initial commit of ebook 38289HEADmain

1 files changed, 6273 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/38289.txt b/38289.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..060e5af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/38289.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6273 @@
+Project Gutenberg's The Sa'-Zada Tales, by William Alexander Fraser
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Sa'-Zada Tales
+
+Author: William Alexander Fraser
+
+Illustrator: Arthur Heming
+
+Release Date: December 13, 2011 [EBook #38289]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SA'-ZADA TALES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Darleen Dove, Shannon Barker, Diane Monico,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Sa'-Zada Tales
+
+
+
+
+BOOKS BY W. A. FRASER
+
+PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+
+    THE SA'-ZADA TALES. Illustrated by Arthur Heming       $0.00
+
+    MOOSWA AND OTHERS OF THE BOUNDARIES. Illustrated
+      by Arthur Heming                                     $2.00
+
+    THE OUTCASTS. Illustrated by Arthur Heming.            $1.25 _net_
+
+    THE BLOOD LILIES. Illustrated by Frank Schoonover      $1.50
+
+    BRAVE HEARTS. With Frontispiece                        $1.50
+
+
+[Illustration: SA'-ZADA HAD GATHERED ALL HIS COMRADES ... FOR THE
+EVENING OF THE BIRD TALK ...
+
+(SEE PAGE 119.)]
+
+
+
+
+THE
+SA'-ZADA TALES
+
+
+By W. A. FRASER
+
+_Illustrated by_ ARTHUR HEMING
+
+[Illustration]
+
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+_NEW YORK ... MDCCCCV_
+
+
+
+
+_Copyright, 1905, by_
+CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
+
+_Published September, 1905_
+
+J. F. TAPLEY CO.
+NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+
+                                                         PAGE
+
+INTRODUCTION                                               ix
+
+THE WHITE, YELLOW, AND BLACK LEOPARD                        3
+
+HATHI GANESH, THE WHITE-EARED ELEPHANT                     39
+
+GIDAR, THE JACKAL, AND COYOTE, THE PRAIRIE WOLF            51
+
+RAJ BAGH, THE KING TIGER                                   65
+
+THE TRIBE OF KING COBRA                                    87
+
+THE STORY OF THE MONKEYS                                  103
+
+STORY OF BIRDS OF A FEATHER                               119
+
+THE BUFFALO AND BISON                                     139
+
+UNT, THE CAMEL                                            155
+
+BIG TUSK, THE WILD BOAR                                   173
+
+OOHOO, THE WOLF, AND SHER ABI, THE CROCODILE              189
+
+SA'-ZADA, THE "ZOO" KEEPER                                211
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations
+
+_From Drawings by Arthur Heming_
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+
+Sa'-Zada had gathered all his comrades ... for the
+  evening of the bird talk                               _Frontispiece_
+
+"The thing that had me by the paw was of a fiendish kind."          19
+
+"And away we dashed."                                               32
+
+"Then something strong grabbed me by the hind leg, and
+  pulled me ..."                                                    42
+
+"Two ruffianly Bulls ... fought me while the men slipped
+  great strong ropes over my legs"                                  46
+
+"I heard my man say ... 'Strike me dead, if he hasn't ...'"         61
+
+"But I could see that there was something very wrong ..."           70
+
+"My sire ... sprang on a big Hathi's nose"                          82
+
+"And Baba used to come every day under the bungalow to play"        90
+
+"I would stretch my body across it much after that fashion"         98
+
+"And they all clambered on to my back"                             111
+
+"And sitting beside her, cried also, being but a little
+  chap and all alone in the jungle"                                112
+
+"And as he coughed, soap bubbles floated upward."                  122
+
+"Leaving just a place for her sharp beak"                          125
+
+"Something I could not see struck me most viciously in the
+  shoulder"                                                        146
+
+"Suddenly I heard a 'swisp' in the air, and my little
+  curly-haired pet ..."                                            150
+
+"I remained in the _jhil_ until my master had lost the
+  fierce Kill-look"                                                161
+
+"But some way I felt like doing my best"                           166
+
+"It was at this time that Bagh killed so many of my people"        182
+
+"'Into the horse's legs,' the old Dame had said"                   184
+
+"One could travel for days over the white snow"                    190
+
+"'Let me in, Tom, I am Jack,' pleaded the Hunt man"                202
+
+"The grizzly ... bounced out not ten yards from the Cayuse"        220
+
+"Bhalu ... pitched into the other two"                             230
+
+
+
+
+Introduction
+
+
+_All his life Sa'-zada the Keeper had lived with animals. That was why
+he could talk to them, and they to him; that was why he knew that
+something must be done to keep his animal friends from fretting
+themselves to death during the dreadful heat that came like a disease
+over their part of the Greater City._
+
+_In the Greater City itself the sun smote with a fierceness that was
+like the anger of evil gods. The air vibrated with palpitating white
+heat, and the shadows were as the blue flame of a forge. Men and women
+stole from ovened streets, wide-mouthed, to places where trees swayed
+and waters babbled feebly of a cooler rest; even the children were sent
+away that they might not die of fevered blood._
+
+_But in the Animal City there was no escape. The Dwellers from distant
+deep jungles and tall forests had only blistering iron bars between
+them and the sirocco that swept from the brick walls of the Greater
+City._
+
+_It was because of this that Sa'-zada said, "I must make them talk of
+their other life, lest they die of this."_
+
+_In the Greater City men thought only of themselves; but with Sa'-zada
+it was different. The animals were his children--his friends; so he had
+contrived that all of the Peace-kind--the Grass-feeders and
+others--should come from their cages and corrals and meet each evening
+in front of the iron-bound homes which contained those of the
+Blood-kind, to tell stories of their past life._
+
+_Sa'-zada had asked Hathi, the one-tusked Elephant, who had been Ganesh
+in Hindustan, about it. In Hathi's opinion those who had seen the
+least, and were of little interest, would do all the talking--that was
+his experience of jungle life; so the Keeper had wisely arranged that
+each evening some one animal, or group, should tell the tale._
+
+
+
+
+THE DWELLERS IN ANIMAL TOWN, IN THE GREATER CITY
+
+
+SAHIB ZADA, Keeper of the Animals in the Zoo
+
+ARNA, _the Wild India Buffalo_.
+ADJUTANT, _the Scavenger Bird_.
+BHAINSA, _the Tame India Buffalo_.
+BAGHNI, _the Tigress_.
+BAGHEELA, _Young Panther or Tiger_.
+BHALU, _the Bear_.
+COYOTE, _the Prairie Wolf_.
+CARIBOU.
+CHINKARA, _Gazelle_.
+GIDAR, _the Jackal_.
+GURU, _the India Bison_.
+HANUMAN, _a Tree-dwelling Monkey_.
+HOOLUK, _the Black Monkey_.
+HORNBILL, _Bird like the Toucan_.
+HATHI, _the Elephant_.
+HANSOR, (the Laugher) _Hyena_.
+HAMADRYAD, _the King Cobra_.
+KAUWA, _the Crow_.
+MOOSWA, _the Moose_.
+MAGH, _the Ourang-Outang_.
+MOR, _the Peacock_.
+MUSK OX.
+NEWAL, _the Mongoos_.
+PARDUS, _the Panther_.
+RAJ BAGH, _the Tiger_.
+SAFED CHITA, _the White Chita, or White Leopard_.
+SOOR, _the Wild Boar_.
+SAMBHUR, _A Deer_.
+SHER ABI, _the Crocodile_.
+UNT, _the Camel_.
+WAPOOS, _the Hare_.
+ZARD CHITA, _the Yellow Leopard_.
+
+
+
+
+First Night
+
+The Stories of White, Yellow, and Black Leopard
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+The Sa'-zada Tales
+
+
+
+
+FIRST NIGHT
+
+THE STORIES OF WHITE, YELLOW, AND BLACK LEOPARD
+
+
+Through the listless leaves of the oaks and elms the moon was spraying
+silver over the hot earth when Sa'-zada, throwing down bars and
+unlocking gates, passed the words to his friends to gather at Leopard's
+cage.
+
+As he slipped the chain from Hathi's foot, and it fell with a soft
+clink on the hay bed, he said, "Ganesh, you of the one tusk, keep thou
+the Jungle Dwellers in order, for if one may judge from the manners of
+one's own kind, who are men, this weather is a breeder of evil
+tempers."
+
+"Umph, umph!" grunted Hathi complacently. "I who have seen fifty such
+times of discomfort think little of it. Surely the Sahib-kind, who are
+also long dwellers, can remember that there comes another season of
+cool. But, as you say, Master, perhaps it were well if I take into my
+trunk a cooler of water for such as may fret themselves into a fever."
+
+Even as Hathi spoke an angry roar shook the building they were in.
+
+"Hear that, Patient One," cried Sa'-zada; "Pardus, the Black Panther,
+who is at best a mighty cross chap, is in an evil way."
+
+The cry of Black Panther, which was like the falling of many cataracts,
+was causing the dead night air to tremble. "Hough-hough; a-hough!
+Huzo-or, Wah-hough!"
+
+"There, make haste, Little One!" said the Keeper to Elephant. "The
+sight of our friends who are gathering at his cage, has put Pardus in a
+temper, I fear."
+
+In front of the Leopard's house all the outside animals of the Park had
+assembled: Arna, the India Buffalo; Sher Abi, the Crocodile; Gidar, the
+Jackal, and many others; even Magh, the Ourang-Outang, was there with a
+Fox Terrier who lived in her cage.
+
+"Friends," began Sa'-zada, "if we are all to live here together in this
+Park, it were well that we know of each other's ways."
+
+"That's a good idea," declared Sher Abi; "for in my time I have known
+little of the habits of other animals. A dog, for instance, will come
+down to the water to drink----"
+
+"I know," interrupted Gidar; "and not having the wisdom of a Jungle
+Dweller like me, he will come to drink and stop to sup with one of your
+kind. Is that not so, Sher Abi?"
+
+"Perhaps, perhaps," sighed the Magar; "and at home the Pups, having
+lost a parent, fall into the clutches of Gidar the Jackal."
+
+"I like this meeting," broke in Magh; "a gathering of thieves, and
+cannibals, and murderers--Eaters of Dogs----"
+
+"And Apes," came like a soft summer sigh from the bellows-mouth of the
+Crocodile.
+
+"Friends," interrupted the Keeper, "do not fall to quarreling. Let us
+decide who is to tell the first tale. As we are at Leopard's cage,
+perhaps he should have the first chance."
+
+"I'm agreed," declared Magh; "murder stories are always interesting."
+
+"I am sure everybody would be glad to hear of your killing, Magh,"
+sneered Pardus.
+
+"Well," continued Sa'-zada, "here are three Leopards: Pard, the Black
+Leopard; Rufous, the Yellow Leopard, and White Leopard. We'll have
+their stories for this evening."
+
+"I'm no Leopard," objected Pardus, ceasing his restless walk for a
+minute. Then he took three turns up and down in front of the bars, his
+big velvet feet sounding "spufh, spufh," on the hard polished floor.
+"No," he continued, stopping in front of Sa'-zada, sitting down, and
+letting his big round head sink between his shoulders, until he looked
+up from under heavy brows with yellow-green eyes, "no, I'm a Panther.
+That is the way with the men of my land; to them we are all 'Chita,'
+or else 'Bagh,' which surely means a Tiger."
+
+"I know," answered Sa'-zada, "you are neither Bagh the Tiger, nor Chita
+the Leopard."
+
+"I should say not," answered Pardus. "Chita is long of leg and slim of
+gut--a chaser of Rabbits, and of the build of an Afghan Hound. With one
+crunch of my jaws--Waugh! Why, I could break his neck."
+
+"What's the difference, anyway," objected Magh, "whether you are a
+Leopard or Panther--you all belong to the family of Throat Cutters? But
+what bothers me is that one is black, one is yellow, and one is white;
+now, in my family, we are all of one shade."
+
+"A very dirty color, too," sneered Pardus. "Waugh-hough! no color at
+all--just _dirt_!"
+
+"That is so that murderers like you cannot see me to eat me," answered
+Magh. "If I am on the ground, am I not the color of the ground? And
+when I am curled up on the limb of a tree am I not like a knot on the
+tree trunk? That is to keep me safe from you and Python."
+
+"That may be so," answered Pardus, "but I, who hunt in the early night,
+find this black coat the very thing. Soft Paws! I have come so close to
+a Bullock, working up wind, of course, that one spring completed the
+Kill."
+
+"Umph, umph!" grunted Hathi, with eager interest. "All that appears
+reasonable; but, tell me, Brothers, why is Yellow Leopard so bright in
+his spots? And if your black coat serves you so well, how does the
+other, who is white, manage?"
+
+"I speak only of myself," joined in Rufous, the Yellow Leopard. "True,
+I also hunt at night at times, but it's slow work; perhaps a long night
+watch by a water pool, and then only the kill of a Chinkara--a
+mouthful, and in the time of scarce food, why, one must stalk when the
+Grass-feeders are within range of one's eye. Who is there amongst you
+all, even Soor (Wild Boar), with his sharp Pig eyes, that can say, when
+I am crouched amongst the bushes with the sun making bright spots all
+over the jungle, 'There is Yellow Leopard, who is a slayer.' Not only
+is it good for the Kill, this coat of mine, but when the hunt is on
+from the other side, when I seek to keep clear of the Men-kind--by my
+caution! more than once, when it has been that way, have I slipped
+quietly through the young jungle, and left the Beaters running up
+against each other, asking which way went Bagh. I am no night prowler
+like Pardus, for often have I killed in the open."
+
+"I know nothing of all this matter," declared White Leopard; "but had I
+been black like Pardus, or black-spotted like Rufous, I had died of a
+lean stomach in the white mountains from which I come. Why, there, on
+the hillside, every rock gleams white in the sunlight--not spotted,
+mind you, for there is no jungle such as Rufous speaks of; even the
+sand-hills are so white with the hot light that a mate of mine has been
+almost at my side before I knew it."
+
+"White Leopard is from the _Safed Kho_ Mountains, the White Range, in
+Afghanistan," said Sa'-zada for the information of the others.
+
+"I know," declared Unt the Camel; "I've been there--just the loveliest
+hot sandy hills and plains in the whole world. But, tell me, Little
+Brother of the Blood-kind," he bubbled, "it is not always sunlight
+there--at times the white storm comes--high up in the range--what do
+you do then?"
+
+"My coat gets whiter still," answered Leopard; "and if I close my eyes
+and stalk by scent alone, why, you would never see me till I was at
+your throat."
+
+"It's either a lie or most curious truth," grunted Magh, biting the Fox
+Terrier's ear till he squealed. "Here is a Pup that is white all the
+time, and no lies about it, either."
+
+"Oh, it's the truth," asserted Wapoos, the Hare; "in the winter time I,
+also, turn white to save my throat from Lynx or Marten; though it is
+not of my own doing, to be sure."
+
+"It's Wie-sak-ke-chack, who is God of all Animals, who arranges it this
+way," said Mooswa, solemnly.
+
+"Well," interrupted Sa'-zada, "one of you Leopards tell us of the
+manner of your coming here."
+
+"As I have said," began White Leopard, "I was born in the Safed
+Mountains, and it was a year of much hunger----"
+
+"The very year I was born," declared Magh; "there hardly seemed more
+than three nuts or berries in the world."
+
+"Come up here, Chatterbox," grunted Hathi, winding his trunk around
+Magh's body, and lifting her to his massive head.
+
+"Let me hold the Pup," whined Sher Abi, spreading his shark mouth in a
+disinterested yawn. Hathi blew a handful of small stones which he had
+been picking up, into the opening, causing Sher Abi to sputter and
+choke. When the laughter had subsided, White Leopard proceeded with his
+story.
+
+"As I have said, it was a year of much hunger, because the Affrides
+made war, and the Sahibs came, and it seemed as though everything that
+had life in it was driven out of the country. They ate up the Goats and
+Sheep, and the Bullocks and Camels they took to carry their loads. It
+was indeed a time of distressed stomachs; and, to make matters worse,
+my Father, who was a killer of Bullocks and not a Goat eater, dropped
+the matter of a thousand feet over a cliff and was killed. Then my
+mother came with me, and I was still a Cub, down to the land of the
+Marris, where there were many Sheep--the short-legged kind with the
+broad fat tails; small they were, to be sure, and hardly of the bulk of
+even a Cub's desire. The very sweetness of their flesh made one wish
+that they had grown larger. Hunger pains! but it was a long tramp on a
+lean stomach, and in the end we fell among Men thieves--those of the
+White-kind, the Sahibs."
+
+"Birds of a feather on one limb," sneered Magh, tickling Hathi on the
+ear with her sharp finger.
+
+"And in that land, though there were many Sheep, it was hard to make a
+kill. Why, the Herd Men, Pathans they were called, which I think means
+the greatest of all thieves, were as wary as Jungle Dwellers. At the
+first try my Mother got a blow in the shoulder from one of their evil,
+long-necked Firesticks."
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed Sa'-zada; "that long gun was a _jezail_, and the
+Pathans are good marksmen, too. I could tell a story myself of their
+shooting; but go on, Chita, it's your say."
+
+"As for making a kill at night, Waugh! we had near starved watching for
+a chance; these Hillmen huddled their Sheep and Goats into caves like
+children, and slept across the opening.
+
+"And do you know, Friends, they lived so close with their Sheep, that I
+swear by my mustache they were of the same smell. Fine as my scent is,
+one night I had crept close to what my nose told me was a Sheep, and
+was just on the point of taking it by the neck when it got up on its
+hind legs and roared at me with the man cry.
+
+"We were like to die of hunger when Jaruk the Hyena came sneaking and
+laughing, and talked of a blood compact to Rani, who was my Mother. We
+were so hungry! but it was all to our undoing; for the grinning sneak
+was a coward, and led us into an evil trap. He told us of three Sahibs,
+a short journey from where we had our hunt; and these Sahibs were like
+Cubs in their little knowledge of jungle ways, having Sheep and Goats
+which they tied to stakes close by the white caves in which they lived,
+and never a guard over them at night. Waugh! well I remember, hungry as
+I was, how the smell of Hyena fair turned my stomach, so that I had
+little longing for eating of any kind; but Rani, being older and having
+more wisdom, knew that unless we soon found some method for making a
+kill we should surely die.
+
+"That night there was a small moon as we crept down over the valley and
+up to a flat-land where the Men-kind lived in little white caves--such
+odd caves, too, in one place to-day and in another the next."
+
+"He means tents," explained Sa'-zada; "being a Cave Dweller himself,
+his knowledge of houses is limited."
+
+"It's a wonder he didn't call them trees," muttered Magh.
+
+"Hyena stole along like a shadow of nothing, so smooth and soft were
+his feet--a proper sneak, I must say I thought him even then, Cub as I
+was."
+
+"Are you listening, Jaruk?" called Magh, maliciously; "this was a
+Brother of yours who was in partnership with Chita."
+
+But Hyena only grinned a frothy laugh, and slunk over behind Sher Abi.
+
+"Well," proceeded White Leopard, "we crept along, our bellies close to
+earth, till we came to a little ledge, where Rani and I waited, while
+Jaruk stole up to the white caves to see how the stalk was.
+
+"'They sleep like the young of Owls in daytime,' he whispered when he
+returned; 'even I, who am a creature of fear, and not like you, Rani, a
+slayer of Bullocks, have rubbed my lean jaws against two fat Goats that
+are chewing the sweet cud of plenty.'"
+
+"How your mouth must have watered, White Shirt," sneered Magh.
+
+"Then Rani commenced the stalk, and I, even a Cub, though I had always
+lain hidden while she was making the kill before, followed close at her
+heels. Even now I remember just how Rani made the kill. First one paw,
+and then the other, she stretched out, and pulled herself along, with
+never so much as the rattle of a single stone. The Goats were like the
+Sahibs in the caves, safe in the conceit which comes of a full stomach.
+When Rani crouched lower than ever and braced her hind paws carefully,
+I knew that the charge was on. Waugh, waugh-houk! By the neck she had
+one--for that is the way of our kind always--and with a jerk he was
+thrown on her shoulder, and away up the hill she raced. I tried for
+the other, but, being new to the kill, missed, getting only the rope in
+my teeth. Even as I chased after Rani I could not help but laugh in
+spite of my miss, for Hyena was screaming as he ran, 'Did you get the
+fat one, the very fat one?'"
+
+"The Greedy Pig," commented Magh.
+
+"Ugh, ugh, ugh!" grunted Soor. "Why should he be likened to one of my
+kind? More like he had a paunch full of peanuts, or other filth, such
+as you carry, Miss Bleary-eye; or if he were greedy, was he not like
+unto his mate, Chita, who will eat half his own weight at a single
+kill?"
+
+"Such a row I never heard in all my life," continued White Leopard;
+"the Sahibs, and the black men who serve them, ran here and there with
+blinking red eyes in their hands----"
+
+"The Man Fire," quietly commented Mooswa.
+
+"And all at once, over to one side, there was a short growl from a
+Firestick; and a Sahib called loudly, 'I've got him! I've got him!'
+
+"I wondered what it could be, for Rani and I were together with the
+Goat. I almost hoped it was Jaruk; but he was close at our heels,
+sniffing with his hungry nose, and fairly eating the sand where some of
+the Goat's blood had trickled into it. Then all the blinking red eyes
+passed swiftly to where the Sahib was, and we heard them laughing--only
+louder than Hyena laughs.
+
+"Next day Jaruk discovered that the Sahib had killed the other Goat
+with his Firestick in the dark, thinking it was Rani.
+
+"Of course, one Goat did not keep the hunger off very long; but for
+three days we did not make another kill. Not but that we tried. Each
+night we went close to the white caves, and Jaruk--I must say he had a
+nose like a Vulture's eye--came back with a tale that the Sahibs were
+watching with their Firesticks. But the next night we got another Goat.
+Cunning Animals! but Jaruk used to laugh, and even coaxed Rani to make
+a kill of one of the Men-kind.
+
+"Then one night we crept as before, close for a kill, and Jaruk came
+back to us laughing as though there wasn't a Sahib in all the Marri
+country. Rani growled at him for a fool. Waugh-houk! did he mean to
+have us all killed with his noise? And who was to do the killing, Jaruk
+asked mockingly, for the white caves were empty, he said. The Sahibs,
+and even the black-faced kind, had all gone away, and left the Goats
+and Sheep for the pleasure of our kill.
+
+"'It's a Raji (war), I'm sure,' he said; 'and they have gone out
+amongst the Pathans to kill and be killed, and while they are at it we,
+who are possessed of a great hunger, will make a kill of the Goats and
+Sheep.'
+
+"At this we went more boldly than before; but it was only a trap. These
+of the Men-kind whom we had likened to young Owls, were up on the hill
+behind a stone sangar; and just as we came to the Goats in the bright
+moonlight there was such a crashing of Firesticks, and appearing of
+what Mooswa calls the Man Fire, that I hope I may never see it again.
+Rani was killed, as also was--which was not so bad--Jaruk the Hyena. I
+had a paw broken, which to this day makes me go lame.
+
+"Then the Men-kind rushed down, and the black-faced ones were for
+killing me also; but one of the Sahibs, speaking, said: 'This is a Cub.
+We will send him to Sa'-zada.'"
+
+White Leopard ceased speaking, and Sa'-zada, putting his hand in
+between the bars, patted his paw, and said: "Poor old Chita! it may not
+be so nice here as in your own land, but we'll see that you do not go
+hungry, anyway. Now, Rufous, my big Yellow Leopard, you should also
+have an interesting account of yourself to give."
+
+"Quite likely," exclaimed Magh; "we'll hear some more rare boasting,
+I'll warrant."
+
+"A true tale is no boast," said Mooswa, solemnly. "I, who have had
+strange adventures, think it no harm to talk them over."
+
+"Oh, you'll have a chance, Fat Nose!" retorted Magh; "but first let us
+have a good, hearty lie from Leopard."
