and showed the
grieving Jacob the blood-stained coat of many colours. Another dove is
thought to say "Allah! Allah!" The partridge says "Fakiri Fakiri." A wild
pigeon is thought to repeat "Haq sirr hu"--"God knows the secret"; the
ordinary rooster exhorts the thoughtless to remember God by crowing--"Zikr'
ullah! Zikr' ullah! ya ghafīlin!" while the raven hoarsely cries "Ghâr,
Ghâr," as he did when he basely tried to betray Muhammad hidden in the cave
of Jebel Thaur to his enemies the Khoreish, when the pious pigeon built her
nest and the spider stretched her webs across the entrance. It is quite
easy to hear these words in birds' notes--when you know them--and they are
at least as much like the original sounds as the renderings of those
scientific ornithologists who have tried to express bird music in
syllables. In the notes to Mr. Lane's _Arabian Nights_ are given versions
of bird talk as they strike Arab ears, with wondrous instances of learned
parrots, including one which knew the Qurân right through and corrected a
misreading!
The Hoopoe.--Other birds are prized for the legends with which they are
associated. The hoopoe (_Upupa epops_) has not much to say, but he is a
favourite because he was King Solomon's messenger; and he is known as the
king of birds from the story of his crest and crown, which, perhaps, is not
too hackneyed to be repeated here. One hot day King Solomon, travelling on
his angel-borne magic carpet, was oppressed by the heat of the sun, and the
hoopoes flew over his head, wing to wing in a close and protecting canopy.
Solomon was grateful, and promised to grant whatever boon the hoopoes
thought fit to ask. They foolishly asked to be allowed to wear golden
crowns like his. The great king granted their request, and presently all
the bird-catchers in the country were enriched by the spoil of dead
hoopoes. A remnant escaped and ruefully prayed for the removal of the
dangerous distinction. So the crest of feathers was given instead, and the
bird-catchers ceased from troubling. If you suggest to a native that the
hoopoe's crest may serve as "the other end" of the pickaxe-like beak, and
point out its balancing action as the bird drives it into the ground, he
listens and assents, but his assent informs you he has no great opinion of
your sense.
[Illustration: THE FAMILIAR CROW]
The Crow.--The Indian crow (_Corvus splendens_) acts as a messenger in many
folk stories, and is still supposed to announce approaching visitors. In a
land where the _pitris_ or spirits of the dead are believed to be flitting
round continually, seeking rest, and inhabiting the bodies of animals and
birds, it is easy to imagine the bold and familiar crow haunting houses,
peering into windows and doors, a restless human ghost. They are often fed
as a propitiation to spirit land. In this belief it is said that a pair of
crows were carried to that imperfectly quenched cinder heap, Aden, forty
years ago, by the Hindu labourers engaged on the fortifications there. A
Hindu who saw them says: "The poor creatures had no trees on which to
perch, and they wandered about from rock to rock cawing piteously." It is
firmly believed, and there is more ground for the belief than usual, that
crows hold _punchayets_, caste-councils or committees, and inflict summary
punishments on offenders. It is at least certain that in India, as
elsewhere, a maimed or disabled bird, unable to escape or hide himself, is
set upon by his kind and killed. I once had for pensioner a lame crow,
outcast from his fellows, but strong enough to take care of himself. This
habit is reported to have suggested a stratagem by which omnivorous gypsy
folk catch crows. A live crow is spread-eagled on his back, with forked
pegs holding down his pinions. He flutters and cries, and other crows come
to investigate his case and presently attack him. With claws and beak he
seizes an assailant and holds him fast. The gypsy steps from hiding, and
secures and pinions the second crow. These two catch two more, the four
catch four more, and so on, until there are enough for dinner, or to take
into a town, where the crow-catcher stands before some respectable Hindu's
shop and threatens to kill the bird he holds in his hand. The Hindu pays a
ransom of a pice or two and the crow is released.
[Illustration: CALF AND CROWS]
When a child is sick, crows and other birds are bought by its mother and
female relatives to be released as a propitiation.
No decent person, of course, would dine on crows, but in Northern India the
rook is held to be _halāl_ or permitted for Mussulman food, and I have seen
them exposed for sale in Peshawar market.
In Bombay, rude street boys call Parsees "crows"--possibly a gibe at the
Parsee custom of exposing the dead in the Towers of Silence, where they are
eaten by birds.
Of many sayings about the crow it may be noted that for the daw in
peacock's feathers, they say in India of a fop, "the crow stuck a
pomegranate flower in his tail and thought himself a mighty swell." Also,
"the crow swaggered like a swan, forgetting his own gait." A crow fairy or
pĕri is a very dark woman. "Krishna's name in a crow's mouth!" and "Though
you put a crow in a parrot's cage he will still caw" express his
inferiority. Crows and herons are counted wicked birds; the former being
considered the more accomplished rascals.
But the main fact about the crow is his note, which is a ceaseless
_obligato_ accompaniment to all Indian life. A popular cradle song crooned
over thousands of children--_Aré koko, ja re koko_ = O crow! go crow--might
be paraphrased thus--
"Crow, crow! silence keep,
Plums are ripe in jungle deep;
Fetch a bushel fresh and cheap
For a babe who wants to sleep.
