OF GOATS AND SHEEP
"They killed a child to please the Gods
In earth's young penitence,
And I have bled in that babe's stead
Because of innocence."
"I bear the sins of sinful men
That have no sin of my own;
They drive me forth to Heaven's wrath
Unpastured and alone."
"I am the meat of sacrifice,
The ransom of man's guilt,
For they give my life to the altar knife,
Wherever shrine is built."
R. K.
[Illustration: A HINDU SACRIFICIAL KNIFE]
"There is no house possessing a goat but a blessing abideth thereon; and
there is no house possessing three goats but the angels pass the night
there praying," said Muhammad. And truly, if the animals of India had
creeds like the people, goats would be of Islám; for though a vast
proportion of the population, including Hindus, possess a goat or two and
eat their flesh, it is mostly Moslems who keep them in flocks and trade in
them. There is something too in appearances. The Brahminy bull looks every
inch a Hindu; and the goat, to accustomed eyes, has no less decided a
Muhammadan air.
Immense numbers of he-goats are sacrificed by Hindus, principally to the
goddess Kali, one of the manifestations of Durga; and the practice is to
decapitate them at a blow with a heavy bill-hook-shaped knife. It is
supposed, indeed, that only animals slaughtered in this fashion are fit for
Hindu food. For many years a goat has been sacrificed daily at a temple
within the precincts of the old palace at Ambér, the former capital of the
Jeypore state in Rajputana; and here, as in some other places, the
tradition is that the goat is a substitute for a human sacrifice once
regularly offered. In some parts of India, Hindus say, "The goat gets its
own tail," a saying based on a local sacrificial usage. Each limb of the
sacrifice belongs to a deity. The tail is assigned to Vishnu, who only can
save. This part is therefore cut off and put into its mouth, so that at
least the creature gets salvation, and presumably has less cause of
objection to death. The Muhammadan _halāl_ custom involves a sort of verbal
apology to the creature slain, with a prayer; and, like the Hindu custom,
seems to acknowledge that it also has a soul. Some Muhammadans kill a goat
by way of sacrifice soon after the birth of a man child, and when a child
is sick. The throat is cut with the usual invocation, pronounced by a
Moollah.
[Illustration: A DOMESTIC SACRIFICE (MUHAMMADAN)]
We say in derision of hasty vows, "When the devil was sick," etc.: in India
they mutter, "If I get safe across I'll offer a goat." The story goes that
a Meo, one of the crocodile-eating river-side tribesmen, made this promise
when starting to cross the Ganges in flood; but when half-way over he found
it less dangerous than he had feared, so instead of a goat he vowed to
sacrifice a hen. When he had fairly won over, even the fowl seemed too much
to give, so he sought for an insect among his clothing. This was easily
found, and as he crushed it he said, "A life for a life, and that's
enough."
In the hill districts of the Punjab the ancient idea still prevails that
the sacrifice is not efficacious unless the animal first shivers. Thus,
during the marriage progress of a hill-chief a goat is sacrificed at
bridges and dangerous passes, and the long train waits contentedly until
the creature shivers. The Brahmans, if so disposed, hasten the tremor by
dashing a handful of cold water into the goat's ear, and thus produce a
quite satisfactory shiver. In Kulu, a hill province bordering on Tibet,
when two men have a difference which would lead elsewhere to a costly
law-suit, each leads a goat to a shrine at Nuggur, the chief town, and
waits to see which beast shivers first. The owner of that goat wins his
case, and the contending parties go home content with a divine judgment for
which no lawyer's fees have been paid. But in these cases they do not use
the cold douche.
So far as I know, belief in the shivering goat as a favourable omen is
confined to the hills, and it is particularly strong in Tibet. It was
consulted with disastrous effect to the Tibetans in the recent Sikkim war
just before they attacked our forces on the pass above Chumbi on the road
into Sikkim.