+
+"There will be no lies," declared Sa'-zada, "for I have all these
+matters in The Book--though they are not half so interestingly written,
+I must say, as you can tell them yourselves, if you are so minded."
+
+"Phrut!" muttered Hathi through his big trunk. "We'll have the lies as
+spice--that will be when Magh's turn comes."
+
+Thus appealed to, Yellow Leopard commenced: "I came from a jungle
+land--Burma."
+
+"My home," muttered Hathi, longingly.
+
+"It may have been the year White Chita speaks of, for I remember I was
+also wondrous hungry----"
+
+"You always are," sneered Magh.
+
+"Because I have not a paunch that holds a thief's load, whether it be
+fish, fruit or filth," retorted Rufous. "But, as I was saying when this
+Goat-faced Ape interrupted me, I was hungry, and, walking through the
+thick jungle, discovered a Bullock--young, of great fatness. By a rare
+chance it seemed caught in a branch of the elephant creeper----"
+
+"Elephant what?" muttered Hathi. "Not of our kind. We have naught to do
+with the killing of any young."
+
+Sa'-zada explained: "Yellow Leopard means the giant jungle vine called
+'elephant creeper,' which runs for perhaps the length of a mile, and is
+so strong that it pulls down great trees and smothers them in its
+grasp."
+
+"Oh, jungle wood," cried Hathi, much relieved, "that's an elephant of
+another color."
+
+"I shikarried the small Bullock most carefully," continued Rufous.
+"Round and round I went, taking the wind from every quarter; there was
+the scent of nothing but the white jasmine, and the yellow-hearted
+champac. When he saw me the Bullock-young became stupid with much fear;
+the two of us stood facing each other. He pulled back tight on the
+thing that held him, watching me with eyes that seemed as big as the
+black spots on my ears. I crept closer, and closer, and closer; for
+that is always the way with my kind; whether the prey be small or
+great, we kill after the same manner always. Brothers, know you aught
+of fear? We of the Blood-kind know it well. The Bullock's legs shivered
+like leaves that tremble in the wind; and he asked me with his big eyes
+to go away and not take him by the throat for his blood. How did he
+know that, Brothers--how did he know that I was not coming like one of
+his own kind to help him in his trouble? And the fear that I speak of
+was in his eyes.
+
+"With a roar, Waugh-hough! I charged full at him; my strong jaws
+fastened on his throat, and, with a quick turn upwards, I threw him on
+his back, and his neck was broken. Ghu-r-r-r-h! Whur-r-r-h! his young
+blood was sweet as it trickled into my jaws, for I was so hungry. Not
+that I drank his blood--that is a lie of the Men-kind who know little
+of our ways."
+
+"They're all alike," chattered Magh; "they murder, and it is all right
+because they are hungry."
+
+"Yes," retorted Yellow Leopard, "if I alone made a kill perhaps that
+would be wrong; but we are all alike--it is our way of life. You are an
+evil-looking, flea-covered, pot-bellied Monkey, but your kind are all
+alike, so that is also your excuse."
+
+Hathi shoved the tip of his trunk in his mouth, pretending to pick his
+teeth, but really to smother the laughter that fairly shook his huge
+sides.
+
+"By a find of much eating!" ejaculated Gidar. "How I wish I had been
+with you, Killer of Cattle. A whole Bullock! Eating of the choicest
+kind for three days at least. Often for the length of that time have I
+searched through a famine-stricken village in my native land, and in
+the end achieved nothing, in the matter of food, but a pot of hot rice
+water thrown on my back by a Boberchie (cook)--an opium-eating stealer
+of his Master's goods."
+
+"Would that you had been in my place," sneered Yellow Leopard, "for
+even as I was going away with my kill----"
+
+"Squee-squee-squee!" interrupted Magh with a sneering laugh. "Even I,
+who am a Tree Dweller of little knowledge, knew that a tale from this
+Cut-throat would soon run into a lie of great strength. May I kiss the
+Tiger if I believe that Chita carried away a young Bullock."
+
+[Illustration: "THE THING THAT HAD ME BY THE PAW WAS OF A FIENDISH
+KIND."]
+
+"You are wrong, Magh," reproved Sa'-zada; "in my hunting days have I
+seen even Bhainsa, the tame Buffalo, who is like unto a small Elephant,
+carried a full half-mile by Bagh."
+
+"Yes," asserted Yellow Leopard, "had the kill been an Ape like unto
+Magh, I had bolted it at one mouthful lest the sight of it made me ill.
+As I was saying, I took the young Bullock in my mouth, but at the first
+step my forepaw was lifted by something of great strength. I was
+surprised, for I had seen nothing--nothing but the kill. The thing that
+had me by the paw was of a fiendish kind. Jungle-wisdom! but I was at a
+loss. Dropping my prey I tried first this way and then that to break
+away, but it gave with me every time, and when I was tired lifted me to
+my hind legs, for the pull was always upward."
+
+"Was it a Naht?" queried Hathi. "One of the Burmese jungle Spirits that
+live in the Leppan Tree?"
+
+"You were snared," declared Sa'-zada; "I know, I've seen it. A strong
+green bamboo bent down, the snare fastened to it, and once over your
+paw--no wonder you were on your hind legs most of the time like a
+dancing Dervish."
+
+"Why did you not bite it off?" queried Wolf.
+
+"Neither would you," answered Leopard; "though I tried. The evil-minded
+Men seemed to know just what I would do, and had put a big loose bamboo
+over the cord. It was always down against my paw, and simply whirled
+about from my teeth."
+
+"Why didn't you trumpet?" asked Elephant.
+
+"I haven't a bugle nose like you, Brother; but I roared till the jungle
+shook in fear--even at the risk of bringing about me the Jungle Dogs,
+who hunt in packs, as you all know."
+
+"Whee-ugh!" whined Boar; "Baola, the mad kind. Nothing can stand
+against them. When they drive, the jungle is swept clean. Better to die
+in peace than make a noise and be torn to pieces by their ugly fangs."
+
+"And who came?" queried Magh. "I suppose you were like the Bullock, and
+your eyes grew big with the fear, and you begged them to go away and
+not hurt you. It was all right when you were to make the kill
+yourself--it was fine sport. Bah! I'm glad you were snared--I hate a
+taker of life."
+
+"The Men-kind came," answered Leopard meekly, for the mention of his
+fear made him abashed; "and seeing that I was caught, a Sahib would not
+let the Black-Men kill me, but set them to make a strong Bamboo cage. I
+was put in that and sent here to Sa'-zada."
+
+"I've been thinking," began Mooswa, plaintively.
+
+"Well, now!" exclaimed Magh; "I thought you were asleep, Old Heavy-eye.
+If you think with your nose, your thoughts must have been of great
+importance."
+
+Mooswa sniffed solemnly and continued: "You said you were hungry,
+Yellow Leopard. Was it not a land of much good feeding?"
+
+"It was a bad year--a year of starvation," answered Chita. "Up to that
+time the way of my life had been smooth, for I had found the manner of
+an easy kill. To be sure, Soor is not the pick of all good food----"
+
+"'Soor,' indeed!" grunted Wild Boar. "Ugh, ugh, ugh! by the length of
+my tusks you would have found me tough eating."
+
+"You see," continued Chita, paying no attention to this interruption,
+"the wild Pigs were horrid thieves----"
+
+"You were well mated," mumbled Magh, stuffing a handful of peanut
+shells in Hathi's ear.
+
+"They used to go at night to the rice fields of the poor natives, and
+chew and chew, and grunt, and row amongst themselves, until the
+Men-kind were nearly ruined because of their greediness."
+
+"But they did not eat the natives," objected Boar.
+
+"Neither did I," protested Chita--"while the Pigs lasted," he muttered
+to himself. "Knowing of all this, I made out a new kill-plan. At the
+first beginning of dark time I would go quietly down to the rice
+fields, hide myself in the straw that was near to the place where the
+Men-kind tramped the grain from its stalk with Buffalo, and wait for
+the coming of the rice thieves. Soon one dark shadow would slip from
+the jungle, then another, and another, until they were many.
+
+"'Chop, chop, chop!' I'd hear their wet mouths going in the rice; and
+all the time growling and whining amongst themselves because of the
+labor it was, and for fear that one had better chance than another; not
+in peace, but with many rows, striking sideways at each other with
+their coarse, ugly heads."
+
+"You're a beauty!" commented Wild Boar. "When you shove your ugly face
+up to the bars the women-kind scream, and jump back--I've noticed
+that."
+
+"Presently," continued Chita, "one would come my way, seeing the great
+pile of straw, and I'd have him. Jungle Dwellers! how he'd squeal; and
+his mates would scurry away jinking and bounding like Kakur Deer.
+Cowardly swine they were. Now, Buffalo, when one of my kind charged
+them, would throw themselves together like men of the war-kind, and
+stand shoulder to shoulder."
+
+"Yes; but, great Cat," objected Boar, "you took care to seize upon a
+young one, I warrant. Suppose you come out here and try a charge with
+me. Ugh, ugh! I'll soon slit up your lean sides with my sharp tusks."
+
+"Be still!" commanded Sa'-zada; "here we are all friends, and this is
+but a tale of what has been."
+
+Chita had turned in a rage at Boar's taunt, and glared through the
+bars, his great fangs bared, and tail lashing his sides. When the
+Keeper spoke he snarled in disdain at the bristling Pig, and continued
+the story.
+
+"Then came the hungry year. At the turning of the monsoons there should
+have been rain, but no rain came. All through the cold weather the
+jungle had gone on drying up, and the grass turned brown, even to the
+color of my coat. The Tree-Crickets and Toads whistled shrill and loud,
+until the jungle was like a great nest of the sweet-feeders--the Bees.
+Then when it was time for rain there was only more dryness.
+
+"The yellow-clothed Phoongyis (Priests) prayed; and the Men-kind
+brought sweetmeats and sheet-gold to their God Buddha; but still there
+was no rain. Miles and miles I traveled for a drink; and if I made a
+kill at the pool it was nothing but skin and bones. The small Deer that
+bark, what were they? Not a mouthful. And the Pigs shriveled up until
+one might as well have eaten straw. The Nilgai and the Sambhur-deer, as
+big as you, Mooswa, went away from that land of desolation, and soon
+nothing seemed to stir in all the jungle but the Koel Bird; and his cry
+of 'fee-e-ever!' forever ringing in my ears drove me full mad.
+
+"Then it was that I stalked close to the place of the Men-kind--though
+I had never killed a Bullock before--and I made a kill. But after that
+they took the Bullocks under their houses at night, thinking I would
+not venture so close.
+
+"But hunger is the death of all fear, and even there I made a kill.
+Then again the Men-kind, in their selfishness, thought to outwit me,
+for about the small village they built a stockade."
+
+"Were there no guns?" queried Hathi. "I, who have been in a big hunt
+with the Men-kind, have had them on my back with the fierce-striking
+guns, and all that was in the jungle presently fell dead."
+
+Chita laughed disagreeably.
+
+"I almost forgot about that. One day, when they were still at the
+stockade making, I saw one of these Yellow-faced Men tying two sticks
+together and sticking them in the ground, somewhat after the fashion of
+Mooswa's hind legs. Then surely it was a gun he put in the crotch of
+the sticks, pointing at the little runway I had made for myself.
+
+"I went into the elephant-grass that grew thereabout, and watching him
+took thought of this thing. 'It is to do me harm,' I said, 'for is not
+that my road? Always now I will come a little to one side, because of
+this new thing.'
+
+"And in the evening, as I came to the village, walking through the same
+coarse grass, but to one side, mind you, there saw I two of these Men
+sitting behind this thing that was surely a gun.
+
+"Only, because of thee, Sa'-zada, perhaps this part were better not in
+the story."
+
+"If it is a true tale it is a true tale," quoth Hathi, sententiously;
+"and, as the good Sa'-zada has said, of things that have happened."
+
+"Oh, tell it all," commented the Keeper.
+
+"Only say first you were hungry," sneered Magh; "hunger covers many
+sins."
+
+"Yes; I was hungry," moaned Chita; "chee-wough! so hungry. The Bullock
+I had killed was but a collection of bones tied up in a thick skin; I
+broke a good tooth trying to get a supper off him. And were not the
+Men-kind trying to do evil for me also, little nut-eater, Magh? They
+would take my skin to the Sahib and get much profit in bounty. I heard
+them say that as I lay in the thick grass. I crept close, close----"
+
+"Behind them," volunteered Wolf, "I know. You didn't look in their
+eyes, Brother, did you?"
+
+"They were busy talking," declared Chita, "and did not look my way.
+Suddenly I sprang out just to frighten them, for they were close to the
+stockade, and one ran away."
+
+"Only one?" demanded Mooswa, simply.
+
+But Chita had gone over to the corner of his cage, and sitting down,
+was swinging his big head back and forth, back and forth, with his face
+turned to the wall, like a Dog that has been whipped.
+
+"He has caught Sa'-zada's eye," whispered Magh in Hathi's ear.
+
+"It's a nasty tale," said the Keeper, "but I think it is true."
+
+"Yes; it is true," declared Wild Boar; "that is the way of his kind."
+
+"Then," said Sa'-zada, "they got this Sahib who has written in The
+Book, and set the snare for Chita and caught him."
+
+"At any rate, you were caught," muttered Hathi; "and from what you say,
+it seems to me a change for the better."
+
+"Now, Pardus," cried the Keeper, gently tapping Panther's tail, which
+hung through between the bars, "tell us of the manner of your taking."
+
+"I was caught twice," replied Pardus, blinking his eyes lazily, and
+yawning until the great teeth shone white against his black coat; "but
+you are right to call me Panther, for I am no Leopard. And it is so hot
+here and dry; quite like the place they took me to--they of the black
+faces--when I was first caught, being not more than a full-grown Cub,
+as was White Leopard. That was at Vizianagram, up in the hills; but the
+hills were not like White Leopard's, all hot and dry. The jungle was
+cool and fresh, and full of dark places to hide in, with deep pools of
+sweet water that one might drink after a kill. Here the Birds do
+nothing but scream and scold; Hornbill, and Cockatoo, and Eagle make my
+head ache with their harsh voices; there, if a Bird had occasion to
+speak, it was a song about the sweet land he lived in. It is well
+enough for Hathi to say that being trapped and brought here is a piece
+of great luck; for my part, all day long I do nothing but think, think
+of the Madras Hills. There were mango and tamarind, and peepul, and
+huge banyan trees, with strong limbs stretching so far that one could
+walk out full over the Deer paths, and wait in sweet content for a
+kill. Perhaps even a big family of bamboos growing up about one's
+resting-place, and whispering when the wind blew, and closing up their
+thick green leaves to make shade when the sun shone.
+
+"Even where the Men-kind came and sought to grow raji were plantain
+trees and palm trees--Urgh-h-ah! why should there be anything but
+jungle all over the world, it is so beautiful?"
+
+"Don't cry about it, Little Bagheela," sneered Magh, "for surely
+there's some sort of a story, some wondrous lie, in that head of
+yours."
+
+"True," continued Pardus, as though he had not caught Magh's
+observation, "there were disagreeable things even there. Of course, it
+will always be that way when the Bandar-log, the Monkeys, are about.
+Silly-headed thieves, they were doing no manner of good to any one; but
+more than once, when I've lain for hours waiting for the chance of a
+small kill, and the time of the eating had drawn near, everything would
+be upset by the mad laugh of Lungour, the Bandar-log.
+
+"But I was caught, as Leopard has said, through the coming together of
+a lean stomach and a trap of the Men-kind--neither a snare, nor the
+Fire-stick, but a cage with a door that fell. True, inside was a Goat,
+but what mattered that once the door was down?
+
+"Then they brought me down to the Raja's palace in the Plains.
+Stricken land! that was a place for any one to choose as a
+home--nothing but red earth, with less growth than there is on the end
+of my nose. The Men-kind lived in great square caves that blared white
+in the sun. Me-thinks White Leopard would have felt more at home there
+than I did."
+
+"What did those of our kind eat?" queried Hathi. "Also, where the
+Men-kind are is the Animal they call Horse, who is a Grass-eater--was
+there no grass?"
+
+"Scarce any," answered Pardus; "the Black-faced ones ran here and there
+with sharp claws, taking up the poor grass by the root, and all for the
+Raja's stables."
+
+"What did they do with you, Bagheela?" asked Magh, anxious to hear the
+story, for she was getting sleepy.
+
+"Put me in a cage in the rose garden, where were others of my
+kind--only they were of the color of Yellow Leopard. Of course, at
+first I thought it was because the Raja was not hungry, and would eat
+me another day; but in the next cage was a Leopard who had been there a
+long time, and he told me why we were shut up that way. 'It's for
+shikar,' he said. 'Soon all the Sahibs will gather, and we will be
+turned loose, and they will kill us with spears and the firestick.'"
+
+"That's right," commented Sa'-zada, nodding his head, "I've seen it;
+also is it written in The Book. The Raja was a great sportsman, and
+each year at Christmas time they had a hunt of this kind."
+
+"My Mate taught me a trick or two that helped pass the time," continued
+Black Panther. "'Bagheela,' he said to me, 'they will come to us here
+on Horses; you who have the end cage may perchance keep your hand in,
+and forget not the manner of a quick clutch with your paw. First, purr
+and look sleepy,' he advised; 'second, never strike when the Horse is
+beyond reach, for he is a creature of much fear; third, wait, wait,
+wait--have patience, Little Bagheela. Also, from in front nothing is
+done; but stand you ready at the end of your cage, which is a wall,
+because there they cannot see you, and if the Man comes close, strike
+quick and sure, for of this manner there is never but one chance.'
+
+"Now, it happened that a fat Sahib came often to the cage, and I could
+see that it was to teach the Horses not to be afraid of us. It was hard
+to mind what my Mate said, for the Sahib poked me in the ribs with a
+stick, or tickled me in the face with his riding-whip; but Yellow
+Leopard was always whispering through his whiskers, 'Wait, wait,
+wait--have patience, Little Bagheela.'"
+
+"This is a long tale," whined Magh, sleepily.
+
+"Keep still, Little One," objected Hathi, "no great stalk is ever done
+in a hurry."
+
+"One day," continued Pardus, "I heard the Horse coming by the end of my
+cage.
+
+"'Quick! Up!' called my Mate, Yellow Leopard.
+
+"Like a spring on a Buck I was up on my hind legs against the end wall,
+just at the last iron bar, ready. Around the corner came the Sahib
+quite close. It was a new Horse, and he thought to take pleasure out of
+frightening the poor Animal by a sudden sight of us.
+
+"Waugh-houk! With a strong reach I had the Sahib by the leg.
+
+"Whoo-whoo, waugh-waugh, whoo-o-o-o-waugh! how he roared. Of course, I
+did not get him altogether, for the Horse saved his life by jumping
+sideways. I licked the blood that was on my claws, and Yellow Leopard
+and I both laughed till the Keeper came running with a sharp iron bar."
+
+"I warrant you didn't laugh then," chimed in Magh.
+
+"No; he beat me, though it was all Yellow Leopard's fault. The fat
+Sahib swore that he would have the first spear in when I was let out at
+the time of the hunt. He was for having me killed in the cage; but the
+Raja said, 'No; his turn will come in the Shikar'; and when the Raja
+spoke there was an end of all argument.
+
+"'Little Bagheela,' said Yellow Leopard to me, 'we will get away to the
+jungles together at the hunt time. If they let you out first--never
+fear, Little One, you will have a start, for that is the Raja's way,
+we are to have a show for our lives, though I warrant one cannot get
+very far in five minutes--do you run very fast, and when you have come
+to the small mud-caves of the Black-kind, hide in the place where the
+Bullocks are kept. They will not look for you there, and not finding
+you they will come back, thinking you have gone to the jungles. When I
+am let out, I, too, will go that way, and together nothing will stand
+between us and the hills. Should I go first I will wait for you.'
+
+"Then one day a cage that was on wheels was put against the door behind
+which I was kept, and with bars that were hot they drove me into it.
+Then I was taken out to the fields, and when the Sahibs--there were
+many of them--had gone back on the road, the door was opened. Would you
+believe it, Friends, though I had been eating my heart out behind the
+bars yonder, now that I had the chance, I was almost afraid to venture
+on the plain. Even as I crept forth, a yellow-leafed bush suddenly bent
+in the wind, and I sprang into the air as though it were the charge of
+a Wild Boar----"
+
+"Listen to that, Friends," grunted Soor; "of all Jungle Dwellers, he
+has most fear of me."
+
+"But remembering what Yellow Leopard had said, I ran swiftly toward the
+little village that was between me and the hills; but not straight in
+the open, mind you--I had not lived by the kill in the jungle for
+nothing. First I leaped full over a long line of the fierce-pointed
+aloe bush----"
+
+"Phrut! I know that plant," muttered Hathi; "it has points sharper than
+the goad of any Mahout. Sore toes! but I know it well."
+
+"Even so," continued Pardus, "I ran swiftly along in the shadow of
+this, and soon found a Bullock cave such as Yellow Leopard spoke of. In
+the end the Men-kind could not find me, for I lay still, though once I
+heard the voice of the fat Sahib quite close, swearing that he longed
+for a sight of the 'black brute.' That was not my name, for I am Pardus
+the Panther.
+
+"After a little I heard more shouting; then there was a rustling noise
+which I knew was the gallop of Yellow Leopard. He was calling as he
+ran, 'Ehow-Ehow-Hough, Bagheela!' just as we call to our Mates in the
+jungle.
+
+"'A-Houk! here am I,' I cried, rushing out, thinking that we would soon
+be safe in the cool jungle again. And away we dashed. By the loss of a
+Kill! we had not gone far till almost in front of us we saw the fat
+Sahib and three others on their Horses full in our path.
+
+"'Oh-ho, my Black Beauty!' he cried, when he saw me; 'now we'll wipe
+out the score.'"
+
+"That's like the Men-kind," growled Raj Bagh, the Tiger; "they cage us
+and kill us, and if we so much as raise a claw in defence of our lives
+we are reviled, and they have a score against us to wipe out."
+
+[Illustration: "AND AWAY WE DASHED."]
+
+"Yes," asserted Pardus, "and long holding in their hate, too. If we
+fail in a kill, do we go long hungered, turning from everything else
+until we have slain the one that has escaped us? But there was the fat
+Sahib, who had not gone back with the others, but was still searching
+to kill me, Black Panther. Surely that was not what they call shikar
+(sport), but a matter of hate he had laid up against me."
+
+"You should have taken his beatings," declared Hathi, "even as I have,
+more times than there are tusks to your paws; phrut, phrut! it has
+always been that way with us Jungle Dwellers. When the Sahib beat us it
+is evil fortune if we do not let it rest at that. True, there was a
+Mahout once that went too far--but what am I saying? surely I am half
+asleep. It is your story, Bagheela--you were saying that the fat Sahib
+had killed you--I mean----"
+
+"Yes," said Pardus, "the fat Sahib--I stopped; so did Yellow Leopard,
+with an angry growl. Then behind I heard a little trumpet from Hathi."
+
+"Not me," exclaimed the big Elephant; "I wasn't there."
+
+"Most surely it is a wondrous lie," declared Magh; "and now he asks
+Ganesh to say he was there and saw it."
+
+"No, no!" interrupted Sa'-zada, "it was another Elephant."
+
+"Even so," affirmed Pardus; "and on his back was the Raja, coming in
+great haste.
+
+"'Charge!' roared Yellow Leopard to me, and with a rush that was full
+of wickedness he went straight for the fat Sahib; and before I knew how
+it was done, had broken his neck with the hold that we all know so
+well.
+
+"The Raja, without waiting for Hathi to kneel, jumped from his back,
+and rushing like the charge of a Sambhur, drove his spear through
+Yellow Leopard as he still held the Sahib by the throat, and killed
+him. Well I remember the spear was buried head deep in the ground.
+
+"In fear, I raced back to the mud-caves in which were the Bullocks; and
+they brought the cage again and put it to the door. But I was afraid to
+enter till they dropped fire on me from above. Then I was taken back to
+my old quarters, and in the end sent here to Sa'-zada."