"Crow, crow! the peacock cries,
In the wood a thief there lies,
Would steal my baby from my eyes."
Also, they say to a child, "If you make a noise, the crow will fly away
with you." The baby-name, or rather women's name, for crow is _koko_.
All over the world women are apt at "stringing pretty words that make no
sense, and kissing full sense into empty words," but, while acknowledging
the elemental rightness of "woman talk" as a thing apart and a portion of
the God-given sweetness of life, it is not too fantastical to perceive in
the Indian development of something like a separate language,--_chhoti
boli_--literally little talk,--the clipped and childish speech of
imprisoned women of starved intellect, an evidence of a great social
disability. Affection, common sense, and wit may be and are freely
expressed in this talk, and it is passing rich in endearments, but to those
who look below the surface, it is one sign more of the disadvantage under
which the country is laid by the unnatural treatment, denial of
instruction, and seclusion of women. Yet, if the women of India have the
faults of an exaggerated domesticity, they have also its qualities, and
their estate should be understood before reformers rush to meddle with it.
To most Indian women crows stand as types of knavery, and there is sound
reason for this estimate. They are thieves, outcast scavengers, deceitful,
and, above all other creatures that hoard and hide, clever in concealing
things. "The swan (noble type) has flown away, the tiger (the king) has
made the crow (the knave) his minister," is a much-quoted verse from a
popular tale. Some intimacy with the bird is needed before one can fairly
appreciate this side of his character. I once reared from the nest a pair
of hill crows,--ravens in all but size,--who lived with me for three years,
till one after the other they were wooed away to mate. They were miracles
of naughtiness, delighting in sly destruction and odd turns of malice, ever
ready to peck at a servant's hurrying heel, and especially given to torment
a little dog who hated them. When he had a bone they came daintily stepping
together and concerted measures against him, exactly like the stage
villains of melodrama, manœuvring and skirmishing with keen enjoyment. On
his part, the dog learned to watch and rifle their hiding-places. Their
delight in bright objects was remarkable. The spoon in my early morning
tea, taken in the garden or verandah, was of even more interest to them
than my buttered toast, and they were never tired of tugging at my
watch-chain in order to get out the watch, a deeply coveted plaything.
Everything of this shining sort that came within reach was promptly buried,
dug up again, reburied with elaborate precautions, and forgotten after a
few days. In the hot weather they vastly enjoyed eating and playing with
pieces of ice, which they hid for future use. But ice is a treasure
fleeting as fairy gold, and the birds showed by the fussy action, sidelong
squints, and interrogative turns of the head which make them such diverting
comedians, how deeply they were puzzled by its disappearance. "Surely,
surely," one would seem to say as he turned up a corner of the matting, "I
hid a cold chunk of shining stuff here,--but _where_ is it? Never mind, I
will get another." So he would hop up to the table and take a fresh piece
from the glass finger-bowl, itself a great delight to the glitter-loving
birds. To the last the disappearance of the ice was a wonder. But, like
that of some other comedians, their conduct was generally low. The way in
which they allowed themselves to be sent to bed (an old gate in an
outhouse), though free to fly at will, pacing meekly as good as gold,
after a day of variegated crime, was their only lapse into real virtue.
The Roller.--The Roller (_Coracias Indica_), sometimes called in India the
blue jay, is sacred to Vishnu, who once assumed its form, and is caught to
be liberated at the Hindu Dasahra festival in Western India and at the
Dūrga Pūja in Bengal. "Undreamed-of wings he lifted," is a quotation always
brought to mind when this gray and sober-looking bird suddenly rises and
displays the turquoise and sapphire-tinted splendour of his wings.
The Maina.--The Maina (_Acridotheres tristis_) is sacred to the Hindu God
Ram Deo, and sits on his hand. In stories and talk the _maina_ is a popular
favourite, which is natural enough, for the bird is one of the handsomest
and most vivacious of the starlings; with an elegant tripping gait, like
that of a neatly built ballet-girl, alert and brave in bright yellow boots.
In flying, a white bar on the maina's wing produces a curious effect of
rotation. Like crows and sparrows, these birds go to roost in great
companies, and make a prodigious fuss before they settle to rest, as if
each bird were recounting the adventures of the day and all were talking at
once.
The Kite.--The common Kite (_Milvus govinda_) is often spoken of by
Europeans as the Brahminy Kite. Naturalists reserve this name for the
smaller chocolate-tinted bird with white head and breast, common near
rivers,--_Haliastur indus_. In former times the Kite was held in some
esteem by Muhammadans as a presage of victory to the army over which it
hovered, and called a blessed or auspicious spirit. Being an eagle in
miniature, the Kite perhaps inherited some of the respect born of the
ancient and oft-repeated story of an eagle hovering over a future king or
leader of men, which is told of Muhammad among many others. In recent
times the landing at Boulogne of Napoleon the Last, accompanied by a tame
eagle, furnishes a quaint echo of this old world fantasy.