The goat and the kid are the staple of the flesh food of the Muhammadans
all over the East, and also of many Hindu castes, in Northern India
especially. It is a fact that while the vegetarian craze is said to be
spreading in the West, the use of goats and sheep as food is increasing in
India,--popularly supposed to be given up to vegetarianism, even among
Brahmanical castes. Throughout Hindustan proper and the Punjab, where
contact with Islám has softened the edges of Hinduism, flesh food has been
eaten by Hindus for centuries. By men, that is to say, for Hindu women very
rarely taste it. Many more things besides flesh meat are considered too
strong and good for mere women. Increasing prosperity is at the bottom of
such change as is taking place, and probably the silent force of example
counts for something. Hindus have said to me at times, "You English do not
suffer so much from fever as we do because you eat flesh meat," and "Your
eyesight is strong because you eat plenty of meat." This last might be
based on observation of flesh-eating birds, but I doubt it. There is,
however, a popular saying which forcibly expresses an estimate of the
virtue of meat: "The butcher's daughter bears a son when she is ten years
old." The home-keeping brother of the Prodigal Son complained that his
father never gave him even a kid to make merry with his friends. Phrases
like this which sound strange to town-bred Western ears, occur here in
everyday talk. Servants on the march are made happy with a present of kids,
and the festal days at the close of the long fast of the Muhammadan Ramazān
are red with the slaughter of countless goats. The Englishman in India
seldom wittingly eats goat or kid, but often in remote posting houses and
in camp his mutton cutlet was originally goat. The native prefers kid
before mutton, because the goat is a scrupulously clean feeder, while a
hungry sheep will eat anything.
It would seem difficult to be cruel to a goat, but the keepers of the
flocks of milch goats regularly driven morning and evening into Indian
cities contrive to inflict a good deal of pain. The nipples of the udder
are tied up in a torturing fashion, and there is an unnecessary use of the
staff. But the worst cruelty is the practice of flaying them alive in the
belief that skins thus prepared have a better quality. The Calcutta Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals prosecuted twenty-two criminals
for this offence in 1890, and is now inclined to hope the practice is dying
out so far as the capital of Bengal is concerned.
[Illustration: ON THE DUSTY HIGHWAY]
There are many sayings about goats, but the animal appears to be less
suggestive than might be expected. The wilfulness of the creature and his
habit of trespass are hinted in "Nothing to bother you, eh?--then go and
buy a goat!" A gibe at the greed of saintly people is expressed in verse:--
"My Lord, the goat a saint would be,
His pupil was a cotton tree,
And quickly nibbled up was he."
The bearded Moollah of the mosque also has the goat cast offensively in his
teeth. "You were moved by my discourse, I trust it will do you good," says
the Moollah. "Yes," replies the countryman, "I could have wept, for when
you wagged your beard in the pulpit you were just like our old billy-goat."
This is also a European story. For "great cry and little wool" rustics say,
"The goat bleated all night and produced only one kid,"--two being the
usual number.
In folk-tales holy places are discovered by the milch goats coming home
dry. It was found they had let down their milk on some sacred spot on which
a temple or shrine is afterwards raised. Many out-of-the-way Hindu shrines
are accounted for in this way. In other stories goats lead the way to caves
tenanted by mystic immortals of miraculous powers. A quaint belief is that
in dry desert places where wells formerly existed goats will group
themselves in a circle round the ancient well brink, though not a trace of
it is visible to the keenest human eye. Those who sketch animals may have
noticed that goats at rest have a way of grouping themselves as if posing
for their portraits. It is possible that this unconscious trick is at the
bottom of the well-brink belief. So far as I know there are no sayings
which notice the fine carriage of the head and the elegant horse-like gait
of this beautiful animal. The Indian goat as a rule is much taller and of
more slender build than the European animal.