+
+"It's a pity the Sahib was killed," said the Keeper; "it was a horrible
+death."
+
+"I was sorry for Yellow Leopard," declared Pardus, "for he tried to get
+me away with him to the jungles."
+
+"Chee-chee! but I am sleepy," yawned Magh, sliding down Hathi's trunk
+with the Pup under her arm. "These tales of killings are enough to make
+one have bad dreams."
+
+"Dreams!" exclaimed Sher Abi, opening his eyes, for he had been sound
+asleep; "to be sure, to be sure! I've had a very bad dream. One should
+not eat so much; but after all, I suppose it is the feathers that are
+indigestible. E-ugh-h! Sa'-zada, could you not pluck the chickens
+before you give them me to eat? There was a time when I could
+digest----"
+
+"Oh, move along, Magar!" interrupted Sa'-zada; "it is bed-time now.
+You'll have a chance to talk some other night."
+
+And presently the Animal town of the Greater City was quiet, save for
+the bubble of Camel's long throat, and the gentle snore of Hathi's
+pendulous nose. The moon blinked curiously through the whispering
+leaves, and over all there was the solemn hush that comes in the night
+when the days are days of fierce heat.
+
+
+
+
+Second Night
+
+The Story of Hathi Ganesh, the White-Eared Elephant
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+SECOND NIGHT
+
+THE STORY OF HATHI GANESH, THE WHITE-EARED ELEPHANT
+
+
+It was very hot. The Summer moon, pushing lazily through the whispering
+tracery of tall elm trees that cut the night sky, fell upon the same
+group of forest friends gathered in front of Tiger's cage that had been
+there the previous evening, when the Leopard brothers had discoursed so
+pleasantly of their Jungle life.
+
+"What is the tale to-night, Sa'-zada, loved Master?" asked Magh, the
+Ourang-Outang, standing with one hand on Mooswa's back, who was lying
+down.
+
+"It is the talk of Hathi," answered the Keeper.
+
+Hathi could be heard blowing softly through his trunk to clear his
+throat, then he began his story:
+
+"We were a mighty herd, all of forty, with two great Bulls in charge, I
+remember; though to be sure when it came to be a matter of danger they
+seemed to forget all about being in charge and cleared off as fast as
+they could. I soon got to know that the herd was very proud of me."
+
+"I should think they would be, my big beauty," cried Magh, patting his
+forehead affectionately.
+
+"You see," continued Hathi, "these white and pink spots all over my
+neck and ears were a sign that great luck had come to the herd. Even
+the Men-kind--but that, of course, I discovered years after at
+Ava--even the Men-kind looked upon me as sacred, being a White
+Elephant. Besides, I had but the one tusk, the right, and that is why I
+am Ganesh, the Holy One.
+
+"We wandered about in the Jungle, and when we Babe Elephants were
+tired, the whole herd waited until we had rested and fed. That's why
+the Bulls had nothing to do with leading the herd. They knew little of
+what a calf could stand, so Mah, my Mother, always gave the signal when
+we were to start or stop. I think she was very proud of being the
+mother of the lucky Calf.
+
+"But it was a lovely land to dwell in; all hills and valleys with
+plenty of cover; and down in the flat lands the Men grew raji and rice,
+and plantains.
+
+"I think there must be some very wise animal who arranges all these
+things--puts each one in the Jungle he likes best. Pardus was happy in
+his hills, and White Chita liked the snow mountains, and Yellow Leopard
+the rice fields; and Mooswa has told me when we've talked together,
+that on the far side of his lands are the loveliest spruce forests any
+Moose could wish to live in."
+
+"Perhaps it was Sa'-zada or one of his kind," ventured Muskwa, the
+Bear.
+
+"It is God who arranges it," declared the Keeper, in a soft voice.
+
+"I don't know who that may be," muttered Hathi, "but I thought there
+was someone. Such a lovely Jungle it was; tall teak trees and pinkado,
+and Telsapa from which the Men-kind drew oil for their fires.
+
+"For days, and weeks, and months it would be hot and dry; and then
+three times the big flower would come out on the padouk tree, and all
+the Elephants would laugh and squeal with their trunks, for they knew
+the rain would surely come. Yes, when we could see for the third time a
+big cluster of flowers, patter, patter on the leaves we could hear the
+rain, and soon drip, drip, drip, trickle it would come down on our
+backs, washing the dust and little sticks out of every wrinkle until
+even the old Bulls would commence to play like Calves.
+
+"We finally came to a big river early in the morning, and every one
+went in for a wash. Mind, I was only a babe about the size of a
+Buffalo. The old ones lay down in the river, just keeping their trunks
+out to breathe, and I thought to do the same, of course; but when I
+flopped over on my side--bad footing! there was nothing anywhere but
+soft, slippery water--there was quite a thousand miles of it, and dark
+as the blackest night. I could see nothing, hear nothing only the
+angry talk of the water that ran fast. They said that I screamed like a
+young pig. Then something strong grabbed me by the hind leg, and pulled
+me out up on the bank--it was Mah. She scolded roundly. Then she
+spanked me good and hard.
+
+"All that season I was not allowed to go in the water again. Mah washed
+me down with her trunk, squirting the water over me.
+
+"The eating was sweet in those Jungles; but best of all I liked the
+young plantains when they were just beyond the blossom age, all wrapped
+up in a big leaf, and juicy, and sweet.
+
+"The first happening was from an evil-minded Bagh (tiger). That evening
+I had wandered a little to one side, not knowing it, and Bagh, with a
+fierce word in his big throat, jumped full on my head. Of course I
+screamed----"
+
+"Like a Pig," interjected Boar.
+
+"Like a Babe Hathi," corrected Elephant. "And Mah, who had been looking
+for me, just in the nick of time threw Bagh many yards into the Jungle
+with her trunk. I don't know how other animals get along without a
+trunk; it seems just suited for every purpose.
+
+[Illustration: "THEN SOMETHING STRONG GRABBED ME BY THE HIND LEG, AND
+PULLED ME ..."]
+
+"The next happening was worse, for it came from the Men-kind. It was a
+hot, hot day. We were all standing on a hill in the shade of trees,
+flapping our ears to keep the flies off, when suddenly Old Bull kinked
+his head sideways, whistled softly through his trunk, and we all
+stopped flapping to listen. Even Calf as I was, I knew there was some
+danger near. In the wind there was nothing--nothing unusual, just the
+sweet scent of the tiny little white flowers that grow close to the
+short grass. But Old Bull was afraid; he gave a signal for us to move,
+and we started.
+
+"In a minute there was an awful cracking like the breaking of a tree,
+only different, and we all ran here, there, everywhere. Of course since
+that, having been taken in the hunt by the Men-kind, I know it was a
+gun, as they call it.
+
+"Old Bull charged straight for a little white cloud that rose from
+where the noise had been; then crack! crack! crack! the guns trumpeted
+all over the Jungle--but I won't tell any more of that happening,
+because Old Bull was killed; and Mah, too--though the Men-kind said
+afterwards, so I've heard, that it was a mistake, as they only killed
+Bulls, being white hunters, for the sake of the feet and tusks.
+
+"It was late in the evening before the herd gathered again, and we
+traveled far, fearing the evil of the Men-kind."
+
+"Was there no evil with your own people?" queried Wolf. "Just feeding,
+and nothing else?"
+
+"Well," answered Hathi, hesitatingly, "sometimes in a herd there grows
+up one who is a 'Rogue.' We had one such, I remember. But that also
+came about because of the Men-kind--a yellow man. It was a Hill-man,
+and when this Rogue of whom I speak--he also was a Bull--was just full
+grown, a matter of perhaps twenty years, this Hill-man thrust into his
+head, from a distance, too, being seated in a tree, an arrow.
+
+"The arrow remaining there as it did, caused this Bull to become of an
+evil temper. Quarreling, quarreling always, butting his huge head into
+a comrade because of a mere nothing; and with his tusks putting his
+mark on many of us without cause; sometimes it would be a kick from his
+forefoot, or a slap of his trunk. When we were near to the places of
+the Men-kind he would wallow in the rice fields, and pull up the young
+plantain trees by the roots, even knock the queer little houses they
+lived in to pieces, for they were but of bamboo and leaves. Of course
+the dwellers ran for their lives, and sometimes brought fire, and made
+noise with their guns, and beat gongs to frighten him away.
+
+"Many times we drove him forth from the herd; and sometimes he stayed
+away himself for days, sulky. In the end we lost him altogether, and we
+were all glad; but strange as it may appear, I saw him again in Rangoon
+in the timber yards. That was after I was caught."
+
+"Tell us about that happening," pleaded Sa'-zada, "for it is even not
+written in The Book."
+
+"I was taken in a manner full of deceit, and because I had faith in
+those of my own kind. I was, perhaps, fifteen or twenty years old at
+the time--but in a Hathi's life a year or two is of no moment, for we
+are long-lived--and what might be called second in charge of the herd,
+a condition of things which I resented somewhat, but the Herd Bull had
+been leader while I was growing up, so there was no just claim on my
+part really.
+
+"And it happened in our wanderings that we came not far from the
+greatest of all the Men's places in that land, Ava (Mandalay). One day
+as I was pulling down the young bamboos and stripping the feathered
+top, a strange _Hathni_ (female elephant) came to me and put her trunk
+softly on my neck. She was all alone, and I felt sorry for her;
+besides, she was nice--showed me such lovely places for good feeding. I
+spent a whole day with her, and the next day, too, and as we went
+through the jungle, suddenly we came to a sort of immense, strong
+_hauda_. It wasn't a bit like the Men's _haudas_ that they live in,
+else I should never have been deceived; great trunks of trees growing
+up out of the ground straight, and close together, but no branches or
+leaves to them; as square on top as the end of my leg. This
+queer-looking jungle thing troubled me. 'What is it?' I asked Hathni.
+
+"'It's my home,' she replied; 'come in, Comrade.'"
+
+"And of course the woman had her way," remarked Sa'-zada; "you went
+into the parlor, Hathi, old chap, I suppose."
+
+"Not by that name knew I it, Sa'-zada; they called it a Keddah, as I
+found out. But I went in."
+
+"And was caged," laughed Black Chita.
+
+"Inside," continued Hathi, "was a winding path, and Hathni trotted down
+this so fast that I lost her. A great wooden gate dropped behind me,
+and I knew that I was in a trap. It was a big place, but no openings to
+get out.
+
+"Then the Men-kind showed their yellow faces all over the walls, just
+like _Hanumen_--the gray-whiskered Monkey of those parts.
+
+"'A White Elephant at last, at last!' they cried; 'now will the King be
+pleased.'
+
+"I was left alone that night, but the next day the Men-kind came with
+two ruffianly Bulls of my kind who bunted and bustled me about, and
+fought me, while the men slipped great strong ropes over my legs. In a
+week I was that tired and sore from this treatment that I was ready to
+go any place. Then I was taken to Ava; and such doings! I dislike to
+tell it all; it's hardly modest.
+
+"They put a silk covering over me to keep the Flies off, and a garland
+of white jasmine flowers about my neck--sweet-smelling flowers they
+were; in my ears two big red stones of the ruby kind were placed; and
+always as I walked a great silk umbrella was over my head. And as for
+eating--humpf, humpf, humpf! they just made me ill with sweets to be
+eaten out of gold dishes."
+
+[Illustration: "TWO RUFFIANLY BULLS ... FOUGHT ME WHILE THE MEN SLIPPED
+GREAT STRONG ROPES OVER MY LEGS."]
+
+"Is this a true tale, O Sa'-zada?" queried Black Leopard. "For one of
+the jungle folk it is a strange happening."
+
+"It is true," replied the Keeper; "that was the way with the White
+Elephant at the Burma King's court, it is written in another book I
+have read."
+
+"And no one was allowed to ride on my back but the King," declared
+Hathi, "excepting, of course, the Mahout. As I walked I was afraid of
+stepping on some one; the Men-kind were forever flopping down on their
+knees to worship me. It was this way for years; then one season there
+came war; great guns spoke with a roar louder than Bagh's; and vast
+herds of the white-faced Men-kind came, letting free the blood of the
+yellow-faced ones; and in the end I was taken away, and sent down to
+Rangoon, and put to work in the timber yards. There was no worship, and
+few sweetmeats, and for silk covering I was given a harness with
+leather collar and chain traces. It was like being back in the jungle
+again--I was just a common Hathi, only I was called there Raj Singh.
+
+"It was at that time I met the Bull who was a Rogue. He was also
+working in the timber yards, but it had done him much good--his temper
+was improved."
+
+"Was it kind treatment cured him?" asked Sa'-zada.
+
+"No," replied Hathi; "they whipped him into a gentle behavior. Two big
+Bulls with heavy iron chains swinging from their trunks thrashed him
+until he promised to cease making trouble. But one day he broke out
+bad, and smashed everything--tore the Master's dogcart to pieces,
+knocked the Cooly's _haudas_ down, and trumpeted like an evil jungle
+spirit. He even killed his Mahout, which was a silly thing, though he
+declared his driver, the Mahout, sitting up on his back, one foot on
+either side, had prodded viciously at his head until poor Rogue's blood
+was on fire.
+
+"But in the end they sent me away to Sa'-zada, and I am quite content";
+and reaching his big trunk over to the Keeper, Hathi caressed the
+latter's cheek lovingly.
+
+"Oh, we are all content," declared Magh; "for Sa'-zada is a kind and
+gentle Master."
+
+"Now, all to your cages and your pens," cried the Keeper, "for it is
+late. To-morrow night, perhaps, we shall have the tale of Gidar, the
+Jackal."
+
+
+
+
+Third Night
+
+The Stories of Gidar, the Jackal, and Coyote, the Prairie Wolf
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+THIRD NIGHT
+
+THE STORIES OF GIDAR, THE JACKAL, AND COYOTE, THE PRAIRIE WOLF
+
+
+"To-night," commenced Sa'-zada, "we are to have the interesting life
+story of the two half-brothers, Gidar and Coyote."
+
+"A thief's tale of a certainty," chuckled Magh.
+
+"In my land, which was Burma, there were none so useful as we," began
+Gidar. "Not of high repute our mission, perhaps, but still useful,
+being scavengers; and to this end we are all born with a fair appetite;
+but useful always, even Bagh knows that. I was Lieutenant to one of his
+kind--a great killer he was--for a matter of two years. Then he came by
+way of a dispute with the Men-kind, and they finished him in short
+order.
+
+"Now, you know, Brothers, our kind have steadily worked southward from
+India, pushing into new lands from all time, even like the Sahibs,
+until we are now half down through Burma. It must be a dull land that
+has not our sweet song at night. If there were but a Pack here now we'd
+sing you a rare chorus."
+
+"I've heard the song," quoth Bagh; "it's wretched."
+
+"How goes it?" asked Wolf. "Our Pack has a cry of great strength; the
+'bells of the forest,' the Redmen call it."
+
+"It's somewhat this way," said Jackal, and sitting on his haunches he
+raised his long, sharp nozzle high in air, stretching his lean throat
+toward the moon that glinted fretfully through the swaying trees; and
+on the still, quiet night air floated his cry of far-off India:
+
+     "'_Oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-o-o-o-o-o!
+     I smell a dead Hindoo-oo!_'
+
+"That would be my cry, Brothers. Then from all quarters of the jungle
+the Pack would take up the song and sing back:
+
+     "'_Where, where, where, where, where, where?_'
+
+"And I would answer back cheerily:
+
+     "'_Here, here, here, here, here, here!_'
+
+"Then all together we would sing with all our lungs:
+
+     "'_Oo-oo-oo-o-o-o-o-h
+     Mussulman or Hind-oo?
+     Here, there, or anywhere,
+     All flesh is flesh, we do not care._'"
+
+"A charming song," sneered Magh.
+
+"Ah, I cannot give it right; you should have heard it, little
+Eater-of-sour-fruit, in the dead closeness of a Burman jungle, from the
+many throats of a hungry Pack.
+
+"The people of that land liked the song full well, and they never
+molested us. But life was one continuous struggle for food. We were not
+slayers like Chita, or Bagh, or Python; or stealers of crops like Boar
+and Rogue Hathi; almost as simple in our way of life as Mooswa.
+
+"I remember once a fat Dog-pup of the Terrier kind, which I bagged. It
+was all the fault of the Pup's master; he tried to kill me."
+
+"You had probably been singing to him," said Sa'-zada.
+
+"We had, I admit," answered Jackal. "It was on Borongo Island; two men,
+Sahibs they were called there, you know, lived in a bungalow built on
+high posts, after the manner of all houses in that land. The bungalow
+was built on the shore, and every day the water came up under it, and
+then went back again. This was a most wise arrangement of the water's
+traveling, for it threw up many a dead Fish and Crab for our eating.
+
+"Well I remember the cook-house was a little to one side from the
+bungalow, with a poor, ill-conditioned bamboo door to it. Regularly,
+doing our scavenger work, we used to clean up that cook-house, eating
+everything the servant-kind had not devoured. Several times I made a
+great find in that very place, for the cook, it appears, was a most
+forgetful fellow. When there was nothing left for us in the way of
+food, we'd carry off the pots and pans into the jungle grass; why, I
+hardly know, but it seemed proper to do so.
+
+"Neither do I know which of the Pack first started singing under the
+bungalow; but this also afforded us much content. Many hours on in the
+dark we'd all steal gently down from the jungle, and gather under the
+house. Then, as one, we'd give voice to the hunger cry together, until
+even the Sahibs would shout in fear. It was good to make the Men-kind
+afraid; but also we would flee swiftly, for the two Sahibs would rush
+out like a jackal that had suddenly become possessed of much poisoned
+meat, and 'bang, bang, bang' with the guns.
+
+"I had much to do with Men, and just when I thought they were full
+cross because of our serenade, what was my surprise to find each
+evening a full measure of rice put in a certain place for me. 'It is
+full of the datura' (poison), I thought, and watched while a lean
+Pariah Dog from the village ate it. But there was nothing wrong with
+it. So the next evening I made haste to get a full share of it myself.
+As I ate, hurriedly I must say, twang-g! came a mighty Boar-spear.
+
+"But only the shaft of it struck my back, so I made off with great
+diligence. I heard the Sahib say as he picked up the spear, 'Missed
+him, by Jove!' You see, he had been hiding in a corner of the bungalow.
+But I was hungry, and the rice was good--most delicious--so I crept
+back with two comrades, and keeping to the thick grass, stalked the
+bungalow most carefully. I saw the Sahibs all at their eating, for the
+door was open, it being hot; you see, he thought I wouldn't come back
+so soon.
+
+"'I will eat with you,' I said, and made straight for the rice; but it
+was nearly all gone; the Terrier Pup of which I have spoken, and which
+belonged to this very Sahib who had thrown the spear, was just
+finishing his Master's bait.
+
+"'Oh, you wicked Dog!' I said, 'to steal my supper this way,' and
+knowing that his master was in the habit of throwing spears at that
+very spot, I picked him up and carried him to the jungle for safety.
+
+"'Oh, oh E-u-u-h!' how he squealed, and the Men-kind left their eating,
+and came rushing after us with much shouting, but it was dark and they
+had no chance of catching us."
+
+"And you ate the poor little fellow?" asked Mooswa.
+
+"Horrible!" cried Magh, "to eat a Dog."
+
+"Not at all bad stuffed with rice, I assure you," declared Gidar. "For
+a day or two I kept more or less out of the way; I was afraid the
+Sahibs might be very angry.
+
+"It was two nights after this I discovered more rice some distance from
+the bungalow in a pail which was sunk in the ground, and over this
+stood a couple of posts that had not been there before. I remembered
+that, so I sat by quietly watching this new thing, and trying to decide
+what it might be.
+
+"Now the Sahibs had two pigs, and as I watched, along came these two,
+grunting, and shoving things about with their long noses, and presently
+one of them discovered the rice in the pail.
+
+"'Ugh, ugh, ugh!' said he, 'just a mouthful of this will do me good.'
+You know, of course, a pig eats first and thinks after, so in this case
+he plunged his big head in the pail, and 'zip! whang!' went something,
+and before I could jump to my feet he was dangling in the air hung by
+the neck; he didn't even have a chance to squeal. Of course his mate
+took to his heels and cleared out, while I finished the rice, knowing
+the evil was in the custody of my Squeaker friend. In the morning the
+Pig was dead."
+
+"It's a fine thief's tale," commented Magh, "but in the end they caught
+you right enough."
+
+"Not there," corrected Gidar; "that was another place. A Sahib who had
+come to the jungle seeking dwellers for such places as this, made the
+taking; but with him one might as well be caught first as last, for he
+knew more of our ways than we knew of his. Now let Coyote speak; I am
+tired."
+
+"Does Coyote come from Burma, too, O Sa'-zada?" queried Magh.
+
+"No, he's from Mooswa's country; from the great plains away in the far
+West. There is not much in The Book about Coyote; that is, not much
+that's good."
+
+"I knew it," laughed Magh; "I've watched him there in his cage which is
+opposite mine, day after day, and I never saw a smile on his face."
+
+"You should be put in the cage with Hyena," declared Coyote, "if you
+think an animal has got to grin all the time to be of fair nature. Or
+of what use are you, little pot-belly, or the whole of your
+tribe--Hanuman, Hooluk, or Chimpanzee--none of you worth the nuts you
+eat; and yet you're always grinning and chattering, and playing fool
+tricks about the cage. You're a fine one to judge your fellow
+creatures."
+
+"Coyote just sits there and scratches Fleas, and growls, and snaps at
+his mate--he's a low-born sort of Wolf," continued Magh.
+
+"He's not of our kind," declared Wolf; "it's all a lie."
+
+"Never mind, never mind," cried Sa'-zada, "no doubt like all the rest
+of us he has his good and bad qualities."
+
+"I was once starving," resumed Coyote. "You who have lived in a warm
+land where something is growing all the year round, know nothing of the
+hunger that comes when the fierce blizzard blots out everything, and
+there is only snow, snow, everywhere. Can one eat snow? It's all very
+fine for you with a paunch full of candy to sit there and prate about
+stealing, but if Wie-sak-ke-chack puts the hunger pains in one's
+stomach and the fat bacon--Ghurr-h-h! but the juice of it is sweet when
+one is near dead--puts the fat bacon behind log walls, what is one to
+do, eh? Does a fellow dig, dig, dig through earth so hard that he must
+bite it out with his teeth, dig deep under the log walls for sport as
+the Cubs play in the sunshine, or just to steal? Bah, you who have
+never known hunger know not of this thing. Why, once when the ground
+was frozen hard, and I was dying inch by inch, some fierce-toothed
+Animal inside me biting, biting--only of course it was the hunger
+chewing at my stomach--I dove fair through the window of a log shack to
+get at the meat inside. The glass cut me, to be sure, but that was
+nothing to the hunger pain that goes on, on, never ceasing until there
+is food, or one is dead.
+
+"I saved a man's life once at a post called Stand-Off. The place came
+by its name in the days of a mighty fight when my Man and his comrades
+stood off the Mounted Police. These Men had been given as bad a name as
+Coyotes even. My Man may have been bad, too; but how was I to know,
+being only a Coyote? He was always throwing me bones and pieces of
+bread, and whistling to me, and calling me Jack.
+
+"Now this place Stand-Off was on the river flat, and one night in
+spring-time I heard a great flood coming down the Belly River. It was a
+still night, and the noise of the rushing water came to my ears for
+miles, but the Men heard it not, for they were all in the Shacks. Fast
+I galloped down over the flat near to the Shack where was this Man who
+had often thrown me a bone. I whimpered, and whistled, and barked the
+danger call, and howled the death-coming song, and finally my friend
+came to the door and threw a stick of wood at me, and spoke fierce
+oaths. Then he shut the door. I could hear the roaring getting louder
+and louder, and knew that soon it would be too late for all the
+Men-kind; not that I cared, except for this one. On one side of the
+town was the swift-running Belly River, and beyond a high-cut bank; on
+my side was the flat land that would soon be many feet deep with ice
+and rushing water. So I howled louder than ever, and he came out and
+strove to kill me with a Firestick, but I only ran a little piece into
+the darkness, and howled again.