This beautiful creature is almost as common as the crow, and its shrill
thin scream, from which the name _chīl_ seems to be derived, is, like the
crow's note, a constant and characteristic Indian sound, especially at
Calcutta in the spring time. Those who delight in the flight of birds,
which surely is one of the most fascinating things in life, may find less
interesting diversions than throwing fragments of food from a high roof
when a fleet of swift pirates soon assembles. Missed by one, rushed at from
opposite points by two or three at a time, no morsel is ever allowed to
reach the ground. The fierce sweeps and curves are splendid in grace,
strength, and skill, for there is deliberation and poise and a marvellous
avoidance of collision in this aerial tournament of rushing wings. When the
rains break there occurs a great jail delivery of winged white ants. At
this stage the termites are fat white little maggots, temporarily furnished
with wings which are shaken off when they find a resting-place. The birds
assemble in great numbers for this dainty feast, the kite with the rest.
One would think this wide-gaping bird would sail round in the insect cloud
open-mouthed, whale-fashion. But he uses his claws even for this minute
game, and the action of carrying them to his beak as he flies produces a
series of most graceful curtseying undulations.
The habits of the kite have suggested one or two sayings, as: "When do you
find meat in a kite's nest?"--a Hindu sneer at Mussulman spendthrifts; when
do you find money in a Mussulman's house? Of a lover devoted to a gay lady
the same expression is used. The _pâras_ or philosopher's stone is said in
a proverb to be in the kite's nest, a dark saying based on the kite's trick
of sometimes carrying off gold ornaments, or on the Muhammadan women's
superstition that young kites cannot see until there is gold in the nest.
The kite has some of the crow's delight in bright objects, and this belief
may be based on observation. A person who loiters round or hangs about a
house is said to hover like a kite. The word "hover," by the way, is, or
used to be, common for "wait" in North Yorkshire, as,--"If tha'rt titter up
t'sprunt, hovver,"--"If you get first up the hill, wait." A Delhi
street-cry raised by ragged fowlers is--"Free the kite on Tuesday." The
notion that it is auspicious to set captured birds free has been noticed
above. The practice in the Delhi region is for a mother to pay a pice to
the fowler, who swings the kite round over her child's head and lets it go.
This ceremony is thought most lucky when performed on a Tuesday or
Saturday. One of the Indian boys' games is called the kites' swoop; a
foolish person is styled a kite's chick, which really has a most gawky air;
and a child always running out in the street is spoken of as a noonday
kite, which still hovers in the heat when all sensible folk are indoors.
The kite is a notorious thief; no other creature is so splendidly equipped
for larceny, for no other can snatch so unerringly and escape so securely.
The confectioner's tray of sweetmeats, the dishes on their way from kitchen
to mess or dining-room, the butcher's shop, and the kitchen itself are all
liable to his sudden swoop. A recent case occurred of a registered letter
containing money being snatched from a postman's hand. I was once feeding
a pair of tame ravens from a plate in my hand when a kite, to their loud
and deep indignation, cleared and broke it and nearly knocked me over
forbye. This habit is made in a country story to point one of the hundred
gibes at the tricks of Indian goldsmiths. Four brethren of the craft were
overheard by a Wazir debating their business. Said one: "I always take four
annas toll out of every rupee's worth of gold in addition to the labour
charge." Said another: "I take eight annas," or half the value; the third
said, "I always take twelve annas," or three-quarters; but the fourth
cried,--"You are three fools, I always take all." The Wazir reported this
to his Raja, who said he should like to see how it could be done. So he
sent for that fourth goldsmith and ordered him to sit in the palace
verandah and make a necklace for the Queen. Three or four ounces of gold
were given to him and he set to work. But first, he drove a nail in the
verandah post, and when no one was near, he placed bits of meat on it and a
kite promptly learned the way thither. Then, in the evenings when he went
home, he made a brass chain exactly like the gold one and put it in his pot
of acid water. And one day in the presence of the Raja, who was on the
watch for deception, he placed the real chain there and presently took out
the false one and hung it on the nail to dry. The kite came and took it as
the craftsman was speaking to the Raja, who saw the theft. The goldsmith
made a great outcry, and bewailed the loss of so many days' labour, and the
Raja made it up to him handsomely and gave him gold to make another. When
the Raja's back was turned the goldsmith fished up the real chain from the
pickling pot and carried it away. Then the goldsmith repeated the trick;
which he finally confessed to the Wazir. And the Raja, being amiable, like
most princes in stories, was amused and generously rewarded the goldsmith
for his knavery.
Cranes and Herons.--The Sarus Crane (_Grus antigone_) is with some reason
regarded as a model of conjugal fidelity, from a belief that, if one of a
pair of these handsome birds is killed, the other pines and never mates
again. A Spanish proverb says the crane danced with the horse and got a
broken leg, but the dancing propensities of cranes and other long-legged
birds are seldom noticed in Indian talk, though the birds are common and
are often kept in public gardens and by Europeans as pets, and behave in
the fantastic fashion well observed and described in the American novel
_East Angels_. (The author of that excellent book speaks of the "candid
eyes" that taxidermists give to stuffed parrots. Indian observation notices
a want of candour in the living parrot's eye.) For grotesque devilry of
dancing, the Indian Adjutant beats creation. Don Quixote or Malvolio were
not half so solemn or mincing, and yet there is an abandonment and
lightness of step, a wild lift in each solemn prance, which are almost
demoniacal. If it were possible for the most angular, tall, and demure of
elderly maiden ladies to take a great deal too much champagne and then to
give a lesson in ballet-dancing, with occasional pauses of acute sobriety,
perhaps some faint idea might be conveyed of the peculiar quality of the
adjutant's movements. Such a conception is, of course, outrageously
impossible to a well-regulated Western mind, for it is only the French who
have thought of calling a lady a "_grue_." It is notable that of late years
Calcutta, which used to be regularly visited by adjutants, has been
deserted by them. I have heard natives say that they assemble in waste
places to hold councils and to dance.
