_Hasteen_
"Ram deen," said the stout Thanadar of Kaladoongie, "it is by the order
of the sircar (government) that I question thee concerning this jungle
wanderer. Whatsoever thou sayest will be set down by the munshi and laid
before the commissioner sahib."
The "wanderer" put one hand on a tubby stomach that ill-assorted with
his attenuated limbs, and with the fingers of the other in close
apposition he pointed to his mouth, whining and saying to those round
him, "Oh, my father and my mother, we be hungry,--Hasteen and I."
He was a wee little manikin of the chamar (tanner) caste, and about six
years old. There was not a rag on him, save a sorry whisp of puggri that
made no pretence of covering the top-knot of hair which all Hindoos of
the male sex, and of whatever caste, wear on their heads as a handle
for the transportation of their souls to heaven.
He crouched in front of the fire of cowpats and grass, holding up his
little hands to the blaze, and beside him lay a huge pariah dog with its
head on his lap. One of its ears had been recently cut off close to the
skull, and it moved the bloody stump to and fro as the heat of the fire
fell on it. When any one approached the little chamar the dog growled
threateningly, and the small crowd of listeners was fain to keep at a
respectful distance.
"Thanadar ji," replied Ram Deen, the redoubtable driver of the mail-cart
to Kaladoongie, "the night air is shrewd, and it were well to feed the
little one and to put a blanket round him ere I tell you of his
finding."
"Ay, and forget not Hasteen," said the small chamar, pointing to the
dog. When the great beast heard its name it slapped its tail against the
ground.
A woman standing on the outskirt of the crowd took off her chudder and
passed it to Ram Deen, who, keeping a wary eye on Hasteen, wrapped it
round the little waif; and Tulsi Ram, the village pundit, also handed
his blanket to Ram Deen. By the time the little one was duly happed up,
Gunga Deen, the fat sweetmeat vender, returned with a tray of cates and
milk, sufficient for three grown men, and set it before the new arrival,
who, to his honor be it told, shared bite and bite with his four-footed
friend. And between mouthfuls he answered questions and told his story
to the Thanadar:
"My name, Most Honorable, is Biroo, and we be chamars of the village of
Budraon,--my father and mother, Hasteen and I. There were none others of
our family, and Hasteen and I be brothers, for we sucked the same pap,
and that my mother's, as she hath so often told me. I am the older by
three months, wherefore he mindeth me.
"Whence is Hasteen's name? How should I know, Protector of the Poor? I
am but a poor man and know naught."
Tulsi Ram, the pundit, ventured to throw some light on the derivation
of Hasteen's name. He hoped, ere he died, to pass the entrance
examination of the Calcutta University; and, after the manner of his
kind, he was preparing himself for it by the slow and steady process of
learning the prescribed text-books off by heart.
"Thanadar ji, the dog hath its name from Warren Hasteen, the great sahib
who killed the Kings of Delhi, as thou wottest, and daily fed on young
babes, whereof midwives and old women who saw him tell to this day. And,
moreover, he was a great fighter."
"Wah, Tulsi Ram!" exclaimed the Thanadar, "thou shalt yet become a baboo
in the post-office at Naini Tal."
"But there never was fighter like Hasteen," said the little chamar,
whose courage rose as his hunger abated, and rolling up a chupatti he
gave it to the dog, who made one mouthful of it. "He hath blackened the
faces of all the dogs of our village," he went on; "and last winter he
overcame a dog of fierce countenance and crooked legs, that belonged to
the sahib who camped near our village, and left it for dead on the
plain; and the sahib would have beaten me, but Hasteen rose upon him and
threw him down, and stood over him till I smote Hasteen with my bamboo
club and dragged him off the sahib. Ah, thou wicked one, thou budmash!"
and the great beast cowered before the wee man's threatening finger and
licked his feet. "And therefrom came all our woes, for our folk drave us
from Budraon, fearing trouble for the killing of the sahib's dog, and my
father would have slain Hasteen, but I restrained him. So we went to
Nyagong, and there thieves came by night and would have despoiled us of
our hides, but Hasteen prevented them; and thereafter the son of the
Jamadar of Nyagong, who was a vain fellow and wore his turban awry,
walked lame for many a day; and the bunnia (shopkeeper), who is the
Jamadar's brother, put ground glass in the raw sugar he sold us--for so
my father said--and my mother died.
"Last week my father came not home, and for three days I saw him not;
then--I looking on--they drew a man out of the village well with his
hands tied behind his back and a great stone fastened to his feet,--and
it was my father!
"And this night a flame leaped up from our hut, and Hasteen went swiftly
forth into the moonlight, his crest standing on his neck and back. I
followed with what haste I could, and thereafter I came up with Hasteen,
and he lay beside a dead man, whose eyes were wide open and on whose
lips was froth, and a sharp knife in his hand;--and it was the son of
the Jamadar!
"Thereupon I caught Hasteen by one ear and smote him on the other,--for
he had done this killing; and the hand wherewith I smote him was covered
with blood, so I saw his hurt, and that he had lost an ear.
"And the villagers waked whenas they heard the crackling of the flames
from our hut and the barking of the village dogs; and Hasteen and I ran
towards the road that leads to Kaladoongie, being more fearful of the
men of Nyagong than of the wild things of the jungle.
"When we came to the bridge over the Bore Nuddee my feet were tired, and
calling Hasteen to me for warmth I set my back to the wall of the bridge
and so fell asleep; and now that I have eaten of thy bounty I would fain
sleep again," and the little man yawned in the presence of the most
august assembly he had ever faced.
"It was thus I found him, Thanadar ji," said Ram Deen, "and I came none
too soon. A mile from the bridge I heard the hunting bay of a gray wolf,
and when I came nearer I could see in the moonlight, crouched beside the
end of the bridge, some great beast that leapt into the jungle as the
cart approached; and then the mail of the Rani (Empress) of Hindoostan
was stayed by a graceless pariah dog that guarded this jungle wayfarer,
and, frightening my horses, denied me passage over the bridge. I could
not have brought in the mail to-night had it not been for this Rustum,
who beat the dog and restrained him. Is it not so, O Terror of Nyagong?"
But the little man was fast asleep by this time, and Ram Deen, by
permission of Hasteen, who followed close at his heels, carried the
small chamar to his own hut and put him into his own bed; "for that he
was of the age," he said to himself, "of Buldeo, my son, who was lost to
me three years ago,--and he without a mother."