+
+"Being a Man of much temper he chased me, and the noise brought out the
+others, for they thought it was Indians. I sought to lead him over to
+the side of the flat land which was next the sloping hill, knowing full
+well that the new water would flow there first.
+
+"All at once he ceased running behind me, and I, who was listening,
+knew that he scarce breathed he was that still. Now, he will hear it,
+I thought; and in an instant I heard him cry to the others: 'Boys, we
+must pull out from this--there's a devil of a freshet coming.' That was
+the way of the Men from Stand-Off; many strange words of a useless
+need.
+
+"I tell you, Comrades, it was soon an awful night; here and there the
+Men ran trying to save something--their Horses and guns for most part,
+even some of the evil firewater; and the strong swearings they used
+sounded but just as the whimpering of Wolf Pups, the wind was that
+fierce, carrying the dreadful roar of the Chinook flood.
+
+"You who have heard Bagh and Hathi scolding at each other, with perhaps
+Black Panther and Bald Eagle taking part, may know somewhat the like of
+that night's noises.
+
+"Seeing that my Man was coming riding swiftly on his Cayuse, I, too,
+ran quickly for the upland; but, as I have said, just in the hollow
+which was there, being the trail where once had run the river, the
+flood was rushing even as I have seen it in the foot-hills--the flat
+land was surrounded.
+
+"As the Men galloped up they stopped, and spoke evil words at the
+flood, rushing up and down looking for a ford. I also was afraid to
+cross.
+
+"Suddenly I thought me of a place I knew well lower down, wondrous like
+a Beaver dam, though I think there had been no Beavers in the land
+since Chief Mountain was a hole in the ground. I barked, to call my Man
+friend, and ran toward this spot.
+
+[Illustration: "I HEARD MY MAN SAY ... 'STRIKE ME DEAD IF HE
+HASN'T ...'"]
+
+"'There goes that locoed Coyote,' I heard him say; 'he's trailing for a
+crossing; damned if I don't follow him. Come on, you fellows,' and
+after me they galloped like madmen.
+
+"Just below the place that was like a dam the water was not too bad,
+for the ice had jammed up above, and it was spreading out all over the
+flat. I plunged in, for, Comrades, it was a time of great hurry.
+Swimming a river is not of my liking--none of my kind like it--but this
+seemed an evil night altogether, with no choice but to reach the
+uplands.
+
+"'Sure thing! the Coyote's dead to rights on this outfit,' I heard my
+Man say; and wallow, wallow, in the bronchos came, splashing and
+snorting. And so we crossed just as the ice broke in the jam, and swept
+down like the swift rolling of many stones. I heard my Man say as they
+all got down from the horses to empty the water out of their long
+boots, 'If I ever clap peeps on to that Coyo again, I'll shove grub
+pile into him till he busts. Strike me dead if he hasn't saved the
+whole outfit of us.'
+
+"Anyway I knew there would be much feeding and no harm if I kept close
+to these evil Men-kind, for they were great givers.
+
+"I sought to save the one man, and if there be any credit it comes to
+me because of that; the others followed him, and even they said _he_
+had saved them."
+
+"I think it is a true tale," declared Mooswa, "for I once had a
+happening in saving the life of a Boy who had been good to me."
+
+"What happened to the Men's place, Dog-Wolf?" queried Sa'-zada.
+
+"In the morning there was nothing--nothing but great pieces of ice all
+over the flat. Then the Men trailed for a place called Slideout, where
+were more evil men of the firewater way of life, and I followed,
+arranging it so that my Man saw me, and that day when he killed an
+Antelope, he left a sweet piece of the eating for me; and I might have
+lived all my life close to their camp in great fatness, but for the
+evil chance that drew the Men-kind close to a place called MacLeod. And
+it was there, being pursued by ferocious yellow-haired Dogs, I hid in a
+Hen-house and was caught. At first they were for killing me, but there
+happened a Man-Pup of that house who cried for me as his Doggie, and
+later came one of the Men-kind, gave blankets in exchange for me, and I
+was sent here to the place where is Sa'-zada."
+
+"He is either a great liar, or not so bad as is written in The Book,"
+commented Sher Abi, the Crocodile; "but in my land where was his
+Brother, the Jackal, I never heard good of his kind."
+
+"I am sure it is a true tale," declared Sa'-zada; "Coyote could not
+have made it up."
+
+
+
+
+Fourth Night
+
+The Story of Raj Bagh, the King Tiger
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+FOURTH NIGHT
+
+THE STORY OF RAJ BAGH, THE KING TIGER
+
+
+While the Keeper Sa'-zada was still loitering over his tea, there came
+to his ears an imperious roaring call "Wah-h-h! Wah-h-h! Wah-houh!"
+
+"This is the Tiger's night, indeed," he muttered to himself. "Old Raj
+Bagh is eager to tell us the tale of his life." Then he hurried down to
+their cages and corrals saying, "Come, comrades; the King of the Jungle
+calls us."
+
+"We shall have strong tales of blood-letting to-night," muttered Magh
+the Orang-Outang.
+
+"King of the Jungle, indeed!" sneered Hathi, the Elephant. "When I was
+Lord of the jungle I knew no king--that is, amongst the animals."
+
+"Now," began Sa'-zada, opening The Book, when the Jungle Dwellers had
+all gathered in front of Bagh, the killer's cage; "now we shall know
+all about Huzoor Stripes. And mind you, Hathi, and all the rest, there
+must be no anger, for Bagh's way of life has not been of his own
+making; for with his kind it is their nature to kill that which they
+eat."
+
+"I was born in Chittagong," began Bagh, "and well I remember the little
+_Nullah_ in which my Mother kept me, a big tea garden spread over three
+hills just near our hiding place, and there was always much good
+eating.
+
+"For months after I was born my Mother made me hide in the _Nullah_.
+That was always in the evening. And as for hiding, how anyone can get
+along without stripes in his coat I can't understand. Let me hide in a
+grass field where the sun throws sharp shadows up and down across
+everything and I'll give my ration of meat for the week to anyone who
+can see me three lengths of my tail away."
+
+"Where was your Mother all this time?" queried Magh, tauntingly.
+
+"To be sure," answered Bagh, "she would be away for hours making the
+kill, and when she came back would lick my face, and teach me the sweet
+smell of new meat and hot blood. Then the next evening, just as it was
+getting dark, she would take me with her to the kill, which was usually
+a Cow, and which she had very cunningly hidden in elephant grass, or a
+bamboo clump, or some little _Nullah_. There would be still half of it
+left. I grew big and strong, and longed to make a kill on my own
+account.
+
+"But that year a terrible thing happened to the Buffaloes and Cows upon
+which we depended for food. They were all down in the Flat Lands,
+which is close by the sea, and one day when the jungle was much torn by
+strong, fierce winds, a great water came over the land, and ate up all
+the Cattle, and many of the Men-kind. Then, indeed, we fairly starved,
+for the few that were left were kept close to the bamboo houses of the
+villagers. Night after night, even in the day-time, my Mother and I
+sought for the chances of a kill, for I had grown big at that time, and
+she took me with her. We were really starving; perhaps a small Chital
+(deer), or a Dog, or something came our way once in a while, but the
+pain in my stomach was so great that I moaned, and moaned, and I
+believe it was because of me that my Mother became a Man-killer."
+
+"Horrible!" exclaimed Mooswa. "Became a killer of the Men-kind?
+Dreadful!"
+
+"I, too, have killed Men," asserted Raj Bagh; "and why is it so evil,
+my big-nosed eater-of-grass? Your food is the leaves of the jungle, and
+you have it with you always. When you are hungry you walk, walk, and
+soon you come to where there is much food, and you eat, and with you
+that is all right--there is no evil in it. As Sa'-zada has said, it is
+our way of life to kill our eating. When there is no Chital we kill
+Sambhur; when there are no Deer we kill Pigs, or even Buffalo; when
+there is nothing but Man, and we are changed from our usual way of kill
+by great hunger, we slay Man. With all Dwellers of the Jungle, there
+is fear of the Men-kind, that is all, nothing but fear; and when once
+that is broken we kill the Men-kind even as any other Jungle Dweller."
+
+"Little Brother," began Sa'-zada, "it is spoken amongst my Kind, that a
+Man-killer is always an old, broken-toothed Tiger, full-manged, and of
+evil ways; and that once having tasted human flesh he becomes a killer
+of nothing else."
+
+"Ha-hauk!" laughed Bagh, "those be silly Jungle tales. Am I
+broken-toothed, or full of a mange, or is Raj Bagh? All a lie, Little
+Master, all a lie. It is but a chance of the Jungle that makes a
+Man-killer, even as I will tell, and the taste of the flesh is not more
+than the taste of meat.
+
+"Yes," he continued, "I was with my Mother that day, the first day of
+the Man-kill, and in my stomach was a great pain like the biting of Red
+Ants. It was near the coming of night, and we crept down into the tea
+garden where there were many of the coolie kind working amongst the
+bushes. I think my Mother was looking for a stray dog, or perhaps a
+small Bullock; but the coolies seeing us cried aloud in their fright,
+'Bagh hai!' and ran. I think it was this that made my Mother charge
+suddenly amongst them, for if they had stood and looked at us I'm sure
+we should have turned and gone away; but in the charge a Man fell.
+Baghni seized him by the neck, threw him on her back, and we both
+galloped into the jungle. After that, whenever we were hungry we went
+back to the tea garden in just the same way.
+
+"But one day a coolie saw us first and ran to his master's bungalow
+crying with much fear. Neither of us thought anything of that, for it
+was as they had done before; so we went on down in the little _Nullah_
+between the hills, looking sharply for others of the Black Workers.
+Suddenly I heard a noise as of something approaching.
+
+"'Keep still, O Baghela,' said Baghni, 'here cometh one of the
+Men-kind, and I will make a kill.'
+
+"As we waited, presently there was no sound. 'The kill has gone away,'
+I whispered to Baghni, but she struck me hard with her tail, almost
+knocking some of my teeth out; that was to keep still. There was not
+even any scent of the Men-kind in the wind now; most surely he had gone
+away, I thought. What a silly old Baghni my Mother must be.
+
+"I heard a soft whistle behind me, 'Sp-e-e-t!' just like that, much as
+you've heard Hawk in his cage call. When I looked around there was one
+of the White-face, even the Sahib of the tea garden. I knew him, for I
+had seen him once before. In his hand he held what I have since learned
+was a thunder-stick. I looked in his eyes for perhaps three lashes of
+my tail, but I could see there nothing of the Man-fear Hathi has told
+us of. Such eyes I have never seen in any animal's head; not yellow
+like those of my kind, nor red and black like Hathi's, nor even dull
+brown like Korite the killer's; just of a quiet color like a tiny bit
+of the sky coming between the leaves of the forest.
+
+"What was he waiting for, I thought. Baghni had not heard him, for she
+did not turn her head. Then he made the call like Hawk's again, and
+Baghni turned her head even as I had, and looked full at him, but he
+did not run away.
+
+"Now feeling something lifted from me, because his eyes were on Baghni,
+I think, I looked again sideways from the corner of my eye. Baghni had
+set her ears tight back, and drawn her lip up in a cross snarl, so that
+her teeth, almost the length of Boar's tusks, said as plain as could
+be, 'Now I will crush your back.' But still in his eyes that were like
+bits of sky was not the Man-fear; if I had seen it there most surely I
+had charged straight at his throat, for I was angry, and still, I
+think, filled with much fear.
+
+"Then Baghni turned around, crouched with her head low, looking
+straight at him. As she did so, the Sahib raised his thunder-stick,
+there was an awful noise from it, I heard Baghni scream 'Gur-houk!' and
+she had charged. I, too, followed her, thinking she had got this Man
+who was our kill; but just beyond in the _Nullah_, even the length of
+Bainsa's corral from here, I saw her on her side tearing up the tea
+bushes with her great paws. I stopped for the length of two breaths,
+but I could see that there was something very wrong--she was going to
+sleep. Then the greatest fear that I have ever known came over me, and
+I galloped fast into the jungle to where was my hiding-place."
+
+[Illustration: "BUT I COULD SEE THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING VERY
+WRONG ..."]
+
+"They had killed your Mother, had they, Bagh?" asked Mooswa.
+
+"I think so, for I never saw her again. I was afraid to go back where
+the men labored, and, as I had said, there were no Bullocks, and I
+nearly starved to death."
+
+"But how did they catch you?" queried Magh.
+
+"It was all because of my hunger. When I was not stronger than a jungle
+Bakri (sheep), not having eaten for days and days, I heard one night a
+Pariah Dog howling in the jungle. It took me hours to know that there
+was no danger near this crying one of the Dog-kind. I went round and
+round in circles that I had made smaller each time, and drew the wind
+from all sides into my nose to see if there was the Man scent. There
+was nothing but the Pariah, and by some means he had got into a hole.
+Of course, afterwards I knew it was the evil work of this Sahib who had
+killed Baghni. Such a hole the Pariah was in, it was as long as these
+two cages, and though wide at the bottom, it was small at the top, even
+like the cover of Magh's house yonder. I crawled in and caught the Dog
+in my strong jaws. Sweet flesh! how he howled when he knew I was
+coming.
+
+"Then with a crash something fell behind me, and closed the hole so I
+could not get out, and at once I heard them shouting."
+
+"Where had they come from so soon?" queried Magh.
+
+"They were up in the jungle trees," answered Bagh.
+
+"I think it is a fine lie," grunted Boar. "Do you mean to say, Bagh,
+that you could not see them in the trees?"
+
+"You have little knowledge of my kind, Piggy. Know you not that when
+going through the jungle we never look up?"
+
+"I do," interrupted Raj Bagh, "but I learned the trick. Brother Bagh is
+right, though; I suppose it comes from always looking for our kill on
+the ground, and I have heard that this is why the Hunters so often kill
+us from _Machans_ (shooting rest in a tree). We never see them until we
+are struck."
+
+"The Men were all about the hole," continued Bagh, "and it was he of
+the white face that cried, 'Don't kill him, don't stick him with the
+spears! He is only a Baghela, and we will take him alive for Sa'-zada.'
+
+"They dug little holes from the top, and bound me with strong ropes; it
+was so narrow I couldn't turn round, you see. Then I was sent here to
+Sa'-zada. Though he is good to me, still I wish I was back in my old
+jungle."
+
+"Ah-h-houk! Great Brothers," roared Raj Bagh. "My mate has told you of
+Chittagong and his tea gardens, but the middle jungles in India is the
+place for a Tiger to rule; and for years I was Lord of the Sumna
+Forests, and the terror of the Gonds, the little black-faced Men who
+are wondrous Shikaris. Close grass. Waw-hough! but it was beautiful
+there. The many red faces of the chewal tree smiled at me, and the
+purple ears of the sal tree listened to my roar till its great branches
+trembled in fear. Close hid in the Khagar grass I would lie and sleep
+all through the long hot day, and the little Gonds, even the big,
+white-faced Men, might pass the length of this cage from me, and not
+know that I was there. But I would know. Talking, talking always they
+would go, and if they were up wind, my nose would find them many jumps
+away.
+
+"I was born there, and Baghni, my Mother, and Sher Bagh, my Sire,
+taught me all that a Tiger should know of the ways of the Men-kind. But
+in the end both of them came to their death through the evil ways of
+these seekers for our lives. Wah, wah, wah-hough! I am a Man-killer.
+And why not?"
+
+"You should be ashamed to say so," cried Magh, petulantly, "and before
+Sa'-zada, too."
+
+"Wah! I was a Man-killer," repeated Raj Bagh, "a killer of many Men,
+but it was not my fault. When I was a cub my Sire was Lord of the Sumna
+Jungles; and close to our lair was a _jhil_ to which all animals of
+those parts came to drink when they were hot, and the hills blazed red
+with the evil fire of the little Gonds. Chetal, and Nilgai, and
+Sambhur, and the Ribbed-Faced Deer that coughed like a Wild Dog; even
+Chinkara, the little Gazelle that is but a mouthful for one of my
+needs--all came there when the forest grew dark; and always when we
+were hungry, which was often, more came than went away. It was ever the
+same with Sher Bagh, who was my Sire, and Baghni, always the same way
+in a kill with them. In those days I watched it often, for I, being a
+Bagheela, took no part except in the eating. Chita walks not softer in
+his cage than Sher Bagh would step through the jungle when he was
+stalking a kill; and then at the end with a rush it was all over.
+
+"But one year it became so hot--why, the rocks burned our pads as we
+walked; so hot that our _jhil_ dried up, and none of the Jungle
+Dwellers came to drink. It was hot, so hot, and never a drop of the
+sweet water falling. The fire crept down from the hills and ate up the
+small part of the jungle and the grass, and I think the Jungle Dwellers
+went to other parts. At any rate, as Brother Bagh has said, we were
+sore distressed for a kill. Of course, we could go and drink where the
+other Dwellers dared not, close to the villages of the little Gonds. I
+remember, being but a Baghela and having little wisdom, saying to
+Baghni, 'Why do we not kill Goru (cattle) and Bainsa, who are here in
+the hands of the Men-kind?' But Sher Bagh, who had lived into much
+wisdom, growled, and striking me hard with his paw, said, 'Little one,
+that way comes the full hate of the Men-kind, and we who fear not the
+Dwellers in the Jungle, fear Man.'
+
+"But still we became more hungry, and Baghni, whose milk was my only
+food, grew unwise and said, 'Let us kill the Goru.' But Sher Bagh
+growled at her, and said again, 'That way comes the hate of the
+Men-kind. Now when these little men who are Gonds pass near to me in
+the jungle, they salaam and say, "Peace be with you, Sher Bagh, Huzoor
+Bagh"; and they go in peace, and the fear that is on me when I look in
+their eyes passes away.'
+
+"For many nights after that we wandered far through the jungle, I with
+Baghni, and Sher Bagh by himself in another part. And in the days that
+were so hot, as I slept, great times of blood drinking and sweet
+meat-eating came to my mind--but when I woke there was nothing--nothing
+but hunger pains in my stomach. It was also this way with Baghni and
+Sher Bagh. Many times Baghni said, 'Let us kill the Goru, for of what
+use is the good will of the Men-kind if we die?'
+
+"At last Sher Bagh also became unwise, and said, 'We will kill the
+Goru, for Baghela and you, Baghni, are starving. When the Goru feed in
+a herd to-morrow, even in the time of light--which, of course, was the
+day--together we will creep close in the much-thorned korinda, and
+kill a Cow; for if we kill one in a herd there will be less trouble,
+and perhaps it will not be missed of the Men-kind.' Wah! I shall never
+forget the sweet eating of that Goru. And the drink of blood!
+Che-hough! it was as though I had been athirst since my birth.
+
+"Sher Bagh dragged the Goru to a jungle of Kakra trees, and we ate it
+all. But the next day the Horned Ones did not feed in that place, and
+as we were walking in the close of the daytime Sher Bagh heard the
+thin-voiced cry of a Gond cart coming over the road; it was like the
+song of the Koel bird; it was made by the wheels, I think. 'There will
+be Goru to the cart,' said Sher Bagh. 'Yes, two of them,' answered
+Baghni, 'but also one of the Men-kind, a little Gond.' 'Even now I am
+hungry,' declared Sher Bagh; 'when I roar in front of the Goru the
+little Gond will pass quickly into a sal tree, and then we can eat of
+his Bullocks.'
+
+"It was as my Sire had said, and we made a kill, and carried them far
+from the roadside, and had the sweetest eating for two nights. All our
+strength was coming back to us, and Baghni, purring softly, for she was
+pleased, said to her Lord, 'Did I not say "drink the blood of the
+Goru," when we were starving, and are they not easy of kill?' But Sher
+Bagh, looking up in the trees, for it was as we came to the kill for
+our second night's eating, answered, 'We must be careful, for upon us
+will surely fall the full hate of these little Gonds; and they claim a
+kill for a kill, blood for blood; it is their manner of life when they
+deal with others of the Men-kind.'
+
+"I knew that fear of the little Gonds had come strong upon my Sire when
+he looked up to the sal trees, for, as I have said, it is not of our
+habit to look up; we fear nothing of the jungle that hides in trees.
+The Peacocks, and Monkeys, and Crows, even Panther--what are they?
+Nothing to claim the time of my kind. Said Sher Bagh to Baghni, 'The
+Goru that go in carts are easy for the kill.' 'And there are always two
+of them,' answered she.
+
+"This new manner of life by practice became easy to us; we would hide
+in the khagar grass or the jowri, which is a nut grass of the Men,
+beside the road at the day's end, and always we would know of the
+cart's coming by its voice, that was like Koel bird's, or the miaou of
+a Peacock. We made many a kill of this kind. And it was this way that I
+became first of all a Man-killer, even my first kill was of the
+Men-kind, just an evil chance. It was Baghni who said to Sher Bagh,
+'Baghela must know the method of a kill. We have now not much hunger,
+so let him make the next kill of the Goru, and if he misses, it will
+not matter, for we are well fed.'
+
+"I shall never forget that night as I crouched by the road beside
+Baghni, waiting for the little Gond with his Goru. I was trembling like
+the tall grass shivers at the top when one passes through it. 'Keep
+still,' whispered Baghni; 'a little noise makes a hard kill, and much
+noise is no kill at all.' If it had been a Sambhur or a Nilgai we
+should have had no supper, for the grass whispered under me as I shook
+it with my trembling. Then down the road in the early dark came the
+cart with its snarling voice. Just as the Goru were opposite, Baghni
+struck me with her tail and cried, 'Ah-h-houk!' which means to charge.
+As I sprang, being but a Baghela, and my first kill, I was slow, and
+the Goru jumped, causing me to miss sadly. But I landed full on the
+cart, and by an evil chance the little Gond was under my paws. Mind,
+Comrades, with me it was but a kill, and I could not see his eyes, and
+without intent on my part his shoulder was in my jaws, and in less time
+than I can tell it I had him in the jungle. It was my first kill, and I
+was wild--but I don't want to talk about it. I wish he had beaten me
+off, even struck me with the thunder-stick, for, after all, what was
+the kill? not bigger than a Chetal, and it brought the full hate of the
+Men-kind to us, and Sher Bagh and Baghni were slain."
+
+"By the little Gonds?" asked Hathi.
+
+"The Gonds and the Sahibs," answered Tiger. "Even your people, Hathi,
+took part in the kill of my Sire and Baghni. But it was our old enemy,
+hunger, that caused it all. For three nights we waited by the roadside
+and no carts passed. It is true one passed; a lodhi cartman, with the
+wisdom of Cobra, put Pig's fat on the wheels of his cart, and there
+was no noise until he was right upon us, even had passed, for the stalk
+had not properly started, you see. 'Never mind,' said Baghni, 'the
+little Men of a slow wit, the Gonds, will come this way with their
+Goru, many of them'; but they didn't. And save for two old Langurs
+(monkeys) that cursed from a pipal tree as we went back to our
+_Nullah_, we saw no Dweller of the Jungle, nor of the fields. 'The hate
+of the little Gonds is coming to us,' growled Bagh. 'And I am so
+hungry,' moaned Baghni. 'Baghela should not have killed any of the
+Men-kind,' declared my Sire.
+
+"The Men go to their rest at night, even the little Gonds, knowing that
+the Jungle Dwellers will not come in great numbers to the fields
+because of our guard. And it was but an evil chance, too, that I made a
+kill of the Gond. But when we were most hungered, after many days, one
+night, not far from our _Nullah_, was a Bullock tied to a tree.
+'Waw-houk!' exclaimed Baghni, calling her Lord to the find;
+'Che-waugh!' said she, 'here is a Bail of the Men-kind; make the kill.'
+
+"'It is of their hate,' growled Sher Bagh, 'the Bullocks do not come of
+their own way here to the jungle--we must be careful.'