A really fine expression is the ironical Indian phrase: "The saintly
heron," or "saintly as a heron." A heron poised on one leg in a remote
corner of a pool is the very image of a Hindu Sādhu or Muhammadan faqir,
pretending to be absorbed in holy meditation, while all the time he is
intent on the next fish or frog that may come within reach, the next piece
of fraud or villainy he can compass. The phrase is common, for there is
much of the hypocritical "meditation of the heron" in India as elsewhere.
Poultry.--The Brahma fowl of Western poulterers must have been named in
Europe, and is counted one of the unclean things in which those
unaccountable people, the English, take an unintelligible pleasure. Hindus
hear of its name with more surprise than satisfaction. It is amusing, by
the way, to note the easy confidence with which French and English writers
on India use the word Brahma, and speak of his temples. There are scarcely
any temples to Brahma in India, and his name is very seldom heard. Hindus,
as a rule, do not care for domestic poultry which are Levitically unclean,
nor for eggs which are not eaten by people of high caste. Rajputs are
passionately fond of cock-fighting, but do not fit steel spurs on their
birds; indeed, they blunt or dub the spurs which nature has given. The
fights are thus of interminable length, the poor creatures staggering round
each other, blind with blood round after round, long after they are too
much exhausted to strike a blow. The ring attendants fancy it restores the
creatures to put their heads into their mouths, a sickening detail not
unknown in the cock-pits of our English grandfathers. The Goanese
(Portuguese) and many Muhammadans, with some Hindus, are also fond of
cock-fighting, and daily large sums of money change hands over this sport.
Denunciation of a diversion of this kind is of little use, nor is it easy
to fix a point at which legislation can effectively intervene. Little by
little the barbarity will die out before the changes now taking place in
Indian civilisation. Moreover, although we English are apt to denounce and
preach, it does not lie in our mouths to say much. There are many
Englishmen who would be glad to take up cock-fighting, and it is only a
generation since a large number of good husbands and tender fathers were
ready to declare it the finest sport in the world. Blake indignantly
wrote--
"A game-cock clipped and armed for fight,
Doth the rising sun affright."
Yet Professor Wilson (Christopher North), also a Christian poet, wrote of
cock-fighting with enthusiasm, and pictures of birds thus hideously
disfigured are still shown in London shop windows with other sporting
prints. Sir Thomas More is farther off, but it is recorded that he was an
expert in the detestable game of tying a cock to a post and throwing sticks
at it.
A cock without spurs has the same name as a tuskless elephant,--_makhna_.
The old Joe Miller of the roast-fowl with only one leg, of which, when the
master remonstrates, the servant said it belonged to a breed of one-legged
fowls, is also an Indian story with the same conclusion. The servant shows
the master a fowl standing on one leg. The master cries sho! and the fowl
runs away with two. "Ah," says the servant, "you did not cry sho! to the
fowl in the dish!" Of a man who gives himself airs they say: "Can you have
no daylight without cock-crow?" An Afghān proverb quoted by Professor James
Darmesteter says: "Though the cock did not crow the dawn would still come."
"A hen dreams only of grain" is applied to a sordid person. "A whistling
woman and a crowing hen are neither fit for God nor men," is a mild English
saying, but the Indian version is infamous, for it says, "A hen's crow and
a woman's word no one trusts." If one Hindu wants to insult another (he has
of course an infinite variety of ways) he calls him a poulterer. A Bengal
proverb says the Bengal landlord treats his farmer tenants as the
Muhammadan treats fowls, feeds them only to kill them in the end. A
Muhammadan way of expressing that one is dissatisfied with his own havings,
is: "A house fowl (one you have bred yourself) is no better than pulse." To
one who hesitates to chastise a child they say: "The chick doesn't die from
a hen's kick." Domestic duties are regularly taught to the girls of a
household, so they say: "When the hen scratches, the chickens learn."
Poultry of all kinds are most cruelly handled by dealers and market people,
who never seem to think that a bird can feel. Turkeys are left to bleed to
death half a day by native servants with intent to bleach the flesh. A
Hindu would be shocked by such treatment of a parrot, but fowls are outside
the pale of regard.
The Goose.--A bird that seems to have lost some of its ancient repute is
the goose, which, though sacred in Buddhist and early Hindu times, finds
only a vague and legendary place in modern degradations of Hinduism.
The popular legend is that the goose was the _Vâhan_ of Brahma, on whom
fell the curse of Shiva, that henceforth he should not be an object of
popular worship. The gait of the goose or the swan (for the two birds seem
to be considered the same in the slip-shod talk of the people) is reckoned
as next graceful to those of the elephant or the partridge. They say in
serious praise of a lady's carriage that she walks like a goose. In Europe
we seem to look closer and discriminate the sort of lady with a goose gait,
nor do we count it for praise.