From an administrative and economic point of view there are serious
objections to the goat, which is one of the plagues of the Forest
Department of the Government. It is the poor man's animal and is supposed
to cost nothing to keep. Every green shoot is nibbled off as soon as it
peeps above the ground, and young trees are promptly destroyed by
creatures which spend half their time on their hind legs and have an
effective reach up to the height of a man's head. Thus large tracts which
nature is ready to clothe with vegetation are kept barren, and new forests
carefully nursed by the provident state are devastated. Many more are kept
than the land can carry. The creatures really belong to the purely pastoral
scheme of life, and to the barren hillside, and are out of place in
agricultural areas, which are increasing yearly, and may be regarded as at
once a sign and a cause of unthrifty poverty and land-leanness.
[Illustration: MILCH GOATS]
The goat's trick of picking up stray trifles is sometimes inconvenient. A
Bengal saying runs, "What will not a goat eat or a fool say?" Two native
merchants in Bombay were concluding a bargain, and while making payment a
currency note for a thousand rupees fluttered to the ground and was
promptly eaten by a goat.
[Illustration: A GUILTY GOAT]
The receiver contended that the note had never reached him and the loss was
not his, while the other insisted that it was the fault of the receiver's
carelessness. A hasty Englishman might have insisted on a sudden autopsy of
the goat, but these were high-caste Hindus, who never dreamed of such a
thing, so they led the criminal between them to the Government Treasury,
where, after due inquiry, I believe the loss was made good.
After death the goat seems to be as much with us as in life, for his skin,
carefully withdrawn for this purpose, is borne as a water-vessel by the
_bhisti_ or water-carrier, and there are few more complete examples of
adaptation. The legs, sewn up, form perfect attachments for the strap by
which the bag is slung on the water-carrier's back, and the throat, which
is a convenient neck to the huge bottle, is ingeniously closed by a thong,
and is so supple that the _bhisti_ can direct a thin stream into the mouth
or hand of a thirsty passenger, or fill a decanter without spilling a drop,
or water a road with a far-reaching spray like that of a watering-cart, or
empty his burden into a bath-tub or a mortar-heap in a trice. _Bhisti_
really means a person from Paradise, a prince, and is one of the
half-ironical titles, like khalifa or caliph for a tailor, mehter or prince
for a scavenger, thakur or lord for a barber, and raj or royal one for the
bricklayer or mason, bestowed may be in time past as an acknowledgment of
the dignity of labour; but a little English child will often say, "Here
comes the _bhisti_ with his beast!" It is a rather pitiful beast, more like
a porpoise than a goat; yet at times when lying distended on the
well-block, with the leg-stumps in the air, and the man pausing a moment to
straighten his back before taking it up, I have thought a Levite at the
altars of Israel may have looked like this.
[Illustration: THE GOAT-SKIN WATERBAG (MASHK)]
The makers of goat-skin bags have a curious skill in flaying. One of them
once brought me a soft and glossy black kid skin cured with the hair on.
"What is this?" "Wait and see, sir," said he with a smile, and producing a
reed, he proceeded to inflate the skin in the manner described by Don
Miguel de Cervantes. A plump but not too shapely kid, with feet, ears, and
even eyes (in glass) complete, resulted, nor could I find a trace of a
seam. "Would not this be a fine thing for the 'wonder house'?" (native name
for museum). As a museum specimen it was scarcely eligible, but to this
moment I have no idea how it was done.