+
+"Half the night was gone before we had stalked all sides of the Goru,
+but there was nothing--not even up in the sal leaves. That was what
+Baghni said, for with her sharp eyes she saw Hookus (big green
+pigeon), resting on a branch, which meant that there was nothing to
+frighten him. When Sher Bagh had made the kill, he dragged it far away
+from our _Nullah_. That was most wise, Comrades; it was so that the
+Men-kind should not find our home.
+
+"When our hunger was gone Baghni said, 'We will eat again when the
+sun's light passes once more.' 'No,' growled my Sire, 'we will not come
+back to the kill, for the hate of the little Gonds will be here when
+they see that we have eaten of the Goru.'
+
+"That was wise also. To make sure, and to teach me, a Baghela, Sher
+Bagh took us down wind from the drag next night, and the scent of the
+Men-kind came strong in our faces. 'Our enemies are there,' declared
+Bagh.
+
+"Being a Baghela I thought this fine play, and by the cunning of my
+Sire we killed what we found tied in the Jungle, but never went back to
+the drag. Even once in the dark, as we hunted, hearing the grunt of a
+Goru, and going up wind to it, Sher Bagh knew that the Hunters were
+waiting in the sal and pipal trees over the bait, so we went back to
+the _Nullah_ and rested on lean stomachs."
+
+"Your Sire was too clever for them," commented Magh, as Tiger ceased
+speaking for an instant.
+
+"Perhaps it was clever," answered Raj Bagh. "But in two days more
+something came to us that no Jungle Dweller can withstand: a full beat
+of the Jungles.
+
+"Being but a Baghela," sighed Raj Bagh, "I did not know what it was
+when the beat commenced; I thought that the forest winds were in an
+evil temper, but Sher Bagh cried to Baghni, 'Quick! we must go far, for
+now comes the hate of the white-faced kind, for the beat is their way
+of a kill.' We lay quiet in our _Nullah_, thinking they might pass.
+'Tap, tap, tap!' I heard on one side, much like the klonk, klonk! of
+Mis-gar (coppersmith bird). 'What is that?' I asked my Sire.
+
+"'The sal trees cry because they are stricken by the Beaters,' he
+answered. 'Tum, tum, tum-m!' I heard from the other side of the
+_Nullah_. 'Is it the belling of a Nilgai?' I asked. 'The little Gonds
+who are of this beat call with their drums,' answered Sher Bagh. 'All
+the jungle is falling,' I cried. 'It is the coming of Hathi,' answered
+my Sire, 'for it is a beat of many Hathi. Come, Baghela, come, Baghni,'
+he called, and we stole like frightened Chinkara through the sal and
+pipal jungle.
+
+"'To the Baghni-wali nulla!' (tigress valley) cried Sher Bagh to us as
+we followed. But as we sought to enter this place of many caves a
+Beater smote at us with the thunder-stick from a tree, but that was
+only to frighten us away, for Bagh whispered, 'The Beaters are not to
+make the kill.'
+
+"'Here will be little spoor for them to follow,' growled Sher Bagh as
+we ran. Soon we thought we had lost those who sought our lives. As we
+rested for a little while in some thick, wild plum bushes they came all
+about us. There were many Hathi, and on three of the Hathi were little
+caves----"
+
+"Haudas," corrected Elephant. "That is the way the Men-kind ride on my
+back when we are in the beat."
+
+"And the Men had thunder-sticks with which they smote Sher Bagh and
+Baghni. 'Waw, waw-houk!' roared my Sire when he was
+struck--'Che-waugh!' he cried to me, 'flee, Baghela, while I charge.'
+With a rush he sprang on a big Hathi's nose, and I think he got even to
+the hauda, for the Hathi turned and ran, screaming with pain; and I,
+seeing this, broke from my cover and charged back through the Beaters
+who were on foot. Just in my path I saw one of the Beaters striking two
+sticks together. Being cross because of my hot pads, and what they had
+done to Sher Bagh, I seized this one, and took him with me.
+
+"After that, I lived alone, and because the Jungle Dwellers had fled
+from those parts, and because of the wrong we had from these Gonds, I
+became a Man-killer, eating that which was put in my reach."
+
+"How did they catch you?" questioned Wolf.
+
+[Illustration: "MY SIRE ... SPRANG ON A BIG HATHI'S NOSE."]
+
+"Because I sought to change my way of life," answered Bagh, "and
+leaving the Man-kill I made to satisfy my hunger with a Goat. I heard
+the Goat cry at night-time," continued Bagh, "and after a careful
+stalk, finding nothing of the presence of Man, I sprang on Bakri the
+Goat----"
+
+"And the Goat captured you," cried Magh, gleefully.
+
+"Together we fell into a deep hole that had been dug by the evil little
+Gonds. Though I ate the Bakri I could not get out again, and in the
+morning the Men were all about me, both white and black. How the little
+Men reviled me! But it seemed the Sahibs wanted to take me alive, so
+they dug another hole close to the one in which I was, put a big wooden
+cage with a door to it down, and then with long spears broke through
+the walls between the cage and the hole I was in. Of course, I was glad
+enough to go any place; besides, they threw down on me their dreadful
+fire. I sprang in the cage and the door dropped behind me. Then many of
+the Men-kind pulled the cage out with ropes, and I was sent here to
+Sa'-zada."
+
+
+
+
+Fifth Night
+
+The Story of the Tribe of King Cobra
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+FIFTH NIGHT
+
+THE STORY OF THE TRIBE OF KING COBRA
+
+
+It was the fifth night of the Sa'-zada tales. As usual, Hathi, Grey
+Wolf, and all the other animals, jostling each other merrily like a lot
+of schoolboys, had gathered in front of Tiger's cage.
+
+Said the Keeper: "Comrades, you must all be very careful, for this is
+Snake's night."
+
+"Oo-o-oh!" whimpered Jackal, "is Nag the Cobra to come here among us?"
+
+Even Hathi trembled, and blowing softly through his trumpet, said: "Oh,
+Sa'-zada, I who am a Lord of the Jungle, fearing not any Dweller
+therein, feel great pains this evening. I am sure that hay is musty and
+has disagreed with me. If you do not mind, Little Brother, I will go
+back to my stall and lie down."
+
+"Will Deboia the Climber come also, Little Master?" asked Magh. "If so,
+I think my Terrier Pup is feeling unwell; I will take him to my cage
+and wrap him in his blanket. I hate snake stories, anyway."
+
+"Hiz-z-z!" laughed Python, who was already there. "Lords of the Jungle
+indeed! When I strike or throw a loop, or go swift as the wind through
+the Jungle--Thches-s-s! but I am no boaster. See our friends. When the
+smallest of my kind are to be here each one makes his excuses."
+
+"Never fear, Comrades," Sa'-zada assured the frightened animals, "Nag
+the Cobra, and Karait, and all the others will behave themselves if
+they are left alone. Only don't move about, that's all. The first law
+when Snakes are about is--keep still."
+
+"Yes, we like quietness," assented Python. "Once there was a fussy old
+Buffalo Bull who used to come to my pool and stir up the mud until it
+was scarce fit to live in. In the end I threw a loop around his neck,
+and he became one of the quietest Bulls you ever saw in your life."
+
+"Now, Comrades," said Sa'-zada, as he returned accompanied by the
+Dwellers of the Snake House, "Hamadryad, the King Cobra, has promised
+us a story."
+
+"Look at my length," cried Hamadryad, drawing his yellow and black
+mottled body through many intricate knots like a skein of colored silk;
+"think you I was born this way just as I am? At first--that was up in
+the Yoma Hills in Burma--I was not much larger than a good-sized hair
+from Tiger's mustache, and since then it has been nothing but
+adventure. Even my Mother, where she had us hid in a pile of rocks
+covered with ferns, had to fight for our lives."
+
+"Phuff!" retorted Boar, disdainfully, "many a nest of Cobra eggs have I
+rid the world of."
+
+"Not of my kind, I'll warrant," snorted Python, blowing his foul breath
+like a small sirocco almost in Pig's face. "Of Nag, or Hamadryad's
+family, perhaps, yes, for, know you, Comrades, what Nagina does with
+her eggs? Lays them in the sun to hatch _apsi_ (of themselves). But my
+Mother--ah, you should have seen her, Comrades; all the eggs gathered
+in a heap, and her great, beautiful body--much like my own in
+color--wound tenderly about them until the young came forth. Perhaps a
+matter of two moons and never a bite for her to eat all the time.
+That's what I call being a genuine Mother."
+
+"Very wise, indeed, and thoughtful," cried the Salt Water Snake. "My
+Mother--well I remember it--carried her eggs about in her body till
+they were hatched, which seems to me quite as good a plan. Also, nobody
+molests us--if they do, they die quickly. We all can kill quite as
+readily as Nag the Cobra, though there is less talk about us."
+
+"Even so," assented Hamadryad, "the proof of the matter is in being
+here; and, as I was going to say, it is this way with my people; in the
+hot weather when there is no rain we burrow in the ground for months at
+a stretch. And then the rains come on and we are driven out of our
+holes by the water, and live abroad in the Jungles for a time. It was
+at this season of the year I speak of; I had just come up out of my
+burrow and was wondrous hungry, I can tell you; and, traveling, I came
+across the trail of a Karait. I followed Karait's trail, and found him
+in a hole under a bungalow of the Men-kind. It was dry under the
+bungalow, so I rested after my meal in the hole that had been Karait's.
+It was a good place, so I lived there. Every day a young of the
+Men-kind----"
+
+"I know," interrupted Mooswa; "a Boy, eh?"
+
+"Perhaps; but the old ones called him 'Baba.' And Baba used to come
+every day under the bungalow to play. He threw little sticks and stones
+at me; but nothing to hurt, mind you, for he was small. The things he
+threw wouldn't have injured a Fly-Lizard as he crawled on the bungalow
+posts. He laughed when he saw me, and called, as he clapped his little
+hands, and I wouldn't have hurt him--why should I? I don't eat Babas.
+
+"When I heard the heavy feet of the Men I always slipped in the hole;
+but, one day, by an evil chance I was to one side looking for food, and
+Baba was following, when his Mother saw me. Such a row there was, the
+Men running, and Baba's Mother calling, and only the little one with no
+fear. Surely it was the fear of which Chita and Hathi have spoken which
+came over the Men-kind.
+
+[Illustration: "AND BABA USED TO COME EVERY DAY UNDER THE BUNGALOW TO
+PLAY...."]
+
+"There was one of a great size, like Bear Muskwa, with a stomach such
+as Magh's. He was a native baboo. He had a black face, and his voice
+was like the trumpet of Hathi; but when I went straight his way, and
+rose up to strike, his fat legs made great haste to carry him far away.
+Then I glided in the hole."
+
+"Ghur-ah! it seems a strange tale," snarled Wolf; "even I would not
+dare, being alone, to chase one of the Men-kind."
+
+"It may be true," declared Sa'-zada, "for it is written in the Book
+that Hamadryad is the only Snake that will really chase a man, and show
+fight."
+
+"I could hear the Men-kind talking and tramping about," continued King
+Cobra, "and meant to lie still till night, and then go away, for I
+usually traveled in the dark, you know. But presently there was a soft
+whistling music calling me to come out; and also at times a pleading
+voice, though of the Men-kind, I knew that, 'Ho, Bhai (brother), ho,
+Raj Naga (King Cobra)! come here, quick, Little Brother.' Then the soft
+whistle called me, sometimes loud, and sometimes low, and even the
+noise was twisting and swinging in the air just as I might myself.
+
+"Hiz-z-z-za! but I commenced to tremble; and I was full of fear, and I
+was full of love for the soft sounds, and with my eyes I wished to see
+it. So I came out of the hole, and there was a Black Man making the
+soft call from a hollow stick."
+
+"A Snake Charmer with his pipes," exclaimed Sa'-zada.
+
+"I raised up in anger, thinking that he, too, would soon run away; but
+he pointed with his hand, now this way, from side to side, even as the
+sweet sound from the hollow stick seemed to twist and curl in the air;
+and following his hand with my eyes, I commenced to swing as the hand
+swung.
+
+"'Ho, Little Brother!' he called, 'come here.'
+
+"It was to a basket at his side; for, though I meant not to do it, I
+glided into it."
+
+"That was the manner of your taking?" asked Chita.
+
+"Better than having one's toes squeezed in an iron trap," declared
+Jackal.
+
+"Or being beaten by chains," murmured Hathi.
+
+"Yes, the taking was simple enough; but if Baba had not cried, the Men
+would have killed me, I think."
+
+"And that was how you came to Lower Burma?" asked Sa'-zada.
+
+"Yes," answered Hamadryad, "this man who made music with the hollow
+stick took me with him, and at every place where there were any of his
+fellows he brought me forth from the basket, and made me dance to his
+music. That was what he called it--dance."
+
+"Why didn't you bite him?" queried Rattler, making his tail rattles
+sing in anger.
+
+"He pulled out my fangs," declared Hamadryad.
+
+"He-he," sneered Magh; "now surely it is a great lie, this wondrous
+tale of Cobra's, for in his mouth are the very fangs he says the
+black-faced player of music pulled."
+
+"Most wise Ape," said Hamadryad, ironically, "what your big head, like
+unto a Jack fruit, does not understand, is a lie, forsooth. Even though
+my teeth were pulled three times, they would grow again; but you do not
+know that--therefore it is a lie. Even now, behind these that you see,
+and perhaps yet may feel if you keep on, are others waiting the time
+when these may be broken. Was it not Hathi said some wise animal
+arranged all these things for us?"
+
+"Sa'-zada says it is God," interrupted Hathi.
+
+"This man made me fight with a Mongoos, that those of his kind might
+laugh."
+
+"What is a Mongoos?" queried Magh.
+
+"Our natural enemy," answered King Cobra, "just as Fleas and other
+Vermin are yours. But I killed the squeaky little beast with one drive
+of my head--broke his back. At Ramree a Sahib bought me from the black
+man."
+
+"That was the Sahib who sent you here, I fancy," suggested Sa'-zada.
+
+"Perhaps. At any rate he seemed fond of Snakes of my kind, for he put
+me in a box wherein was one of my family. But he should have known more
+about our manner of life, for he nearly starved us through ignorance of
+our taste. He puts Rats and Frogs, and Birds and such Vermin as that
+in, with never so much as a Green-Tree-Snake. The yellow-faced Burmans
+used to come in front of our cage and touch us up with sticks until my
+nose was skinned with striking at them and hitting the bars.
+
+"Our getting something to eat was a pure accident. One night this Sahib
+stepped on a Snake--a young Rock Snake, which had curled up in the path
+for the warmth of the hot earth. 'Oh, ho!' said the Sahib, bringing
+this new Snake to our cage, 'you are looking for trouble, little _Samp_
+(snake). Let us see how you get on in there,' and he threw him in our
+box, expecting to see a fight."
+
+"And did he?" queried Magh.
+
+"Hiz-z-z-za! I should say so. My mate and I fought half an hour before
+we settled who was to eat the visitor."
+
+"You two Comrades fought over it?" asked Mooswa.
+
+"Yes; that is our way. Two Snakes cannot eat one--how else should we
+settle the question? we were both hungry. Why, one day my mate flew at
+me, and I could see in his eye that he meant eating me, and in
+self-defence I was forced to put him out of the way of mischief, but
+the Sahib pulled us apart.
+
+"But if I hated the Yellow Men who came to my cage, I liked the
+Mem-Sahib (white lady). I think it was her voice. Hiz-z, hiz-z, hiz-z!
+It was as soft as the song the man had brought forth from the hollow
+stick. Sometimes I would hear her voice-song near my box, and it would
+put me to sleep; only, of course, I had to keep one eye open lest my
+mate would try to eat me----"
+
+"I had no idea Snakes were so fond of each other," said Magh,
+maliciously.
+
+"Yes; I think I should have eaten _him_ to have saved that worry. But I
+must tell you about the Mem-Sahib and the Cook. He was small and so
+black--a perfect little Pig. One day when the Sahib was away, the Cook
+became possessed of strange devils."
+
+"Became drunken on his Master's liquor, I suppose," remarked Sa'-zada.
+
+"Perhaps, for he came and took me out of the box, wound me around his
+shoulders and waist, and went with a clamor of evil sounds, in to my
+Mem-Sahib."
+
+"Just like a Man," sneered Pardus.
+
+"Even I was ashamed," continued Hamadryad. "My Mem-Sahib cried out with
+fear, and her eyes were dreadful to look into.
+
+"I glided twice about the Man-devil's neck, and drew each coil tight
+and tight and tighter, and swung my head forward until I looked into
+his eyes, and I nodded twice thus," and the King Cobra swayed his
+vicious black head back and forth with the full suggestiveness of a
+death thrust, until each one of the animals shivered with fear.
+
+"I think he died of the Man-fear Hathi has spoken of, for I did not
+strike him--it may be that the coils about his throat were over-tight.
+But I glided back to my box, and I think the Mem-Sahib knew that I did
+not wish to even make her afraid."
+
+"Most interesting," declared Sa'-zada. "Is that all, Cobra?"
+
+"Yes; I'm tired. Let Python talk."
+
+The huge Snake uncoiled three yards of his length, slipped it forward
+as easily, as noiselessly as one blows smoke, shoved his big flat head
+up over the Keeper's knee, ran his tongue out four times to moisten his
+lips, and said: "I am also from the East, and I do not like this land.
+Here my strength is nothing, for I can't eat. A Chicken twice a
+month--what is that to one of my size? Sa'-zada will eat as much in a
+day; and yet in my full strength I could crush five such as our Little
+Brother. Many loops! in my own Jungle I could wind myself about a
+Buffalo and pull his ribs together until his whole body was like loose
+earth. I have done it. Sa'-zada knows that for months and months after
+I came I ate nothing, and in the end they took me out on the floor
+there, six of them, and shoved food down my throat with a stick.
+
+"Once I had run down a Barking Deer, and swallowed him, and was having
+a little sleep, when I wandered into the most frightful sort of
+nightmare. It came to me in my sleep that Bagh had charged me of a
+sudden, and gripped my throat in his strong jaws. I opened my eyes in
+fright, and, sure enough, I was being choked with a rope in the hands
+of the Men-kind. Each end of it was fastened to a long bamboo, and the
+Men were on either side of me. I made the leaves and dry wood in that
+part of the Jungle whirl for a little, but it was no use--I couldn't
+get away. Also a man of the White-kind was sitting on a laid tree, and
+in his hands was a loud-voiced gun. But I nearly paid him out for some
+of the insult. They dragged me on to the road, and I lay there quiet
+and simple-looking. He thought I was asleep, I suppose. At any rate he
+came up and touched me on the nose with his toe.
+
+"I struck; but, though I knew it not, the rope was tight held by one of
+the Yellow-kind who stood behind me, and I but got a full choking;
+though, as I have said, the other, he of the White Face, was stricken
+with fear.
+
+"They put me in a box, but though I have no appetite here, I could eat
+there, and they gave me so many chickens that I shed my beautiful skin
+almost monthly. I nearly died from the over-diet, not being used to
+such plenty."
+
+"Tell us of your food-winning in the Jungle," craved Sa'-zada.
+
+"Though I go wondrous swift," began Python, "yet if any of the
+Deer-kind passed me on foot I could not catch them. Because of this I
+was forced to take great thought to outwit them. You, Gidar, and you,
+Hathi, know of the elephant creeper that is in all those Jungles, how
+it runs from tree to tree for many a mile--so strong that it sometimes
+pulls down the biggest wood-grower. Well, having knowledge of a Deer's
+path, I would stretch my body across it much after that fashion, and
+the silly creatures with their ribbed faces, always coughing a hoarse
+bark, and always possessed of a stupid fear, would walk right into my
+folds, thinking me a part of the creeper. Once, even, as I think of it,
+a hunter--of the White-kind he was--ate his food sitting on a coil of
+my body as I lay twisted about a tree. To tell you the truth, I was
+asleep, having fed well, and only woke up because of his sticking his
+cutting knife into my back, thinking, of course, he was standing it in
+the wood, when I suddenly squirmed and upset him, and his food and
+drink.
+
+"But when it was the dry season and the leaves were off the trees, the
+Jungle was so open that even the silly Deer could see the rich color of
+my beautiful skin, and for days and days I went hungry. Then I would go
+to the small water ponds, _Jheels_, and curling my tail about a tree on
+one side, put myself across, and catching a tree on the other side with
+my teeth, swing my body back and forth and throw the water all out on
+the land. Then I would eat all the Fish-dwellers, and go to sleep for a
+week.
+
+[Illustration: "I WOULD STRETCH MY BODY ACROSS IT MUCH AFTER THAT
+FASHION."]
+
+"Once in a land of many pigs, I worked for days and days in that part
+of the Jungle bending down small trees, and arranging the creepers
+until I had a _keddah_ with two long sides running far out into the
+Jungle. Then, going beyond, I made a great noise, rushing up and down,
+and many of these Dwellers being possessed of fear, fled into the
+_keddah_ and I devoured them."
+
+Chita sat on his haunches and looked at Python in astonishment, his big
+black head low hung, and a sneer of great unbelief on his mustached
+lips.
+
+"Surely this is the one great liar!" he exclaimed. "If these things be
+not written in the Book, then Python has most surely had such a dream
+as he has told us of."
+
+"Without doubt it is a lie," declared Magh, "but for my part I am ready
+to believe anything of his kind. In my Jungle home never once did I
+climb out on a tree limb without pinching it to see whether it was wood
+or a vile thing such as yon mottled boaster."
+
+"Are the stories of Python written in the Book, O Sa'-zada?" queried
+Mooswa.
+
+"No," answered the Keeper, "but Python may have had this strange manner
+of life."
+
+"Whether they be true tales or false tales," hissed Python, "I am now
+tired, and they are at an end."
+
+"Well," said Sa'-zada, stroking the glistening scales of the big
+Snake's head, "it is time to cage up now. Perhaps we'll all have
+strange dreams to-night."
+
+Soon the animals were sound asleep, all but Magh, who spent an hour
+chattering to Blitz, her Fox Terrier Pup, on the enormity of telling
+false tales.
+
+
+
+
+Sixth Night
+
+The Story of the Monkeys
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+SIXTH NIGHT
+
+THE STORY OF THE MONKEYS
+
+
+Such a row there had been all day in Animal Town.
+
+Sa'-zada, the Keeper, had told Magh, the Orang-outang, that the Monkeys
+were to tell stories that night at the usual meeting. That was the
+cause of the excitement.
+
+All day the Monkeys, living in a row of cages like dwellers in tenement
+houses, had chattered to each other through the bars, and admonished
+one another to think of just the cleverest things any of their family
+or ancestors had ever done.
+
+"We are like the Men-kind," Magh kept repeating; "we are the
+Bandar-log, the Jungle People.
+
+"Listen, Comrades, what is my name even? Orang-outang, which means
+Chief of the Jungle People.
+
+"See, even I have my Dog, as do the Men-kind," and she held up Blitz,
+the Fox-Terrier Pup, by the ear until he squealed and bit her in the
+arm. "See, he has bitten me even as he would a man," she cried,
+triumphantly.
+
+Two doors down were three little brown Monkeys caged with an Armadillo
+who looked like a toy, iron-plated gun-boat.
+
+"Oh, we are people who think," cried one of these, pouncing down on the
+Armadillo. The little gun-boat drew his armor plate down about him like
+a Mud-turtle. The Monkey caught the side of it with his hand, lifted it
+up, bit the Armadillo in the soft flesh, and raced up on his shelf
+where he chattered: "Oh, we are the people who think. That is not
+instinct--my father was never caged with an Armadillo."
+
+At last night came, and Sa'-zada, throwing down bars and opening cages,
+had gathered as usual his animal friends in front of Tiger's cage.
+
+"Ho, Little Brother," began Black Panther, speaking to Sa'-zada, "why
+should we who are great in our own jungles listen to these empty-headed
+Bandar-log? Was there ever any good at their hands?"