The Brahminy Duck.--The note of the ruddy sheldrake or Brahminy duck
(_Casarca rutila_) has won for this bird, which is always seen in pairs, a
place in Indian classic poetry as the type of longing but divided lovers.
Every night across the river the male cries, "Chakvi, may I come?" and the
female responds, "No, Chakva." Then the female mourns, "Chakva, may I
come?" and the answer is, "No, Chakvi." (The open Indian vowel sounds give
the plaintive bird's cry better than the English "May I come?") With a
super-subtle elaboration of the idea of nightly separation, the birds in
some verses I have heard, but cannot fully recall, are dolorously apart in
spirit even when put in the same cage. The simile was originally good in a
poetical sense, and is still alive to the Indian mind, which loves familiar
and accustomed turns; but its constant recurrence gives it a mechanical
creak to English ears.
The Peacock.--The peacock is the _Vâhan_ or vehicle, of Karttikeya, a god
of war, and also of Saraswati, goddess of learning, and is sacred. Many of
the troubles between villagers and English soldiers out shooting have
arisen from the ignorance of the latter of the veneration in which peacocks
are held.
In Guzerat, throughout Rajputana, and in many parts of the Central and
North-West Provinces, peacocks run wild, and are as common as rooks in
England. A rhyming proverb says, "The deer, the monkey, the partridge, and
the peacock are four thieves," but they are never punished for their
thefts. They are, however, sometimes caught alive by out-caste jungle folk
and brought to market with their eyes sewn up with filaments of their own
quills in order to prevent them fluttering and spoiling their plumage.
Solomon rebuked the vanity of the peacock's tail by an ungenerous and not
particularly apt reference to the ugliness of its legs, and his gibe is
still in men's mouths. They are in reality good legs, strong and capable;
but it is said, "The peacock danced gaily, till he saw his legs, when he
was ashamed and wept bitterly." In some places this saying is accounted for
by a story. The peacock and the partridge, or, as some say, the maina, had
a dancing match. In those days the peacock had very pretty feet. So when he
had danced, the partridge said, "Lend me your feet and see _me_ dance."
They changed feet, but instead of dancing, the deceitful partridge ran away
and never came back again. The saying is used as an expression of regret
for a foolish bargain. Ancient European bestiaries say when the peacock
wakes it cries and mourns its lost beauty. In Assam they say with reference
to vain people: "If I must die, I must die, but don't touch my top-knot,
said the peacock." Women when they dislike a sister woman call her a
peacock-legged person, and sometimes after sickness speak of their own
limbs in humorous disparagement as like those of the peacock, where an
English countrywoman would refer to pipe-stems or bean-sticks. Yet "peacock
gaited" is a poetical expression for a graceful carriage, and "a neck like
a peacock" is a common compliment to a beautiful woman.
The peacock is credited with a violent antipathy to snakes, and is said to
dance them to death, but a vigorous cobra is scarcely likely to be tired
out by a bird. In the excitement of a fight the peacock would probably
dance round its enemy, and the engagement would be long and doubtful. That
the bird is a recognised enemy of snakes in England as well as in India is
shown in the interesting volume _On Surrey Hills_, edited by Mrs. J. A.
Owen, where gardens and grounds infested by vipers are said to be
infallibly cleared by peacocks.
This bird is said to scent the coming rain, and to scream and dance with
delight at its approach. "Frogs and peacocks are refreshed by the rain." In
Europe the bird's cry is a rain sign, but we do not credit it with a
longing for moisture.
In London drawing-rooms peacock feathers are considered unlucky. In India
it would seem to be otherwise. I once saw a Hindu servant limping round
with a peacock feather tied on his leg. "Yes, sir, I have a bad pain in my
leg and this is very good for it." A spell or _mantra_ must have
accompanied the tying, but this I was not privileged to learn. _Taus_, the
Arabic (and Greek) word for a peacock, is current as well as the Hindi
_Mor_. A pretty form of guitar, shaped and painted like a peacock, is known
as a taus.
The Owl.--There are birds of evil as well as of good omen, and the owl is
here, as elsewhere, a byword of ill luck. "Only owls live alone," is a
proverb flung at unsociable people, and a man is said to be as drunk as an
owl, while a stupid fellow is most unjustly described as "A son of an owl."
Of humble folk and their obscure lives it is said, "Only an owl knows the
worth of an owl." "What does a phœnix know of an owl?" It has not occurred
to the Oriental jester to speak of a boiled owl in connection with
intoxication, but when a husband is abjectly submissive to his wife her
friends say she has given him boiled owl's flesh to eat. There are owls of
most varieties in India, but a small owl like the cue owl of Italy is the
most common and raises a cheerful chuckle at twilight.
In Ceylon the cry of a large owl known as the Devil bird is believed to be
a certain herald of death. Nocturnal habits are all that the universal
world, including Hindus and Muhammadans, can bring against the owl as a
bird of fate. In India, however, though the owl's cry may be dreaded as
portending a desolate home, nobody is idiotic enough to kill so valuable a
vermin destroyer. That pinnacle of stupidity is the exclusive right of
English game preservers.