In Europe the goat is associated with the vine. The Bible has familiarised
us with the use of its skin as a wine-bag or "bottle," and it is still used
for this purpose in Spain and Cyprus. The Athenians during the festival of
Dionysus made a pretty game,--Ascoliasmus,--of leaping and dancing barefoot
on a wine-filled goat-skin smeared with oil. India is too temperate for
such high jinks, and puts no wine into skin bottles, for it makes none. A
_dren_ is a sort of raft made of goat or deer-skins inflated with air,
astride on which is uneasily fixed a cot bedstead. This serves as a
ferry-boat, and is used for descending hill-streams, the legs and arms of
the men in charge serving as oars and rudder. I have seen a gracious lady
of strong nerve, sitting serenely aloft on a contrivance of this kind,
attended by splashing bronze mermen, go gaily down a brawling river like a
new Amphitrite. When filled with water merely, the goat-skin or "mashk" is
a characteristic object. There is a story of an aide-de-camp in Simla who,
when walking up hill in full uniform behind a water-carrier on whose back a
newly filled "mashk" glistened plump in the sunshine, yielded to a
temptation that many have felt, and drawing his too-ready sword slashed the
thing open. It had not occurred to him that the "mashk" was full of dirty
water for road watering, nor that the whole contents would burst over him
in a cataract and utterly ruin his brave attire. One pays dearly sometimes
for the gratification of sudden impulses.
[Illustration: BHISTI, OR WATER-CARRIER]
In the Himálaya, flour and other food borne on a journey or brought home
from the shop are carried in a goat-skin bag which always forms a part of
the equipment of the hill peasant. When in accordance with an ancient
custom, men are impressed as porters or to work on the roads, as in the
French _corvée_--a blanket and a skin full of flour seem to be all they
take with them for an absence of three or four days on the hillside. These
are Hindus, but down in India proper no Hindu would put his food in a
leathern bag. There are many Hindus, indeed, who will not drink water from
the water-carrier's bag, and it were well if all shared this prejudice,
for, though undeniably handy and useful, it cannot be called a wholesome
contrivance. "Pipe-water," _i.e._ the tap-water now being introduced into
most large Indian towns, besides lowering the death-rate and increasing the
comfort of the inhabitants, has already lessened and will further reduce
the number of water-carriers.
It is only in India and Peru that the sheep is used as a beast of burden.
Borax, asafetida, and other commodities are brought in bags on the backs of
sheep driven in large flocks from Tibet into British territory. One of the
sensations of journeying in the hills of "the interior," as the farther
recesses of the mountains are called by Anglo-Indians, is to come suddenly
on such a drove as it winds, with the multitudinous click of little feet,
round the shoulder of some Himálayan spur. The coarse hair bags scrape the
cliff side from which the narrow path is out-built or hollowed, and allow
but scant room for your pony, startled by the unexpected sight and the
quick breathing hurry of the creatures as they crowd and scuffle past. Only
the picturesque shepherds return from these journeys, for the carriers of
the caravan, feeding as they go, gather flesh in spite of their burdens and
provide most excellent mutton.
[Illustration: A SPORTING MAN]
Sheep are numerous in India, but they are seldom kept by the cultivator or
farmer, for the combination of agricultural with pastoral life, common in
other countries, is almost unknown. In the towns of the plains rams are
kept as fighting animals, and the sport is a source of gratification to
many. A Muhammadan "buck" going out for a stroll with his fighting ram
makes a picture of point-device foppery not easily surpassed by the
sporting fancy of the West. The ram is neatly clipped, with a judicious
reservation of salient tufts touched with saffron and mauve dyes, and
besides a necklace of large blue beads, it bears a collar of hawk-bells.
Its master wears loosely round his neck or on his shoulders a large
handkerchief of the brightest colours procurable, his vest is of scarlet or
sky-blue satin embroidered with colour and gold, his slender legs are
encased in skin-tight drawers, a gold-embroidered cap is poised on one side
of his head, his long, black hair, parted in the middle and shining with
scented hair-oil, is sleeked behind his ears, where it has a drake's tail
curl which throws in relief his gold earrings, and in addition to two or
three necklaces, he usually wears a gold chain. Patent leather shoes and a
cane complete the costume. As he first affronts the sunshine, he looks
undeniably smart, but his return, I have observed, is not always so
triumphant. The ram naturally loses interest in a stroll which has not
another ram in perspective, and it is not easy to preserve an air of
distinction when angrily propelling homeward a heavy and reluctant sheep.
The great God Indra rides on a ram, but, for the bulk of the people, Indra
has been dead for many a day.