+
+"Oo-oo! A-huk, a-huk!" cried Hanuman, "you of all the thieving slayers
+should know of that matter. How many times have you been saved from
+danger because of our watchfulness--and also Bagh the Killer! Many a
+hard drive, the hunt drive of the Men-kind, has come to nothing because
+of us--because we never sleep. When your stomach is full you sleep
+soundly, trusting to a warning from us, the Bandar-log. Nothing can be
+done in the jungles that we do not know. And do we steal silently away
+as is your method? Not a bit of it. By the safety of Jungle-dwellers!
+we give the cry of beware! Listen----
+
+"A-huk, a-huk! Chee-chee-chee! Waugh, waugh, a-huk!" and the voice of
+the gray-whiskered, black-faced ape reverberated on the dead night air
+through the houses of Animal Town like the clangor of a cracked bell.
+
+"That is quite true," declared Mor, the Peacock; "I also am one of the
+Jungle Watchers--though I get little credit for it. None of the
+Dwellers thank us; and sometimes in their anger the Sahibs who are
+making the drive shoot us for our trouble, saying that we have spoiled
+sport. Many a jungle life have I saved through my cry of 'Miaou!
+Miaou!'"
+
+"Disturbers of sleep!" sneered Black Panther; "there is little to
+choose between you--you're a noisy lot of beggars."
+
+"You are hardly fair, Pardus," remonstrated Sa'-zada. "I quite believe
+what Hanuman says, for it is well known that some of the Monkey-tribe
+saved Gibraltar to the British by their watchfulness, and the men are
+more grateful than you, for to this day monkeys are protected and made
+much of there."
+
+"It was my people did that," cried Magot, the Rock Ape, blinking his
+deep, narrow-set eyes. "We have lived there for a long time."
+
+"And in Benares, where I lived once, we are people of great honor,"
+added a white-whiskered Monkey. "I should like to see Black Pardus harm
+one of us there."
+
+The speaker was Entellus, the sacred Hanuman Monkey, whose rights of
+protection in the City of Temples, Benares, was almost greater than
+that of the human dwellers.
+
+"You can't twiddle your thumbs! You can't twiddle your thumbs!" cried
+Cockatoo, mockingly.
+
+"But I can see my under lip," retorted Magh, angrily, sticking it out
+and looking down at it, "and that's more than you can do, with your
+lobster's claw of a nose."
+
+Cockatoo had hit the truth about the thumbs, for no ape can make them
+go around, only in and out straight to the palm. This matter of thumbs
+is the great line of defence between man and his disputed Simian
+ancestor.
+
+"Our manner of life," began Hanuman, in the little silence that ensued,
+"is to live in the tree-tops. Our families are raised there, and we are
+seldom on the ground."
+
+"No, the ground is a dangerous place," concurred Chimpanzee; "Leopards,
+and Snakes, and Men, and evil things of that sort about all the time.
+I, too, build a little house in the strong branches of a tree, and live
+there until the fruit gets scarce; then, of course, I have to go to a
+new part and build another."
+
+"I thought I was the only animal that had sense enough to build a
+house," grunted Wild Boar.
+
+"Perhaps you are," said Chimpanzee; "I'm no animal."
+
+"You are a Monkey----" began Boar, apologetically.
+
+"I'm not a Monkey," insisted the other, very haughtily; "they go in
+droves. But we, who are the Jungle People, build houses and have a wife
+and family just like the Men."
+
+"You can't twiddle your thumbs!" shrieked Cockatoo; but Hathi reached
+up with his trunk and tweaked the bird's nose before he could repeat
+the taunt.
+
+"Once upon a time," began Hooluk, solemnly, "there was a great Raja
+sore troubled because those of my kind, the Apes, ate all the grain and
+fruit in his country. To be sure, it was a year of much starvation. And
+the King commanded that all the Bandar-log should be killed.
+
+"Then Hanuman, the wise Ape, who was our cousin, asked of my people
+what might be done; but we, being tender-hearted, and not knowing how
+to pacify the King, hung with our heads down and wept in misery.
+
+"Now this gave Hanuman, who is most wise, an idea. He ordered all the
+other Bandar-log to go far into the jungles and hide, while we were to
+remain and lament, and declare that our friends were dead. The Raja,
+hearing our sad cry, relented, and commanded that the killing should
+cease. And since that time we have always cried thus, and our faces
+have been black, and all because of the dark sins of the other
+Bandar-log."
+
+"Was there ever such a lie----" began Pardus; but Jackal interrupted
+him, declaring that he, too, cried at night because of the wickedness
+of other Jungle Dwellers.
+
+"By my lonesome life!" muttered Mooswa. "I have heard the Loon cry on
+Slave Lake, but for a real, depressing night noise commend me to
+Hooluk. I have no doubt his tale is quite true, a cry such as he has
+could not have been given him for amusement."
+
+"Scratch my head!" cried Cockatoo; "I think Hooluk's tale is quite
+true, for even I, who am only appreciated because of my beauty----"
+
+"Hide your nose," croaked Kauwa, the Crow.
+
+"Because of my beauty," resumed Cockatoo, "I once saved the life of all
+my Master's family. The bungalow was on fire and they were asleep.
+Scree-ya ah-ah!' I cried; then, 'Quick, Pootai, bring the water----'"
+
+"To be famous one must needs know a great lie and tell it," snarled
+Pardus, disagreeably. "The way of all Jungle Dwellers is to kill
+something; but here are pot-bellied, empty-headed Apes, and Birds of
+little sense, all boasting of saving lives."
+
+"Let me talk," cried Water Monkey, scratching his ribs with industry.
+"If I tell not true tales then call Hornbill, and Jackal, and King
+Cobra to stand against me, for we are all of the same land. We were a
+big family, a full hundred of us at least, and every way was our
+way--water, and land, and tree-top. We ate fruits, and nuts, and
+grains, and things that are cast up by the waters. Talking of fishing,
+you should have seen my mother. When the sea had gone back from the
+shore we would all troop down. When the Crabs saw us coming they would
+scuttle into holes and under rocks, and we'd catch every Crab on the
+shore. It was my mother taught me the trick--wise old lady; I'd shove
+my tail under the rock, the Crab would lay hold of it, and then out
+he'd come.
+
+"Oh, there was good eating on those shores. Fat Oysters the size of a
+banana. It was mother showed me how to take a stone in my hand, and
+break them off the rocks. And, as Magh has said, we are much like the
+men, for not one of our family would eat an Oyster until he had washed
+it in the water.
+
+"But we poor people had lots of trials. Crossing the streams was worst
+of all. If we made the Monkeys bridge from tree to tree, like as not
+Python would be lying in wait to pick off one of our number. And if we
+walked across on the bottom----"
+
+"Walked on the bottom!" cried Sa'-zada, in astonishment.
+
+"Yes, we never swim; we always walk across on the bottom; though,
+sometimes, of course, we floated over on logs; but that was very
+dangerous because of Magar the Crocodile."
+
+"Ghurrgle-ugle-ugle, uh-hu!" said Sher Abi, "the long-tailed one is
+right. I could tell a true story touching that matter. Whuff-f-f! but
+it was a hot day. I was lying with my wife in the water near the bank.
+I was hungry--I am always hungry; and getting food in a small way is
+wearisome to one of my heavy habit. I was resting, and Black-head the
+Magar Bird was running about inside of my jaws catching Flies for his
+dinner. And, while I think of it, while I am by no means vain of my
+sweet nature, I claim it was most good of me to hold my heavy lips open
+for him. Suddenly Black-head gave his little cry of warning to me and
+flew up in the air. 'Something is coming,' I whispered to Abni, my
+wife; and, sure enough, it was the Bandar-log, the Water Monkeys,
+chattering and yelling, and knocking down fruit from the trees as
+though the whole jungle belonged to them.
+
+"'The old trick,' I whispered to Abni; 'float across like a log.' You
+know I can look wondrous like a log when I try; and a dinner of the
+Bandar-log, even, was not to be despised in a time of great hunger.
+
+"'Chee-chee, a-houp-a-houp, chickety-chee-chee!' You'd have thought
+their throats would split with the uproar when they saw one log
+floating across and another just starting.
+
+[Illustration: "AND THEY ALL CLAMBERED ON TO MY BACK."]
+
+"'Oh, ho!' cried the leader, swinging by his tail from a limb of the
+Mangrove tree, and peering down at me; 'the wind is driving all the
+dead trees from this side to the other. Get aboard, children, quick.'
+And they all clambered on to my back, shoving and pushing like a lot of
+Jackal pups----"
+
+"Have I not said it," cried Gidar, the Jackal, "that Sher Abi is a
+devourer of our young? Jackal pups--murderer!"
+
+"Half way across," resumed Sher Abi, "I opened an eye to take a squint
+at the general condition of these Bandar-log, as to which might be fat
+and which might be lean, and, would you believe it, the leader of these
+fool people saw me looking, and screamed with fright. I closed all the
+valves of nostrils and eyes and sank in the water. The Bandar-log were
+so excited that more than half of them jumped into my jaws, and Abni,
+who came back, hearing the noise, took care of the others. Eh-hu!
+Gluck! Monkeys are stupid, but not bad eating."
+
+"Listen to that, Comrades," cried Water Monkey. "Sher Abi the Poacher
+boasts of killing my people. Have I not said that our life is one of
+danger? He and Python are as bad as Men. My mother was killed by a Man,
+and all for the sake of a few mangoes."
+
+"But how are we to know that Mango-tree was not as others in the
+Jungle?" pleaded Monkey. "True it grew close to a bungalow, but what of
+that? Close to the Jungle, trees and bungalows are so mixed up that
+nobody knows which is free land and which is bond land. Have I not seen
+even the Men-kind frightened over such matters, and killing each other.
+But, as I have said, this Man, who was a Sahib, shot my mother as she
+was in a tree. She clung to a limb, and, young as I was, I helped her,
+holding on to her arms. All day she cried, and cried, and cried, just
+as you have heard the young of the Men-kind; and all night she cried,
+too. In the morning the Sahib came out, and I heard him say that he
+hadn't slept all night because of the wailing that was like a babe's.
+When he looked up at my mother she became so afraid that she fell dead
+at his feet. Peeping down through the leaves I saw the fear look that
+Hathi has spoken of come into the Man's eyes, only they did not look
+evil as they had when he pointed the fire-stick at us. I swung down
+from branch to branch to my mother, and sitting beside her, cried also,
+being but a little chap and all alone in the Jungle. Then the Man took
+me up in his arms and said: 'Poor little Oungea. It was a shame to kill
+the old girl; I feel like a murderer----'
+
+"He took me into the bungalow and I had a fine life of it, though he
+taught me many things that were evil."
+
+"I don't believe that," sneered Pardus.
+
+[Illustration: "AND SITTING BESIDE HER, CRIED ALSO, BEING BUT A LITTLE
+CHAP AND ALL ALONE IN THE JUNGLE...."]
+
+"Impossible! Caw-w!" laughed Kauwa.
+
+"What evil tricks are there left to teach the Bandar-log?" queried
+Hathi.
+
+"He taught me to drink gin," answered Oungea; "at first a little gin
+and much sugar, and after a time I could take it without sugar."
+
+"This rather bears out Magh's claim that you Jungle People are like the
+Men," said Sa'-zada.
+
+"Still it was not good for me, this gin," continued Oungea; "leaving
+one's head full of much soreness in the morning. But, of course, being
+young, I was possessed of much mischief that was not of the Sahib's
+teaching."
+
+"He-he! no doubt, no doubt," cried Hornbill, "it was those of your
+kind, both young and old, who plucked the feathers from my children
+once upon a time. Plaintain-at-a-gulp! but their appearance was
+unseemly. You can imagine what I should look like with my prominent
+nose and no feathers."
+
+"My Master carried in his pocket something that was forever crying
+'tick, tick, tick.' I felt sure there must be Lizards or Spiders, or
+other sweet ones of a small kind within; but one day when I had a fair
+opportunity and pulled it apart, cracking it with a stone as I had the
+Oysters, I got no eating at all, but in the end a sound beating.
+
+"Once I ate the little berries that grow on the sticks that cause the
+fire----"
+
+"Matches," suggested Sa'-zada.
+
+"Perhaps; I thought they were berries. Many pains! but I was sick, and
+my kind Master saved my life with cocoanut oil."
+
+"Magh knows something of that matter," declared Sa'-zada; "when she
+first came here she ate her straw bedding and it nearly killed her."
+
+"A fine record these Jungle People have," sneered Pardus. "I, who claim
+not to be wise like the Men, have sense enough to stick to my meat."
+
+"But Magh was wise," asserted Sa'-zada, "for if she had not helped us
+in every way when we were trying to save her life she would surely have
+died."
+
+"In my Master's house," said Oungea, "was one of their young, a Babe;
+and whenever I got loose, for they took to tying me up, I made straight
+for his bed, borrowed his bottle of milk--there surely was no harm in
+that, for we were babes together--and scuttled up a tree where I could
+drink the milk in peace. When I dropped the bottle down so that they
+might get it, it always broke, and I think it was because of this
+mischief that they whipped me."
+
+"Well," said Sa'-zada, "we were to have learned to-night why the
+Bandar-log were Men of the Jungle, first cousins to the Men-kind; but
+all I remember is that they ate matches and straw and got very sick.
+For my part I am very sleepy."
+
+"If you are tired, I will carry you, Hanuman," lisped Python, shoving
+his ugly fat head forward.
+
+"Even I, who find it a labor to walk on the land, will give any Monkey
+who seeks it a ride," sighed Sher Abi. "This talking of eating has made
+me hung----I mean ready to put myself out for my friends."
+
+"Take your friends in, you mean," snarled Gidar, jumping back as the
+heavy jaws of the Crocodile snapped within an inch of his nose.
+
+"I think each one will look after himself," declared Sa'-zada; "it will
+be safer. All to your cages."
+
+
+
+
+Seventh Night
+
+The Story of Birds of a Feather
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+SEVENTH NIGHT
+
+THE STORY OF BIRDS OF A FEATHER
+
+
+When Sa'-zada the Keeper had gathered all his comrades in front of
+Chita's cage for the evening of the Bird talk, Magh clambered up on her
+usual perch, Hathi's head, expostulating against the folly of throwing
+the meeting open to such gabblers.
+
+"Never mind," remarked Black Panther, "it's the great talkers that are
+thought most of here, I see. We, who have accomplished much, having
+earned an honest living, but are not over ready with the tongue, amount
+to but little."
+
+"Scree-he-ah-h!" cried Cockatoo. "By my crest! I am surely the oldest
+one here; shall I begin, O Sa'-zada?"
+
+"Cockatoo was born in Australia," declared Sa'-zada; "at least The Book
+says so, but the record of his age only goes back a matter of forty
+years."
+
+"Just so," concurred the Cockatoo, "and from there I went to India on a
+ship; and for downright evil words there is no Jungle to compare with
+a ship. Why, damn it--excuse me, friends, even the memory of my voyage
+causes me to swear.
+
+"My master, who was Captain of the ship, gave me to one of the
+Women-kind in Calcutta--'Mem-Sahib' the others called her. There I had
+just the loveliest life any poor exiled Cockatoo could wish for; it
+makes me swear--weep, I mean--when I think of the sweet Eatings she had
+for me. Not but that Sa'-zada is kind, only no one but a Woman knows
+how to look after a Cockatoo. At tiffin I was always allowed to come on
+the table, and the Mem-Sahib would take the cream from the top of the
+milk and give it to me. The Sahib threw pieces of bread at my head,
+which is like a Man's way, having no regard for the dignity of a
+Cockatoo.
+
+"One day, being frightened because of something, I fluttered to the top
+of his head, which was all bare of feathers, and verily I believe the
+Man-fear, of which Hathi has spoken, came to my new master. I could
+almost fancy I was back on the ship, for his language was much like
+that of the fo'castle.
+
+"Potai was the sweeper, a low-caste Hindoo of an evil presence; and
+save for the fact that he wore no foot-covering I should have been in a
+bad way. When the Mem-Sahib was not looking he beat me with his broom,
+simply because, that often being lonesome, I'd call aloud, 'Potai!
+Potai!' just to see him come running from the stables.
+
+"Thinking to break him of his evil habit of beating me, many times I
+hid behind the _purda_ of a door waiting for the coming of his ugly
+toes. Swisp! swisp! I'd hear the broom; 'Uh-h, uh-h!' old Potai would
+grunt, because of the stooping, and presently under the _purda_, which
+hung straight down, would peep his low-caste toes.
+
+"Click! just like that I'd nip quick, and run for the Mem-Sahib,
+screaming that Potai was beating me. I'm sure it was not an evil act on
+my part, for if any Sahib saw it he would laugh, and give me nuts or
+something sweet. That was because everyone knew that Potai was evil and
+of a low caste.
+
+"Many a time I saved the tiffin from the thieving crows----"
+
+"Caw-w-w, what-a yar-r-r-n!" growled Kauwa the Crow. "We who are the
+cleaners of cities are not thieves. What is a Cockatoo? A teller of
+false tales and a breaker of rest."
+
+"Ca-lack! even what Cockatoo has said of Kauwa is true," declared the
+Adjutant, solemnly, snapping his sword in its scabbard; "I, who am
+_the_ cleaner of cities, consider Kauwa but a thief. Once many of the
+Seven Sisters, for that is the evil name of Kauwa's tribe, stole a
+full-flavored fish from my very teeth----"
+
+"Aw, aw, aw! let me tell it, let me tell it," cried Kauwa; "let me tell
+the true tale of my solemn friend's stealing."
+
+"Now we shall get at the real history of the Feathered Kind," chuckled
+Pardus. "When the Jungle Dwellers fall out amongst themselves and make
+much clatter, there is always the chance of an easy Kill."
+
+"Caw-aw-aw! It was this way," fairly snapped Crow. "A seller of small
+things, a _box wallah_, walking in an honest way fast after the _palki_
+of a great Sahib, even on the Red Road of Calcutta, by chance was
+struck by another _palki_ and his box of many things thrown to the
+ground. Then this honest one of the straight face, Adjutant, seeing the
+mishap from his perch on the lion which is over the Viceroy's gate,
+swooped down like a proper Dacoit and swallowed some brown Eating which
+was like squares of butter, and made haste back to his perch. Even a
+Crow would have known better than that, for it was soap. And all day
+many of the Men-kind stood and looked at our baldheaded friend, for a
+great sickness came to him; and as he coughed, soap-bubbles floated
+upward. The Hindoos said it was a work of their gods."
+
+"Just what I thought," grunted Pardus; "all clatter, and no true story
+of anything."
+
+"Well," sighed Cockatoo wearily, "my Mem-Sahib always put me in a
+little house on the veranda at night. Though I didn't like it at all,
+still it was _my_ house, and one day, in the midst of a rain, when I
+sought to enter, inside were two of the Cat young."
+
+[Illustration: "AND AS HE COUGHED, SOAP BUBBLES FLOATED UPWARD."]
+
+"Kittens?" queried Sa'-zada.
+
+"Ee-he-ah; and just behind me the old Cat with another in her mouth.
+Hard nuts! but such a row you never heard in your life. When I tried to
+drag the Kittens out, the Cat dug her beak----"
+
+"Claws, you mean," corrected Sa'-zada.
+
+"Ee-he-ah--claws in my back; but the Mem-Sahib took them away."
+
+"Ugh, ugh! all lies! Bird talk!" grunted Boar. "What say you,
+Sa'-zada?"
+
+"It is true," declared the Keeper, much to the disgust of his
+questioner; "for in The Book are also other true tales of Cockatoo. The
+Mem-Sahib has written that he was a great mischief-maker. She says that
+on the back veranda of her bungalow was a filter, and when 'Cocky'
+wanted a bath, he used to turn the tap, but never knew enough to shut
+it off, so the filter was always running dry.
+
+"Also, there was a guava tree in the compound, and our friend ate all
+the guavas just as they ripened, so no one but Cocky got any of the
+fruit. That he was always fighting with Jock, her Scotch Terrier, and
+the clamor fair made her head ache."
+
+"Whatever Sa'-zada reads from The Book is most certainly true,"
+commented Magh.
+
+"I've been thinking," began the Adjutant, solemnly----
+
+"You look like it," growled Wolf.
+
+"Of a story about Kauwa," continued the Adjutant----
+
+"He stole three silver spoons from my Mem-Sahib," interrupted Cocky
+hastily, suddenly remembering the incident, "and hid them in the
+Dog-cart, where they were found next day; which shows that he is
+neither wise nor honest."
+
+"Mine is a true tale," declared Adjutant, with great dignity. "One
+morning, looking calmly over the great city to see that all had been
+tidied up, I saw my little black friend, whose voice is like unto the
+squeak of a Bullock-cart, crouched in an open window, with wings well
+spread ready for flight.
+
+"'A new piece of thieving,' thought I, and, drawing closer, I saw Kauwa
+hop to the floor, pass over to a bed on which slept a Sahib, and gently
+take a slice of toast from the top of a cup; then away went the thief.
+
+"But the full wickedness was later, for when the Sahib awoke he spoke
+to his servant in the manner which Cockatoo has related of the ship.
+And when the other, who was of the Black Kind, declared he had put the
+toast beside his Master, the Sahib beat him for a liar. Even three
+mornings did Kauwa take the toast; but on the fourth the Sahib, who was
+pretending to sleep, nearly broke his back with the cast of a boot."
+
+"Jungle Dwellers are Jungle Dwellers, and City Dwellers are City
+Dwellers," commenced Hornbill, gravely, "and I'm so glad I'm a Jungle
+Dweller. These tales show what city life is like. Save for an
+occasional row with Magh's friends, Hanuman and the rest, whose
+stomachs are out of all proportion to the quantity of fruit to be had,
+I have led a very peaceful life in the Jungle."
+
+[Illustration: "LEAVING JUST A PLACE FOR HER SHARP BEAK."]
+
+"Tell me," queried Magh, maliciously, "do your Young roost on your
+nose?"
+
+"No; that is to keep inquisitive folks at a distance. And, talking of
+Young, when my wife has laid her two big eggs in a hole in some tree, I
+shut her up there with the eggs--make her stay home to mind the house
+and the oncoming family. I plaster up the hole with mud, leaving just a
+place for her sharp beak; this to keep the Monkeys from stealing her
+and the eggs."
+
+"Kaw-aw-aw! Talking of nests," said Kauwa, "when I was in Calcutta I
+designed a nest that would last forever--yes, forever. Each year before
+that time, because of the monsoon winds, my nest had always been
+destroyed; but the time I speak of, having a job on hand----"
+
+"On beak, you mean!" laughed Sa'-zada.
+
+"Aw-haw!--to clean up about a cook-house behind a certain place of the
+Sahib's in which they bottled water of a fierce strength--as I say,
+being busy in this same compound, I spied many, many twigs of wire."
+
+"What's wire?" asked Mooswa; "I've never, that I know of, eaten such
+twigs."
+
+Sa'-zada explained, "Kauwa means bottled soda water, I fancy, and the
+wire from the corks."
+
+"A thought came to me," continued Kauwa, "to build my nest of these
+bright little things, and I did, first getting my mate's opinion on the
+matter, of course. Dead Pigs! but it _was_ a nest! We would swing, and
+jump, and hang to it by our beaks, and never a break in the wall. But I
+had forgotten all about the selfish desire of the Men--but that was
+after. The first trouble was when Cuckoo--a proper _budmash_ bird she
+is--came and laid two eggs in the nest. I saw the difference in the
+eggs at once, but my mate declared that they were all her own laying.
+She took rather a pride in her ability to lay eggs--to tell you the
+truth, we quarreled over it."
+
+"I believe that," yawned Adjutant.
+
+"However, she had her way, and started to hatch out these foreign
+devils; but the Men, as I have said, seeing my beautiful nest, sent a
+Man of low caste up the tree, and he took it away, Cuckoo eggs and all.
+It was a good joke on the Cuckoo Bird, and I was so mad at the way
+everything turned out, Caw-ha! I never made it again."