The Pigeon.--The pigeon, the bird of Mecca, is almost as much a Hindu as a
Muhammadan bird, and was chosen by Shiva, the third person of the Hindu
Trinity, for Incarnation as Kapoteshwara. I was assured not long ago by a
Hindu devotee that in a small temple near the Kashmir frontier, the image
of Mahadeo at times takes life as a pair of pigeons which flutter and
disappear in the roof. In cities where Hindus preponderate, large flocks of
pigeons are regularly fed by Hindu merchants and shopkeepers. The traveller
is reminded, by the roar of their wings, of Venice and Constantinople, and
if he went farther north he would find them cherished in the villages of
Kābul, where they are supposed to pay for their keep by fertilising the
soil. Pigeon fanciers are to be found in most towns of Northern India and
are generally Muhammadan. They talk of various breeds, and especially
prize the Shirāzi and the small strutting white fan-tail, on whose
coral-coloured legs they frequently fasten jingling bangles of brass; but
they seem to have little of the English skill and care in breeding
varieties which Darwin found so full of suggestion. The flight is pretty to
watch; it is possible to bet on some incidents of it, and it is also
possible to beguile some of a neighbour's to join your own flock. But, like
quail fighting, it is not considered a respectable pursuit; and though most
boys would like to keep pigeons, respectability is in India as stony and
implacable as in the West. A popular proverb says the housewife keeps the
parrot, the lover keeps the avadavat, and the thief keeps pigeons. In the
English Midlands, thirty years ago, pigeon-flyers were (and are still)
called disreputable, and you were supposed to be able to distinguish the
scamp from his respectable fellow-workmen by the drake's-tail curl of his
hair at the back, the result of continually looking aloft at his birds. It
is curious that precisely the same notion obtains here in India.
Although the "homing" propensity of the pigeon is not systematically
cultivated and the bird is not regularly employed as a messenger, there are
many stories to show that this characteristic trait is recognised. Nor are
they always sentimental love tales. A Bengal legend tells the pitiful fate
of a Hindu Raja, the last of his race, attacked by Muhammadan invaders. He
went bravely out to meet them, carrying with him a pigeon whose return to
the palace was to be regarded by his family as an intimation of his defeat,
and a signal to put themselves to death and to burn their home. He gained
the victory, but while he stooped to drink in the river after the fatigues
of the battle, the bird escaped and flew home. The Raja hurried after, but
was only in time to throw himself on the still burning pyre.
A common object on the low sky-line of Indian towns of the plain is a light
bamboo lattice about six feet square on the top of a tall bamboo pole. This
is a pigeon perch, and in the early mornings unkempt pigeon-flyers are seen
on the house roofs waving a lure made of rag tied to a stick and whistling
through a mouth-call (like that of the English Punch and Judy men) to
attract to their roosts the flock of pigeons circling overhead. The
evolutions of pigeons in the air, their wheeling and turning on the wing,
and the pretty manner of their settling from flight are all so beautiful
that it seems stupid to associate a taint of human blackguardism with them.
The Koel.--We English call the cuckoo a blithe newcomer and a vernal
harbinger, but we do not, because of the bird's association with the sweet
o' the year, consider his song the perfection of all music. A Western ear
finds no more in the tune of that cuculine bird, the Koel (_Eudynamys
honorata_) than a tiresome iteration of one or two clear, high, and
resonant notes. Yet Oriental poetry, algebraic in its persistent use of a
limited number of symbols, has officially adopted the Koel as the figure
for exquisite sound; so the voice of your beloved, the performances of a
musical artiste, and all best worth hearing in life are posted under this
heading. A Delhi shoemaker or a Lucknow embroiderer can tell you of other
bird music, but they have not read much classic poetry and hear with their
ears. The Englishman in India has a grudge against the Koel; listening with
modified rapture to notes that warn him to put up his punkah, overhaul his
thermantidote, and prepare for the long St. Laurence penance of an Indian
summer. And he thinks longingly of an English spring.
"Ah! Koel, little Koel, singing on the _siris_ bough,
In my ears the knell of exile your ceaseless bell-like speech is,
Can you tell me aught of England or of spring in England now?"
Natives say crows hate the Koel because it selects their nests for its
foundling eggs, which is very probable. I have seen crows mobbing a Koel,
but then crows are like London street boys, and will mob anybody of
unfamiliar aspect.
The Coppersmith.--The Coppersmith bird is another noisy herald of spring.
This is the handsome crimson-breasted barbet (_Xantholæma hæmacephala_),
and its cry of tock, tock, fills the air as completely as the sound of a
hammer on a brazen vessel. It has the same cadence, and with each loud beat
the bird's head is swung to right and left alternately. Sir Edwin Arnold in
his _Light of Asia_ gives an Indian Spring picture in a few words:--
"... In the mango-sprays
The sun-birds flashed; alone at his green forge
Toiled the loud Coppersmith...."
But when you are down with fever and headache you heartily wish the noisy
bird would take a holiday or go on strike.
