OF ANIMAL CALLS
"The beasts are very wise,
Their mouths are clean of lies;
They talk one to the other,
Bullock to bullock's brother,
Resting after their labours,
Each in stall with his neighbours.
But man with goad and whip,
Breaks up their fellowship,
Shouts in their silky ears
Filling their souls with fears.
When he has tilled the land
He says,--'They understand.'
But the beasts in stall together,
Freed from yoke and tether,
Say, as the torn flanks smoke,
'Nay, 'twas the whip that spoke.'"--R. K.
In English we say "Puss puss" to a cat. "_Pooch pooch_" is sometimes used
in India, but "_koor koor_" is a more frequent word to dogs, cats, and
domestic pets. "_Toi-toi_" is a call of the same kind. "_Ti-ti_" is a
Kashmir call to fowls and ducks. "_Ahjao!_" the first syllable long drawn
out, is the usual cry to fowls for feeding, and faqirs living in woodland
places thus call peacocks and monkeys to a dole of grain. Though not a tail
is visible at first, plaintive cries like those of lost kittens come
faintly from aloft and afar in response, gradually growing louder. Then,
one by one, slinging onward and downward, the creatures arrive with their
leader. "_Ah ah ah!_" is also a common fowl and pigeon call. The sacred
crocodiles in the Rajputana lakes are invited to dinner by the Brahmans
with "_Ao bhai!_"--Come, brother! Elephants have quite a small dictionary
of their own. There are separate words for--go quickly, sit, kneel with
front legs, with hind legs, with all four, lie down and sleep, go slowly,
lift a foot, rise, move backwards, stand still, break off branches, put me
up with your trunk, make a salaam, and possibly more. All these are
understood. A good mahout, too, is always talking to his beast, like the
ploughman and ox-cart driver. When riding on an elephant those who have the
knack of self-effacement and appearing to take no notice may hear quaint
things sometimes, naïve comments on themselves and odd phrases of reproach
and encouragement to the beast. One might, indeed, from these soliloquies,
ascribe more faith in animal intelligence to the Oriental than he really
cherishes. Many natives habitually talk to themselves by way of beguiling
the tedium of a long road; and old women of the rustic class, when walking
alone, frequently rehearse their family quarrels or bargainings with
dramatic gestures.
Camels have but a limited vocabulary, nor do they seem to have brought with
them the Arabic "_tss, tss_," which is the "woa" of the beast throughout
his Western home from Morocco to Hadramaut. "_Hoosh_" is the Biloch
driver's command for sit, but in the Eastern Punjab plain they say "_jai_."
For go on they use the heavily aspirated word for shout, "_hānkh,_," which
is also a great ox-word; whence comes "_hānkh,_" a drive of wild animals.
In Anglo-Indian slang there are Government servants who have to be
"_hānkhed_" or driven to their work.
"_Hiyo!_" is a cow cry, but with none of the fine note of the English
north-country "How up!" nor is there a pretty call like the "Cūsha! cūsha!"
that Miss Ingelow has used so effectively in her beautiful poem, "A high
tide on the coast of Lincolnshire." And as "Whitefoot" and "Lightfoot" are
called to come up to the milking shed, so Indian cows are summoned by their
names, often those of the days of the week, Tuesday (Mangal) being
especially lucky. A deep, guttural, cork-drawing tock, very different from
the English carter's click, and hard to learn, is much used for oxen, with
a variety of tones of anger, encouragement, and remonstrance in the
chest-deep "_hān_." When in a hurry or stuck in a rut, Indian carters
produce noises that the most skilful ventriloquist would find hard to
imitate. They rumble like a rusty tower clock in act to strike, they
gurgle, grunt, click, moan, and shout strange words known only to oxen,
punctuating every period with blows. "_Cheeo, Cheeo_" is said to oxen
drinking, and as they are released from labour, and must be a welcome word.
Animals also hear just the same foul and senseless abuse of their female
relatives that their masters bestow on each other. The constantly heard
"_Sala_" (brother-in-law) is the key-word to this loathsome line of talk.
Among caressing epithets in use are young one, son, father, mother,
darling, and daughter; sometimes _my_ child, etc. The interjection of
surprise of ordinary life "_aré!_" is often heard as a sort of "Would you,
now?" Horses are calmed and stopped by the kissing chirrup with which we
stimulate them in Europe, as a newcomer learns with surprise when his steed
stops dead at a sound meant to make him go faster. Bird-catchers and
jungle-folk at large imitate all bird and animal cries with surprising
skill. Quails, however, are lured to the net by a mechanical call, produced
by the finger-nail on a stretched skin. On thieving excursions the notes of
the jackal, owl, and other creatures are used as signals by burglars and
cattle-stealers.
On the whole Indian country cries and songs are harsh and unpleasing. But
there are exceptions to this rule. In Hindustan and parts of the Bombay
Presidency where oxen, walking down an incline, haul up water, the drivers
accompany their work with songs clear in note, musical in cadence, and
pathetic in effect.