+
+"I can swallow a plantain at one gulp," said Hornbill proudly.
+
+"Why do you toss it up first?" asked Sa'-zada, alluding to the peculiar
+habit the Hornbill has of throwing everything into the air, and
+catching it as he swallows it.
+
+"It's all in the way of slow eating," answered Hornbill.
+
+"Now," said Myna, "it is surely my turn. I, Myna, who was the pride of
+the Calcutta Zoo in the matter of speech, have sat here like a Tucktoo
+not saying a word, and listening to such as Cockatoo boasting about the
+few paltry oaths he picked up from the Sailor-kind. Why, damn your
+eyes, sir----"
+
+And before Sa'-zada could still the tumult, Cockatoo and Myna, the best
+talking Bird of all India, were hurling the most unparliamentary
+language at each other that had ever been bandied about a Bird
+gathering.
+
+When Sa'-zada had stopped the indelicate scolding of the two Birds Myna
+proceeded to tell of his life.
+
+"I was born in the Burma hills, amongst the Shans. That's where I got
+my beautiful blue-black coat and lovely yellow beak."
+
+"Modest Bird," sneered Magh.
+
+"It was Mah Thin who snared me; but she was good to me, though--rice
+and fruit, all I could eat; and she never once forgot to put the
+turmeric and ground chillies in my rice; for, you know, if I did not
+get something hot in my food I'd soon die. I was somewhat like Cockatoo
+in that a Ship-man bought me and took me to Calcutta. He made me a most
+wise bird, and taught me many clever sayings. And when he was in
+Calcutta with his ship I would be put in the Zoo, so that the Sahibs
+from all parts might hear my speech.
+
+"One day Tom--that was my master's name; he taught me to call him
+Tom--said to me, 'To-morrow the _Lat_ Sahib, the Sirdar, and many
+ladies are coming to hear you talk; Myna.' Then he made me repeat over
+and over again, 'Good-morning, your Excellency.'"
+
+"It was a hard word he gave you," commented Magh.
+
+"It was indeed. Let claw-nosed Cockatoo try it; he thinks he can
+talk--let him try that."
+
+"Avast there, you lubber----" commenced Cocky, but Sa'-zada stopped
+him.
+
+"Well, I said it over and over, and over again, and Tom was so pleased
+he gave me a graft mango to eat. Next day the Viceroy and many
+Mem-Sahibs and Sahibs gathered about my cage, and the Viceroy said,
+'Good-morning, Polly.' Now this made me mad--to be called Polly, as
+though I had a hooked nose like Cockatoo; and in my anger I got
+excited, and, for-the-love-of-hot-spiced-rice, I couldn't think of what
+Tom had told me to say.
+
+"'Speak up!' said Tom.
+
+"In my anger, and forgetting the other thing, and seeing so many
+strange faces against the very bars of my cage, I blurted out, 'I'll
+see you damned first!' just as the sailors used to teach me."
+
+"Caw-haw-haw-haw! Very funny, indeed. Next to a fat bone, or the hiding
+of a silver spoon, I like a joke myself," commented Kauwa. "Once at the
+first edge of the Hot Time I went to Simla. That was also at the time
+of the going of the Sahibs, but after Calcutta it was dull--fair
+stupid.
+
+"One morning, as I was feeling most lonesome, I spied a long row of
+queer little Donkeys standing with their tails to a fence. They had
+brought loads of brick. I flew to the fence, and reaching far down,
+pulled the tail of my first Donkey. Much food! but he did kick--it made
+me laugh. I pulled the tail of every Donkey of the line, and when I had
+finished there wasn't a board left on the fence. Then the Man who was
+master of the fence, and the one that was master of the Donkeys, fought
+over this matter, and pulled each about by the feathers that were on
+their heads. It was the only real pleasant day I had in Simla."
+
+"Did-you-do-it!" screamed the Redwattled Lapwing, suddenly roused to
+animation by falling off Mooswa's back, where he had been trying to
+balance himself with his poor front-toed feet.
+
+"Caw-w-w! I did; and for three grains of corn I'd pull your tail, too."
+
+"I wasn't speaking to you," retorted Titiri the Lapwing; "I was
+dreaming of my old home in India--dreaming that the hunters had come
+into the rice fields to shoot the poor Paddy Birds and Bakula (Egret)
+for their feathers."
+
+"Murderers, you should call them, not Hunters," exclaimed Hathi. "It
+makes me sniff in my nose now when I think of the Birds I've seen
+murdered, just for their feathers."
+
+"It's an outrageous shame," declared Sa'-zada.
+
+"I did all I could," asserted Lapwing. "When I saw the Gun-men coming,
+sneaking along, crouched like Pardus----"
+
+"Sneaking like Pardus--go on, Good Bird!" chimed in Magh.
+
+"I flew just ahead of them, and cried 'Tee-he-he! Here come the
+Murderers!' so that every bird in all the _jhils_ about could hear me.
+And when Bakula, and Kowar the Ibis, and all the others had flown to
+safety, I shouted, 'Did-you-do-it, did-you-do-it!' Then the Men used
+language much like the disgraceful talk we have had from Cocky and Myna
+to-night."
+
+"You carried a heavy responsibility," remarked Sa'-zada.
+
+"All lies," sneered Kauwa. "Fat Bones! why, he can't even sit on the
+limb of a tree."
+
+"That is because of my feet," sighed Lapwing. "I have no toes behind."
+
+"Where do you sleep?" asked Magh.
+
+"On the ground," answered Lapwing.
+
+"That's so," declared Sa'-zada, "for the Natives of the East say that
+Titiri sleeps on his back, and holds up the sky with his feet."
+
+"But why should the Men kill Birds for a few feathers?" croaked
+Vulture. "I don't believe it. Nobody asked me for one of mine. In fact
+the great trouble of all eating is the feathers or skin."
+
+"Whe-eh-eh!" exclaimed Ostrich, disgustedly. "Pheu! your feathers!
+Even your head looks like a boiled Lobster. They do not kill me--the
+Men--but I know they are crazy for feathers, for they pull mine all
+out. Some day I'll give one of them a kick that will cure him of his
+feather fancy. I did rake one from beak to feet once with my strong toe
+nail. When I bring a foot up over my head and down like this----"
+
+As Ostrich swung his leg every one skurried out of the way, for they
+knew it was like a sword descending.
+
+"Yes," cried Magh, "if you only had a brain the size of that
+toe-nail----"
+
+"Stop it!" cried Sa'-zada, for this was an unpleasant truth; Ostrich,
+though such a huge fellow himself, has a brain about the size of a
+Humming Bird's.
+
+"Talking of Wives," said Ostrich, with the most extraordinary
+irrelevance, "mine died when I was twenty-seven years old; and, of
+course, as it is the way with us Birds, I never took up with another,
+though I've seen the most beautifully feathered ones of our Kind--quite
+enough to make one's mouth water.
+
+"She had queer ways, to be sure--my wife. As you all know, our way of
+hatching eggs is turn about, the Mother Birds sitting all day, while we
+Lords of the Nest sit at night. But my wife would take notions
+sometimes and not sit at all. In that case I always sat night and day
+until the job was finished. By-a-sore-breast-bone! but making a nest
+in the hard-graveled desert is a job to be avoided."
+
+"Sore knuckles!" exclaimed Magh, "where are we at? We were talking of
+feathers."
+
+"So we were, so we were," decided Mooswa. "And what I want to know is,
+do the Men eat the feathers they hunt for?"
+
+"Oh, Jungle Dwellers!" exclaimed Magh; "if you were to sit in my cage
+for half a day you would see what they do with them. The Women come
+there with their heads covered with all kinds of feathers, red, and
+green, and blue--Silly! how would I look with my head stuck full of
+funny old feathers?"
+
+"Like the Devil!" exclaimed Sa'-zada.
+
+"Like a Woman," retorted Magh. "And their hair is so pretty, too. I've
+seen red hair just like mine, and then to cover it up with a crest of
+feathers like Cockatoo wears; I'd be ashamed of the thing."
+
+"It's a sin to murder the Birds," whimpered Mooswa; "that's the worst
+part of it."
+
+"Tonk, tonk, tonk!" came a noise just like a small Boy striking an iron
+telegraph post with a stick. It was the small Coppersmith Bird clearing
+his throat. Very funny the green pudgy little chap looked with his big
+black mustaches.
+
+"The Men are great thieves," he asserted. "When I was a chick my Mother
+taught me to stick my tail under my wings for fear they would steal
+the feathers as I slept."
+
+"Steal tail feathers!" screamed Eagle; "I should say they would. Out in
+the West, where was my home, when a Man becomes a great Chief he sticks
+three of my tail feathers in his hair; and when the Head Chief of a
+great Indian tribe rises up to make a big talk, what does he hold in
+his hand? The things that are bright like water-drops----"
+
+"Diamond rings," exclaimed Sa'-zada, interrupting.
+
+"No; he holds one of my wings to show that he is great."
+
+"Yes, you are the King Bird, Eagle," concurred Sa'-zada, "the emblem of
+our country."
+
+"I can break a lamb's back with my talons," assented Eagle, ignoring
+the sublime disdainfully, "but I wouldn't trust my nest within reach of
+any Man--they're a lot of thieves."
+
+"Nice feathers are a great trouble," asserted Sparrow; "I'm glad I
+haven't any."
+
+"What difference does it make?" cried Quail; "the Men kill me, and I'm
+sure I'm not gaudy."
+
+"You're good eating, though," chuckled Gidar the Jackal. "After a day's
+shoot of the Men-kind, the scent from their cook-house is fair
+maddening. Oh-h-h, ki-yi! I've had many a Quail bone in my time."
+
+"Even Lapwing can't save _us_ from the Hunters," lamented Quail; "they
+play us such vile tricks. I've seen a rice field with a dozen bamboos
+stuck in it, and on top of each bamboo a cage with a tame Cock Quail;
+and in the center, hidden away, sat a man with a little drum which he
+tapped with his fingers. And the drum would whistle 'peep, peep, peep,'
+and the Birds in the cages would go 'peep, peep, peep,' and we Cock
+Birds of the Jungle, thinking it a challenge to battle, would answer
+back, 'peep, peep, peep,' and go seeking out these strange Birds who
+were calling for fight. Of course, our Wives would go with us to see
+the battle, and in the end all would be snared or shot by the deceitful
+Men."
+
+"That's almost worse than being taken for one's feathers," said Egret.
+"I'm glad they don't eat me."
+
+"No Mussulman would eat you, Buff Egret," said Gidar the Jackal. "It's
+because of your habit of picking ticks off the Pigs."
+
+"Some Birds do have vile habits," declared Crow. "Paddy Bird has a
+Brother in Burma who gets drunk on the Men's toddy."
+
+"I doubt if that be true," said Sa'-zada, "though he is really called
+'Bacchus' in the science books."
+
+Said Myna, "Of all Birds, I think the Jungle Fowl are the worst. The
+Cocks do nothing but fight, fight, all the time--fight, and then get up
+in a tree and crow about it, as though it were to their credit."
+
+Said Kauwa the Crow, "When one of our family becomes quarrelsome, or a
+great nuisance, we hold a meeting--I have seen even a thousand Crows at
+such meetings--hear all there is to say about him, and then if it
+appears that he is utterly bad we beat him to death."
+
+"Tub-full-of-bread!" exclaimed Hathi, sleepily, "it's my opinion that
+all Birds should be on their roosts--it's very late."
+
+"And roost high, too," said Magh, "for Coyote and Gidar have been
+licking their chops for the last hour. I've watched them. And lock
+Python up, O Sa'-zada, for high roosts won't save them from him."
+
+"All to bed, all to bed!" cried the Keeper. "To-morrow night we'll have
+some more tales."
+
+The last cry heard on the sleepy night air after all were safely in
+their cages was Cockatoo's "Avast there, you lubber!" as Myna, sticking
+his saucy yellow beak through the bars of his cage, called across to
+him, "Want a glass of grog, Polly?"
+
+
+
+
+Eighth Night
+
+The Stories of Buffalo and Bison
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+EIGHTH NIGHT
+
+THE STORIES OF BUFFALO AND BISON
+
+
+This evening the whole Buffalo herd had come out of the park to the
+meeting-place in front of Chita's cage; even their brother, the Indian
+Bison, was there, as also was the true Buffalo, Bos Bubalus.
+
+Said Sa'-zada, opening his book: "We should learn much this evening,
+for Buffalo and Bison are to tell us of their lives. But first, let me
+put you all right as to their names. Those we have called Buffalo, from
+our own western prairies, are not Buffalo at all, but Bison,
+half-brother of Gaur, who also lives in India, where the true Buffalo
+comes from."
+
+"It does not matter," said Buff, the prairie Bison, "it does not matter
+what I'm called, seems to me, for all my life I have been most badly
+treated. Why, it seems no time since I was a calf, one of a mighty
+herd, on the sweet-grassed prairie, and in those days I thought there
+was nothing in the world like being a Buffalo.
+
+"The first touch of danger I remember came in this way. The herd had
+tracked, one after another, all walking in the same narrow path, down
+to a hollow in which was water. I was feeling frisky, and, seeing
+something move, something that seemed very like a calf, smaller than
+myself, I ran after it, cocking my tail, kicking my heels in the air,
+and thinking it great sport; for, Comrades, the great weakness of all
+grass-feeders is an idle curiosity."
+
+"And did all this happen when you had your tail kinked in the air, that
+time you were a silly calf?" jibed Magh, holding a peanut out on her
+under lip, and looking down at it very sedately, as though the subject
+were of little interest.
+
+"I'll tell you my story in my own way," declared Buff. "The thing that
+I followed was like a grey shadow, and slipped about with no noise, but
+when I came close to it, with a vicious snarl it sprang up, and also
+there were three others hidden in the grass. Much milk! but I became
+afraid, and I believe I bawled. Just then I felt the ground tremble,
+and a dozen of the herd galloped towards me with their heads down. It
+was a wolf, and help came just in time, for the big fangs of the fierce
+brute cut my hind leg a little where he sought to hamstring me.
+
+"Then Mother explained, first bunting me soundly with her forehead,
+then licking me with her coarse tongue, that these Wolves were always
+following up the Herd, trying to catch a Calf, or sick Cow, or old
+Bull, to one side."
+
+"We have Wolves in India, too," said Arna, "and Chita the Leopard, and
+Bagh the Tiger. Blood drinkers! but we have many enemies there; even
+Cobra will hardly get out of the way seeking to carry to one's blood
+his sudden death. There are no animals so ill used, I believe, as
+Buffalo.
+
+"One has need of big Horns in the heart of the Jungle. Why, mine
+measure nine feet and a half from tip to tip across my forehead. And
+see the strength of them, fully the size of Bagh's leg--for I am a
+Curly Horn, which means one of great strength. Never have I locked
+Horns with a Bull that I have not twisted his neck till he bellowed.
+Eugh-hu, eugh! Next to lying in muddy water with one's nose just
+peeping out, there's nothing so pleasant as a trial of strength. And
+with all respect to Hathi's handiness of trunk, I must say I prefer
+good, stout Horns. When Bagh or Pardus come sneaking about, there's
+nothing like a long reach.
+
+"Hear that, friends," said Magh. "Here's a traveler from Panther's own
+land calls him a sneak. He, he he! now we shall get at the truth."
+
+"Yes," said Gaur, the Bison; "Panther and all his tribe are sneaks.
+They murdered a Calf of mine. To be sure, it was the Wife's Calf, for
+had I been there at the time I'd have fixed him. She had just lain down
+to rest for the night, and the Calf was a little to one side, and this
+evil-spotted thing, Panther of the Red Kind, came sneaking up the wind
+like a proper Jungle Cat. He knew I was away, for he has the cunning of
+Cobra, and how was the mother to know that any danger threatened? He
+stole like a shadow close to the poor little Calf, and with a rush
+jumped on his back and bit his neck, breaking it, and cutting it so the
+red blood ran his life all out in a little while."
+
+"I was born in Mardian," remarked Arna, the Buffalo, "many years ago;
+and save for the loss of a Calf, through Chita or Bagh's treachery, or
+perhaps a lone Cow at times, our herd feared no Dweller of the Jungles.
+Mine is a big family," he ruminated, "for we wander over almost all
+India and Burma. Before I had grown up our Bull leader had taught us
+all the method of battle. When it was Bagh, we formed up, heads out,
+with the Calves behind, and if we but saw him in time, he surely was
+slain, if he sought strongly for a Kill.
+
+"I learned all the different sounds that come far ahead of danger.
+One's ears get wondrous sharp in the Jungle, I can tell you, where the
+little Gonds hunt. If a stone went singing down the hillside, that
+meant Men, and Men meant the worst kind of danger. No Animal starts a
+stone rolling; we are too careful for that.
+
+"Also do the Jungle Dwellers not break sticks as they travel. The crack
+of a broken twig meant Men Hunters; and when a beat was on, the Jungle
+was, indeed, possessed of great sounds. All the Dwellers ran mad with
+fear--the fear-madness that is like unto the way of Baola Kutta, the
+Mad Dog. There is nothing so terrible in the life of an Animal as the
+drive of the Hunters. 'Tap, tap, tap,' like the knocking of Horns
+together, meant the strike of Beaters against the trees, and then the
+Men's voices crying, '_Aree ho teri_.'
+
+"I, who tremble not at the roar of a Tiger, shivered when I heard that,
+and lost all knowledge of which way I should run--that was in the first
+drive, of course, before I became possessed of much Jungle wisdom.
+Surely it drove us all mad. Like the sound of rain falling on leaves
+was the rush of Python's little feet as even he flew from the
+Man-danger.
+
+"Our best food was down in the _jhils_, also the nice soft mud to lie
+in, and in the early spring, after the fires had passed, the young
+bamboo shot up and we ate them. Then when we took it into our heads, we
+went up into the deep, cool sal forest and rested in peace. But in the
+Dry Time was the time of danger, for we had to travel far to find
+water. We are not like Antelope or Nilgai, who go without water for
+days and days.
+
+"I remember once when we had crept down out of the hills, leaving the
+big sal trees behind, and passing through tamarind, and mango, and
+pipal, and just as we were coming to the pool, which was almost hidden
+in the jamin bushes, I heard a roar--there was a rush and a Bagh of
+ferocious strength sprang on one of our Cows and sought to break her
+neck.
+
+"But worse than Bagh's cruel charge was the silent method of the
+little, dark Men-kind--the Mariahs. Like Magh's people, they would sit
+quiet in the trees, and as we came slowly back from the water would
+shoot arrows into us. Of this we could have no warning, neither any
+chance to fight for our lives, only the noise of the arrow coming like
+the hiss of King Cobra, and the cruel sting of its sharp end. Our Bull
+leader got one this way not strong enough to bring him to his death,
+and for days and days it stayed in his side, and made him of such a
+vile temper that the Herd had to cast him forth, and he became what is
+known as a Solitary Bull.
+
+"There is some kindness in Bagh's method, more than in the way of these
+evil Men, for when he kills he kills, and there is no more sickness;
+but of the Men, when they hunt us with their arrows or a thunder-stick
+which strikes with a loud noise, many of our kind are struck and die at
+the end of much time.
+
+"Strong as the fire-stick is----"
+
+"Arna means by the fire-stick a gun," explained Sa'-zada.
+
+"Strong as it is," continued Arna, "we Buffalo are also of great
+strength. Why, the skin on my neck and withers would stop its strike
+any time."
+
+"Stop the Bullet?" queried Sa'-zada.
+
+"Yes," asserted the Bull. "I have at least three buried in the thick
+skin of my neck, and I hardly know they are there. Why, it has been
+known in my Herd for a Bull to be struck fifteen times by one of these
+fire-sticks, and then the Men did not get him. But just behind the
+shoulders we are weak. My mother taught me a trick of this sort--'Never
+stand sideways to an enemy,' she told me. Yes, though it is good to be
+of great strength, a little wisdom is also of much use, even to a
+Buffalo."
+
+"It was so with us," concurred Prairie Bison. "From all the other
+animals we suffered little compared with the misery that came from the
+Men--the Redmen; and worse still were the Palefaces; it was, as you
+say, Brother, all because of the fire-stick."
+
+"Even I was struck by it," continued Arna; "it was this way. Early one
+morning I had gone down to a _jhil_, being alone at that time of the
+year, for our wives were busy with the Calves, and, as I was going to
+the uplands, to a favorite _nulla_ of mine, in which to rest, suddenly
+I caught sight of an evil-faced Gond; these same Gonds being of all
+Shikaris (hunters) the most strong in their thirst for blood. I rushed
+away for the hills, thinking to leave him behind. I traveled far, and
+thought to myself, now surely I have lost this small killer. Being
+hungry, I fed on the rich grass, but, as I fed, suddenly a dry twig
+broke in the Jungle, and I knew that it was either Hathi or the little
+Gond. Looking back, I saw with the Shikari another of a white face.
+Again I galloped, and trotted, and walked, up a long _nulla_, over a
+hill, around by the side of it, turned, and went far back, much the way
+I had come, only to one side. Then I sought the top of a hill where the
+bamboos grew thick, thinking to hide. As I rested, an evil smell, that
+was not of the Jungle, came to me as the wind turned in its course and
+blew up the hill. I stood perfectly still, even ceased to flap my ears
+against the wicked Flies. As I watched, suddenly this Man of the white
+face stood up from the grass just the shortest of gallops away, his
+thunder-stick roared, and something I could not see struck me most
+viciously in the shoulder. I was mad. Lashing my hips with my tail, and
+throwing my nose straight out, I charged him.
+
+"Again his thunder-stick spoke loud, but there was no sting--nothing,
+and he turned from me and ran down the hill. Just as I was almost upon
+him, he looked back, his foot caught in a bush and he fell. Now, as I
+have said, my big Horns are of great use when Bagh charges, or when
+another Bull disputes the right to command the Herd, but as for the
+small enemy lying on the ground, I could not get at him at all;
+besides, I was rushing down hill at great speed, so, though I lowered
+my head till my forehead almost crushed him into the earth, yet I had
+him not on the Horns, as, carried by my weight, I was forced to the
+very bottom. Before I could turn he was up and away, and I never saw
+him again."
+
+[Illustration: "SOMETHING I COULD NOT SEE STRUCK ME MOST VICIOUSLY IN
+THE SHOULDER."]
+
+"We are also killed by the Men," added Muskwa, the Bear. "They take off
+our black coats, and I thought, perhaps, that was lest we might come to
+life again. Yes, I think they mean to kill all Animals."
+
+"They have killed nearly all my people," sighed Prairie Cow--"nearly
+all of them. I know that is true, for one day Sa'-zada came into our
+corral, and, rubbing his nice soft hand on my forehead--I was sick that
+day, I remember--said, 'Poor old girl! we must take care of you, for
+there are not many of your sort left now.' Then he said it was a shame
+that the brutes had slaughtered us so."
+
+"Ghurr-ah!" barked Wolf, "tell of this thing, O Buffalo Cow, for to me
+it has been much of a mystery where the many of your kind could have
+gone."
+
+"Lu-ah!" sighed Prairie Cow, "it makes me sad to even think of it. As I
+have said, in my young life we were many, many in numbers like you have
+seen our enemies, the Men, here at times. All through the long, warm
+days of sun, we ate the grass that grew again as fast as we cropped it.
+Our humps became big and full of rich fat for the cold time. Not that
+I had the hump on my back as a Calf, not needing it as food, for my
+mother's milk kept my stomach at peace when the winds were cold, and
+the grass perhaps under a white cover. Sometimes when the days were
+harsh we had to travel far in search of feed grass, but that was
+nothing: few of us died because of this. Even when the Red-faced ones
+sought us, they killed but few, for their hunger was soon stayed. But
+suddenly there came to us a time of much fear. Wherever we went we were
+chased by the Palefaces, and their fire-sticks were forever driving the
+fire that kills into our faces. Our Bull leader was always taking us
+farther and farther away, and our Herd was getting smaller and smaller.