The Sparrow.--To the native of India the sparrow seems to stand as the type
of a thing of naught, an intrusive feathered fly to be brushed aside--but
on no account to be starved or harmed. Our bird is a size smaller than his
Western brother, and is tolerated both by Hindu and Muhammadan. In mosque
courts one sometimes sees pretty troughs made of brick with divisions for
water and food; and in trees near shrines, or over the places where
devotees sit, earthen saucers are slung with food and water, all for the
sparrow. A Hindu proverb quoted in Fallon's Dictionary says: "God's birds
in God's field! eat, birds, eat your bellies full." This pious and kindly
word is easily reconciled in practice with a just appreciation of the
essential triviality and impertinence of the bird. A large toll is daily
taken all over the country from field and garden, and the equally
accessible grain-dealer's basket. The most devout Hindu alive waves them
off from his stores, for he also must live.
[Illustration: TERRA-COTTA SEED AND WATER TROUGH (FROM A PUNJAB VILLAGE
MOSQUE)]
But though the sparrow is a nuisance, it is seldom you hear the bird
reckoned a downright plague, as is undoubtedly the case in America, where
it is a type of the worst kind of immigrant from which the country has
suffered. The reason may be that the same law of protection which leaves
the sparrow free to plunder, is also extended to the hawk, the shrike, the
weasel, and the wild cat, who keep the balance fairly even among them. Yet
when you listen closely you may hear, in spite of the vast Oriental
tolerance, many an angry word about bird depredations.
London sparrows are said to be familiar, but when compared with their
Indian brethren, their manners are marked by dignity and cold reserve.
Being much given to marriage, they make a tremendous fuss over their
housekeeping, and when in search of a nesting-place nothing is sacred to
them. Above all, the nest must be sheltered from the heat, and the coolest
places in the land are the interiors of men's houses. An Englishman's house
is the coolest of all, so newly-joined couples, conversing loudly, are
constantly finding their way indoors, creeping like mice through bath-water
channels and under the bamboo blinds that keep out flies, bringing with
them straw and other rubbish for their untidy beds. When making a morning
call, you may stumble into a darkened drawing-room to find the lady of the
house perched on a chair, madly thrashing up to the roof-beams with a
carriage-whip, while a servant pulls the long cord of an upper window,
crying "sho!" A bird in church is a rare and delightful incident to a bored
child in the West, but the Indian sparrow perches on the organ-pipes in
full blast, and chatters loudly through the sermon. Its note is a constant
part of the out-door orchestra of Indian life, accompanying the caw of the
crow, the thin squeal of the squirrel and scream of the kite, the groan of
the Persian wheel, the wailing song of the ox-driver at the well, the creak
of the ungreased cart axle, and the bark of the village dog.
Falconry.--Falconry, which is still a favourite sport in Sind and Northern
India, is too extensive to be more than glanced at. The literature of the
subject is just as fantastic as the writings of our forefathers in Europe;
as in our old falconry books, hawks are broadly described as light or
dark-eyed, round or long-winged, noble or ignoble, and the sport is
considered in the highest degree aristocratic. Sir Richard F. Burton is the
only English writer who can claim to be an authority on the subject in its
literary as well as in its practical aspect. The identity of the Indian
apparatus of the sport with that of Europe strikes even the uninstructed.
The hawk-hood of soft deerskin, prettily embroidered with silk and gold,
the falconer's gloves, jesses, lures, and hawk-bells are still regularly
made in the Punjab, with one or two trifling variations. European pictures
show the lure fitted with portions of a bird's wing, which are absent from
the Indian lure, and the falconer goes afield with his hawks perched on a
hoop slung round his body, while here, when more than one are carried, they
travel on a horizontal pole. Staying once at the chief town of a native
state I wondered at the number of hawks carried about, and concluded that
when a man wanted an excuse for a stroll he went to the Raja's mews and got
a hawk to take out for an airing on his wrist. ("A man looks so fond
without a dog" said the collier in Mr. C. Keene's _Punch_ picture.) During
a gathering of chiefs at Lahore to meet Lord Dufferin and the Duke of
Connaught, falcons and falconers came to swell the retinues of the Rajas,
and I observed the constables on duty at the museum in my charge wanted to
make the men leave their hawks outside when they came to see that
institution. A stuffed bird in a glass case might, of course, tempt a
hawk, but when hooded the creature is as well behaved as a sleeping child.
[Illustration: UNHOODED]
The attendant circumstance of Indian falconry is not without its charm,
especially during the clear cold weather of the Punjab winter. I remember
riding to a hawking party across a wide sandy plain where cultivation was
scanty, a fresh wind blowing, and in the far distance the snowy range of
the Himálaya sparkled white against the intense blue. A group of elephants,
with howdahs and trappings blazing in colour and gold, furnished the vast
wind-swept spaces with a touch of colour, and even the blue and red
patterns daubed on their gigantic foreheads looked delicate and pretty. The
strange heraldic monsters in beaten silver with glass eyes that supported
the howdahs, and the great red cloths splashed with gold embroidery, would
have been garish at close quarters; but here they suited perfectly with the
cavalcade of horsemen attired in scarlet and gold, the leashed dogs
straining and snarling, and the motley crowd of beaters, chill in the
morning sunshine. The hawks sharply turned their heads in expectation,
tugging and straining at their jesses like anchored ships in a gale. But
when all was over, the bustards found and flown at had escaped without
scathe, and one of the hawks was lost. As a man who has never been able to
find pleasure in the chase, and who never possessed a gun, I found no
personal fault with this issue, but when people set forth to do a thing
they ought to do it well.
Hawks must often be lost; for a countryside proverb about kangni, the small
Italian millet, says that its cultivation is "as risky as keeping a hawk."
I have heard of flights where the hawk does all that is set down for him in
the books, and I have watched the careful training of hawks to come back to
the lure, where they are rewarded with a bit of newly killed crow, etc.,
but I strongly suspect the best of the business is the riding and the
company. Any one in the habit of looking at birds in India may see free
hawking enough,--the shrike, which in a town garden brings down a sparrow
nearly as big as himself, the gallant and tigerish sparrow-hawk, and on far
hillsides falcons of two or three kinds.
Of a sponging hanger-on they say, "You train your hawk on another man's
fist." "Doesn't know cock-fighting and has taken to hawking!" is a good
jape at a common kind of fool.
Bird Crumbs.--An odd fancy is current about the sandpiper. It is believed
to sleep on its back under the impression that it is supporting the
firmament with its slender legs. There are human bipeds who think
themselves almost as necessary to the universe. A black-and-white
kingfisher is called the dizzy or giddy one from its sudden, vertiginous
plunge into the water after its prey. A curious parallel in nomenclature is
shown in the water-wagtail, which haunts brook and pond sides,--places
where clothes are washed,--and is called the _dhobin_ or washer-woman. In
France the same bird, from the same habit, is known as the _lavandière_.
The Shia Muhammadans have woven many legends round their martyr heroes,
Hussain and Hassan, slain at Kerbela. The handsome King crow or drongo
(_Dicrurus ater_) is said to have brought water to the dying Imâm Hussain,
while the dove, dipping her beak in his sacred blood, flew to Medina, and
thus bore the news of his martyrdom.
In Mr. F. S. Growse's translation of the Rāmāyana of Tūlsi Dass--a book
which ought to be studied by those who care to know what the best current
Hindu poetry is like, in its sugared fancy, its elaborate metaphors, its
real feeling for the heroic and noble, and also its tedious, unaccidented
meandering--there occurs a pretty description of the Army of Love, in which
some of the birds take parts outside the stereotyped roles occasionally
referred to in foregoing paragraphs--"the murmuring cuckoos are his
infuriated elephants, and the herons his bulls, camels, and mules; the
peacocks, _chukors_ (red-legged partridges), and parrots are his
war-horses; the pigeons and swans his Arab steeds; the partridges and
quails his foot-soldiers; but there is no describing the whole of Love's
host." A sentence which might have stood at the beginning closes the
long-drawn description--"His (Love's) greatest strength lies in woman: any
one who can escape her is a mighty champion indeed."
Bats.--Of bats--the leathern-winged jackals of the air--there is not much
to be said, for although India has an immense number and variety of these
wonderful and most useful creatures, the people seem scarcely to notice
them. It takes a naturalist to admire and appreciate darkness-loving
animals; and among Indian bats there is a fine field, especially those
adorned by nature with elaborate leaf-like processes on the nostrils,
strange and fantastic beyond telling.
Those, however, who have been received in dull houses will enjoy the fine
irony of a saying which runs, "The bat had a guest (and said), 'I'm
hanging, you hang too.'" No need to expound this five-word jewel, since
most of us know houses whose inmates seem to hang in a torpid row, and
where we resign ourselves on entering to be hung up in a similar sleepy
fashion. There is also a story about Solomon, the birds, and the bats, but
it has no very effective point. I know of no saying in any tongue
acknowledging the great utility of the bat in keeping down an excess of
insect life.
The large fruit-eating bat or flying-fox is a noble creature, looming
largest, perhaps, when in the still breathless evenings he beats his
noiseless way high over the wan waters of Bombay harbour or the adjacent
creeks, dark against a sky in which there lingers a lurid flush of crimson
and orange. The lowest castes eat flying-foxes, which are probably of
excellent flavour, seeing they grow fat on the best of the fruit. They are
regularly eaten in the Malay Archipelago, and Mr. Wallace says that when
properly dressed they have no offensive fumet, and taste like hare. I once
kept one, but he could scarcely be called an amusing pet, his strong point
being his enormous appetite for bananas. On one occasion he escaped and
began to fly away, but promptly came back, for he was mobbed by flights of
crows, who had never seen such a creature before. Crows go early to bed,
and the appearance of this monster bat in their own daylight seemed to be
an outrage on their rights and feelings. So they chivied him--if I may be
allowed the expression--much as the street boys are said to have chivied
Jonas Hanway when he appeared in London streets with the first umbrella.
The flying-fox was in a great fright, knowing that a single stroke of a
crow's beak would ruin the membrane of his vans, more delicate than any
silk ever stretched on a "paragon" frame.
In pairing time flying-foxes are lively all day, though they do not fly
abroad, and the trees in which they hang in great reefs and clusters are so
noisy with their quarrelling, screaming, and fighting, as to be a serious
nuisance to a quiet village.