+It was a miserable life, for there was never any rest.
+
+"At last our Bull said that we must go on a long trail, for the prairie
+wind was talking of nothing but danger; so we trailed far to the south.
+For days and days we passed across hot sand deserts in which there was
+little grass and hardly any drinking. It was terrible. My hump melted
+to nothing; we were all like that, worse than we had ever been after
+the coldest time of little sun.
+
+"Then we came to a land in which there was grass and water, and none of
+the Men-kind; and once more we were content, only for thinking of our
+friends that had been killed. I don't remember how long we were
+there--I think I had raised two Calves, when one day the evil that
+comes of the Men was once more with us----"
+
+"Yes, it is even as I have said," interrupted Arna; "when one thinks he
+has got away safely, and stops for a little rest, he will see that evil
+Gond, or some other of the Men-kind, waiting to do him harm."
+
+"Just so," commented Prairie Cow; "the Palefaces had found us out. But
+I must say there was less use of the fire-sticks than before, and I
+soon came to know why they had trailed us across the Texas desert--they
+had come to steal our Calves. Never were any poor Animals so troubled
+by Man's evil ways as were we Buffalo. At first I thought they had not
+fire-sticks with them, and meant to kill and eat the Calves, they being
+less able to fight. I remember the very day my Calf was taken. As the
+Herd fed in a little valley, we saw three Wild Horses coming toward
+us--we thought they were Wild Horses, but it was an evil trick of the
+Palefaces, for beside each Horse walked one of the Men. They were down
+wind from us, so we did not discover this. Suddenly our Herd leader--he
+was a great Bull, too--gave a grunt of warning--much like Bear grunts,
+only louder; but still we could see nothing to put fear into our
+hearts. Then our leader commenced to throw sand up against his sides
+with his forefeet, and, lowering his head, shook it savagely. 'Why does
+he wish to battle?' I wondered, for the Wild Horses had never made
+trouble for my people.
+
+"Just then the Men jumped on their animals, and away we raced. I
+remember as I ran wondering why there was no loud bark of the
+fire-stick, for I could see the Hunters galloping fast after us; in
+fact one of them was close at my heels, for my youngest Calf, not two
+months old, could not run as swiftly as I wished. I was keeping him
+close; and on my other side galloped my Calf that was a year old.
+
+"Suddenly I heard a 'swisp' in the air, and my little curly-haired pet
+gave a choking gasp and fell in the grass. Of course, I could not stop
+at once, and he bawled much as I did when the Wolf was at my hock. When
+I turned in great haste I saw the Paleface on top of him. I was just
+crazy with rage. I charged full at the Man and his Horse, and it almost
+makes me laugh now to think how I kept him jumping about. He did use a
+small firestick on me, but I am sure it was because of the Man-fear, of
+which Hathi told us; I saw it in his eyes plain enough. But who can
+stand against the fire-stick? Not even Bagh or Hathi, as we know, so I
+was forced to flee with the Herd.
+
+[Illustration: "SUDDENLY I HEARD A 'SWISP' IN THE AIR, AND MY LITTLE
+CURLY-HAIRED PET ..."]
+
+"We galloped far, far, before we stopped; and that night there were
+many mothers in the Herd bawling and crying for their lost Calves, for
+these evil Men had stolen a great number. I felt so sad thinking of my
+little one's trouble that I could stand it no longer, so I went back on
+our trail, and, following up the scene of the Men-kind, came to where
+they had my Calf and the others. It was night. I soon found him, for a
+Cow Mother's nose is most wise when looking for her young. But I could
+not get him away with me, for he was held fast by something; so I
+stayed there and let him drink of my milk.
+
+"Even with the fear of a fire-stick on me I stayed with him, and in the
+morning when the Pale-faces saw me their eyes were full of much wonder.
+But I did not try to run away, and one of them, making many motions and
+noises to the other two, I think, commanded them not to harm me. Well,
+good Comrades," sighed the Cow, regretfully, "mine has been a very long
+story, I'm afraid, but when one talks of her Babe there is so much to
+be said."
+
+"And did they bring you here with the Calf?" asked Magh.
+
+"Most surely," answered Prairie Cow; "and because of my milk he grew
+big and strong, much faster than grew the other Calves, and is now big
+Bull of the Herd."
+
+"But how fared the others with no mothers?" asked Chita.
+
+"They gave them Cow mothers of the tame kind," answered the Cow.
+
+Said Arna, scratching his back with the point of his long horn: "It is
+not quite this way with us in India. We stick pretty well to the
+_jhils_ and Jungles, so the Men cannot kill many of us at one time; but
+still we are becoming fewer. Even those of the black kind now have the
+thunder-stick, and kill my comrades to sell their heads to the horn
+merchants. Think of that, Brothers, having a price on one's head, like
+a Bhil robber."
+
+Said Sa'-zada: "I wish all the Men who slay Animals, calling it sport,
+might have sat here to-night with us, that their hearts might be
+inclined more kindly toward you, Brothers, who war not against my
+kind."
+
+"Sa'-zada," cried Hathi, in a gentle voice, "could you not put all
+these things in a new book, and lend it to each one of your people so
+that they might know of these true things? Surely then they would not
+seek for the life of each one of us that has done them no harm."
+
+"I have a notion to try it, good Comrade," said the Keeper. "But in the
+meantime it is late, and now you must all go back to your corrals and
+cages."
+
+"Good-night, Prairie Cow," trumpeted Hathi, softly, caressing her
+forehead with his trunk; "your people most certainly have been badly
+treated by the Men."
+
+Soon silence reigned over the home of these outcasts from the different
+quarters of the world.
+
+
+
+
+Ninth Night
+
+The Story of Unt, the Camel
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+NINTH NIGHT
+
+THE STORY OF UNT, THE CAMEL
+
+
+The clink of a loose chain; the complaining wail of a swinging iron
+door; the squeak of a key turning an unwilling lock--a heavy-bolted
+lock; a flutter of wings; the crunch of giant feet on the echoing
+gravel; huge forms slipping through the moonlight, like prehistoric
+monsters; a slim, ribbon-like body gliding noiselessly over the grass
+cushion of the Park's sward; muffled laughter, bird calls and a
+remonstrative grunt from Wild Boar; the merry chatter of Magh the
+Orang; a guarded "Phrut-t-t, Phrut-t-t" from Hathi, the huge
+Elephant--ah, yes, all these; surely it was the gathering of old
+friends, who, like the listeners of the Arabian Night's tales, had for
+many evenings talked of their Jungle life in front of Black Panther's
+cage.
+
+"You are all welcome," growled Pardus.
+
+Magh hopped on the end of Hathi's trunk, and the latter lifted her
+gracefully to a seat on his broad forehead. She had Blitz, the Fox
+Terrier, with her. "You will hear some lies to-night, Pup," she
+confided to him. "But who is to talk?" she asked suddenly; "Chee-he!
+Sa'-zada, our good Keeper, who's to talk?"
+
+"Camel is to tell us of his life," answered the Keeper.
+
+"That stupid creature, who is too lazy to brace up and look spry, talk
+to us? Next we know we'll have a tale from Turtle."
+
+"That's it," sneered Boar, "if one is honest and a plodder like Unt,
+bandy-legged creatures like Magh will call him stupid."
+
+Unt, with a bubbling grunt, knelt down, doubled his hind legs under him
+like a jack-knife, made himself comfortable, and commenced his personal
+history.
+
+"Bul-lul-luh!" he muttered. "I was born in Baluchistan, on the nice
+white sand plains of the Sibi _Put_ (desert). As Mooswa has said, there
+must be some great Animal who arranges things for us. Think of it,
+Comrades, I had the good fortune to be born in just the loveliest spot
+any animal could wish for. As far as I could see on every side was the
+hot, dry sand of the beautiful Sibi desert."
+
+"I know," interrupted Ostrich; "my home in Arabia was like that. I've
+listened to Arna here, and Bagh, telling of the thick Jungles where one
+could scarce see three lengths of his own body, and I must say that I
+think it very bad taste."
+
+"Yes, it was lovely there," bubbled Unt. "No wonder that Bagh, when he
+was chased by the Beaters, fled to the sand _damar_ and hid in the
+korinda thorns. Such sweet eating they are, firm under one's teeth. The
+green food is dreadful stuff. Once crossing the Sibi _Put_, when I was
+three days without food, I remember coming to Jacobabad, a place where
+the foolish ones of the Men-kind had planted trees, and bushes, and
+grass, and kept them green with water. I ate of these three green
+things, and nearly died from a swelling in my stomach.
+
+"Well, as I have said, I was born in that nice sand place, and for
+three or four years did nothing but follow mother Unt about. Then they
+put a button in my nose, and tied me with a cord to the tail of another
+Unt, and put merchandise on my back for me to carry. There was a long
+line of us, and in front walked Dera Khan, the Master. We seemed to be
+always working, always carrying something; our only rest was when we
+were being loaded or unloaded. We were made to lie down when the packs
+were put on our backs, and many a time I have got up suddenly when the
+boxes were nearly all on, rose up first from behind, you know, and sent
+the things flying over my head. I would get a longer rest that way, but
+also I got much abuse, though I didn't mind it, to be sure; for, as
+Mooswa has said, our way of life is all arranged for us, and the abuse
+that was thrust upon me was a part of my way.
+
+"But one year there came to Sibi many Men of the war-kind, and with
+them were the black ones from Bengal. It was a fat one of this kind,
+one of little knowledge of the ways of an Unt, a 'Baboo,' Dera Khan
+called him, who caused me much misery. It was my lot to take him and
+his goods to the Bolan Pass, so Dera said, for the One-in-Charge, a
+Sahib, had so ordered it. When I sought to rise, as usual, when the
+load was but half in place, he got angry and beat me with a big-leafed
+stick he carried to keep the heat from his head. But in the end I
+brought to his knowledge the method of an Unt who has been beaten
+without cause.
+
+"When all his pots and pans, and boxes of books, wherein was writing,
+had been bound to my saddle, the Baboo clambered on top. I must say
+that I could understand little of his speech, for my Master, Dera Khan,
+was a Man of not many words, but the Baboo was as full of talk as even
+Magh is; and of very much the same intent, too--of little value."
+
+"Big lip! Crooked neck! Frightener of Young!" screamed Magh, hurling
+the epithets at Camel with vindictive fury.
+
+"Unt's tale is truly a most interesting one; there is much wit in his
+long head," commented Pardus. Camel rolled the cud in his mouth three
+or four times, dropped his heavy eyelids reflectively, bubbled a sigh
+of meek resignation and proceeded:
+
+"When I rose from behind, the Baboo nearly fell over my neck; when I
+came sharply to my forefeet (for I was always a very spry, active Unt),
+he declared to Dera Khan that I had broken his back. But I knew this
+couldn't be true, for I was always a most unlucky Unt. Of course, this
+time I was not tied to the tail of a mate, but my leading line was with
+the Baboo. He shouted 'Jao' to me, and in addition called me the Son of
+an Evil Pig.
+
+"Have any of you ever seen one of my kind run away?" Camel asked,
+swinging his big head inquiringly about the circle.
+
+"I have," answered Black Panther. "Once, being hungry, I crept close to
+an Unt to ask him if he could tell me where I might find a Chinkara or
+other Jungle Dweller for my dinner. I saw _that_ Camel run. For a small
+part of the journey I was on his back; but though I can cling to
+anything pretty well, yet the twists of his long legs were too much for
+me, and I landed on my head in the sand, nearly breaking my back."
+
+"Well," resumed Camel, "you will understand how the Baboo and his pots
+and pans fared when I ran away with him, which I did as soon as Dera
+Khan moved a little to one side. At first I couldn't get well into my
+stride, for the Baboo pulled at the nose rope, and called to Dera in
+great fear. Dera also ran beside me, holding to the ropes that were on
+the boxes; many things fell, coming away like cocoanuts from a tree. An
+iron pot going down with much speed struck my Master on his head, and
+he said the same fierce words that he always used when I caused him
+trouble of any kind.
+
+"You know, though I ran fast, yet by tipping my head a little to one
+side I could see what was doing behind, and I saw a basket in which
+were many round, white things----"
+
+"Eggs," suggested Cockatoo. "Those were the round white things Potai
+brought from bazaar in a basket."
+
+"Yes, they were in a basket," repeated Camel, solemnly; "so, as you
+say, Cocky, I suppose they were eggs; but, however, they came down all
+at once on the face and shoulders of my loved Master."
+
+"And broke, Cah-cah-cah!" laughed Kauwa the Crow; "I know. More than
+once I've seen relatives of mine have their eggs broken through being
+thrown out of the nest by Cuckoo Bird."
+
+"As I have said," continued Camel, "my Master was a Man of few words,
+but at this he let go of the rope, and the language he used still rings
+in my ears. Dry chewing! how I fled. And behind chased Dera Khan, a big
+knife in his hand--in spite of his violence I had to laugh at the color
+the eggs had left on his long beard--a knife in his hand, and crying
+aloud that he would cut the Baboo's throat.
+
+[Illustration: "I REMAINED IN THE JHIL UNTIL MY MASTER HAD LOST THE
+FIERCE KILL-LOOK."]
+
+"As I swung first one side of my legs, and then the other over the
+sweet sand desert, I could feel the Baboo thumping up and down on my
+back, for he was clinging to the saddle with both hands. Sometimes he
+abused me, and sometimes he begged me to stop; that I was a good
+Unt--his Father and Mother, and his greatest friend. As he would not be
+shaken off because of his fear of Dera Khan's knife, I carried him into
+a _jhil_ of much water; there he was forced to let go, and when he got
+to the bank, if it had not been for a Sahib he would most surely have
+been killed by my Master. Hathi has told us of the fear-look he has
+seen in the faces of the Men-kind, and there was much of this in the
+eyes of that Baboo. I remained in the _jhil_ until my Master had lost
+the fierce kill-look, then I came out, and save for some of the old
+abuse there was nothing done to me.
+
+"But we all went to the Bolan Pass, carrying food for those that
+labored there making a path for the Fire Caravan, the bearer of burdens
+that is neither Bullock, nor Unt, nor aught that I know of."
+
+"It was a railroad," Sa'-zada, the Keeper, explained.
+
+"Perhaps," grunted Unt, licking his pendulous upper lip; "perhaps, but
+we Unts spoke of it as the Fire Caravan. Still it was an evil thing, a
+destroyer of lives, many lives, for never in that whole land of
+sand-hills and desert was there so much heat and so much death.
+
+"First the _Bail_ (Bullocks) died as though Bagh the Killer had taken
+each one by the throat; then those of my kind fell down by the
+fire-path and could not rise again. And the air, that is always so
+sweet on the hot sand plains, became like the evil breath of the place
+wherein nests Boar."
+
+"Ugh, ugh!" grunted Wild Boar, "even there, by this stupid tale of
+Unt's, there was something evil to be likened to my kind."
+
+"The water that had been sweet ran full of a sickness because of all
+this, and the Men that drank of it were stricken with the Black Death.
+At first it was those of the Black-kind, and then the others, the
+Sahibs, became possessed of it. And then the Burra-Sahib, Huzoor the
+Governor, was taken with it; so said one of the Sahibs who came to Dera
+Khan just as he was tying a rope about my foreleg so that I could not
+rise and wander in the night.
+
+"'It is sixty miles to Sibi,' this Sahib, who was but young, said to my
+Master.
+
+"'By the Grace of Allah, it is more,' Dera answered him.
+
+"'The Big Sahib, who is my friend, is stricken with the Black Death,'
+said the young Sahib, 'and also the Baboo Doctor is the same, being
+close to his death; and unless I get a Healer from Sibi to-morrow, the
+Sahib who is my friend will surely die.'
+
+"'If Allah wills it so, Kismet,' answered my Master.
+
+"'Have you a fast Camel?' asked the young Sahib.
+
+"'This is Moti,' replied my Master, putting his hand on my hump, 'and
+when he paces, the wind remains behind.'
+
+"Then the young Sahib promised my Master many rupees and much work for
+the other Unts, so be it he might ride me to Sibi for a Doctor.
+
+"By a meal of brown paper such as one picks up in a bazaar, I swear
+that I understood more of what that meant to my Master than many a
+Camel would have known, for had I not seen it all, this that I am about
+to tell? You know, Comrades, that the Burra-Sahib was a Man of a dry
+temper, and it so happened that one day Dera Khan had displeased him,
+which I just say was a way my Master had often. That was a full moon
+before the coming of the Black Sickness. Oh, Friends, but I had seen it
+all; it made me tremble, knowing of the readiness with which Dera Khan
+argued with his knife, like unto the manner of Pathans.
+
+"The Big Sahib would have struck my Master but for this same young
+Sahib who had now come with his offer of many rupees--this Sahib who
+had been there at that time. So, Comrades, there was _good_ hate for
+the sick man in Dera's heart.
+
+"'Will you send the Camel?' said the young Sahib; and Dera, drawing
+himself up straight, even as I do under a heavy load, held out his hand
+and said, 'Allah! thou art a Man. My goods are your goods, but for the
+other, the one who is your friend and my enemy, the wrath of Allah upon
+him.'
+
+"The Sahib was on my back in a little.
+
+"I have said before that with the Baboo and many kettles on my back I
+ran fast, but think you, Comrades, of the weight, and also of the poor
+rider, for there is nothing an Unt dislikes so much as the knock,
+knock, against his hump of one having no knowledge of proper pace. How
+the Sahib sat! Close as a pad that had been tied on; and he coaxed and
+urged--even swore a little at times, but not after an unreasoning
+manner as had the Baboo. He called me a Bikaneer, even his Dromedary,
+which means one of great speed; and begged me, if I wished food for all
+time, to hasten. How we fled in the long night, down the hot paths,
+splashing many times through the cool water that crossed our
+path--Bolan River, it is called, the water that comes from the
+high-reaching sand lands that are all white on their tops."
+
+"The snow mountains," explained Sa'-zada, for Camel's description was
+more or less vague.
+
+"As I have said," continued Camel, "the water was cool. Never once did
+I fall, though the round stones were like evil things that twist at
+one's feet to bring him down. 'Hurry, hurry, hurry!' the young Sahib
+called to me, and I laughed, thinking he would tire before I should.
+
+"On we went, passing little fires where those of the Cooly kind rested
+as they fled from the Black Death. Just as we came out on the flat sand
+which is the Sibi Desert, there were gathered in one place many Men.
+For a space we stopped, and my Rider asked if there was a Healer with
+them. They answered that they were Men of the war-kind going up to keep
+the workers from running away from the Black Death; even those at the
+little fires would be turned back, they said.
+
+"Then on again I raced. I could hear my Rider talking back to his
+friend, the Burra-Sahib, who lay stricken with the evil sickness,
+though I know not how he could hear him, for we were full half way to
+Sibi.
+
+"'Keep up your courage, Jack,' he would say, speaking to his Friend.
+'Please God, I'll have a Surgeon there in time to save you yet.'
+
+"Then he would fall to abusing some other of the Men-kind, perhaps he
+was not a friend, whom he blamed for all that was wrong. 'You puffed-up
+beast,' he would say, speaking to this other, 'to send a lot of Men to
+such a death hole with a brute of a Bengali-Baboo to doctor
+them--murder them, and a medicine chest that was emptied in a day. It's
+a bit of luck that Baboo died, but it doesn't help matters much.'
+
+"That was the Baboo I had run away with; perhaps even the medicine
+chest had lost much through its fall from my back.
+
+"Then to me, 'Hurry, hurry, hurry! Shabaz!' (push on); then to his
+Friend, 'Poor old Man, Jack! what will _She_ say if I don't pull you
+out of this? I'll never go back to England as long as I live if this
+beastly thing snuffs you out.'
+
+"Then to the other, the one who had done this evil: 'Curse you, with
+your red tape economy! You're a C. I. E.'--whatever that meant I don't
+know--'but you've murdered old Jack, who is a Man. You're out of this
+trouble up at Simla, but you'll roast for this yet.'
+
+"You know, Comrades," said Unt, plaintively, "I didn't know all about
+this thing--I couldn't understand it, you see, being an Unt, and, as
+Magh says, stupid; but someway I felt like doing my best for the young
+Sahib who did not make me cross by beating me, but only cried 'Hurry!
+Shabaz! my swift runner,' and shook a little at the nose line in his
+haste."
+
+"I have often felt that way," encouraged Hathi; "once I remember, it
+was in Rangoon, that time I was working in the timber yards. I had a
+Mahout who never stuck the sharp iron goad in my head at all. He always
+told me everything I was to do by different little knocks on my ears
+with his knees as he sat on my neck. And also by soft speech, of
+course, for, as you say, Unt, it keeps one from getting cross, or
+filled with fear, and so one has only to think of what the Master
+requires. You were right to run fast with such a rider."
+
+"This is Camel's story," pleaded Sa'-zada.
+
+[Illustration: "BUT SOME WAY I FELT LIKE DOING MY BEST."]
+
+"Never mind," bubbled Unt; "I was just trying to remember what time we
+got to Sibi--I know it was before the sands grew hot from the sun.
+Straight to the _Teshil_ (Government office) the young Sahib rode me.
+Here he made an orderly bring me food and drink while he went quick to
+bring a Healer for his Friend. I had scarce time to store half the
+_raji_ away for future cud-chewing, when back he came with a Healer of
+the White Kind.
+
+"Now, the _Teshildar_, who was Chief of Sibi, was a slow-motioned Man,
+not given to hurry; that was because the hump on his stomach was large
+with the fat of great eating; and when the Sahib asked for another Unt
+to carry the Healer, this Man who was Chief made no haste--not at
+first; but when the young Sahib, no doubt thinking of his friend Jack,
+threatened him with the wrath of the Governor, also the smaller anger
+of his own fists, the _Teshildar_ had an Unt of great speed quickly
+brought forth. Then the young Sahib, speaking to me, said, 'My
+heavy-eyed Friend, also one of much strength, can you go straight back
+the sixty miles?'
+
+"Of course, at that time I couldn't speak in his words, though I could
+understand, so I just shook myself, and stretched out my long hind
+legs, as much as to say, 'Mount to my back, and I will try.'
+
+"We started, the Healer on the other Unt, and the Sahib on my back. I
+shall never forget that ride. Sore legs! but at first it was not easy
+to keep up with my Comrade, who was fresh; but also was he a trifle
+like the _Teshildar_, fat in the hump, so in the end that had its
+effect, and I managed to keep pace with him.
+
+"We reached back in the Bolan just as the sun was straight over our
+heads. By the _raji_ that was still in my gullet I was tired; so was
+the young Sahib, for when I knelt down, and he slipped quickly from my
+back, he spun round and round like a box that has broken loose, and
+came to the ground in haste. Just as he fell, Dera Khan caught him, and
+lifted him up; then he and the Healer went to the tent where was his
+friend Jack. And I heard my Master, Dera, say afterward, that the
+little Sahib never slept while it was twice dark and twice light; that
+was until the Healer said the stricken one, Jack, the Burra-Sahib, was
+again free of the Black Death."
+
+"I think it is a true tale," remarked Adjutant, putting down his left
+leg and taking up his right. "I have seen much of this Black Death in
+my forty years of life, and the Men of the White-kind take great care
+of each other. Now, those of the Black-kind get the Man-fear which
+Hathi has spoken of, in their eyes, and flee fast from this terrible
+sickness, crying aloud that their livers have turned to water. I,
+myself, though I am a bird of little speech, could tell tales of both
+methods."
+
+"But what became of you, Unt?" queried Magh; "did you catch this
+sickness and die?"
+
+"No," replied Camel, solemnly, not noticing the sarcasm; "the little
+Sahib took me from Dera Khan by a present of silver, and kept me to
+ride on, and in the end I was sent here to Sa'-zada."
+
+"It's bed-time," broke in the Keeper; "let each one go quickly to his
+cage or corral."
+
+
+
+
+Tenth Night
+
+The Story of Big Tusk, the Wild Boar
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+TENTH NIGHT
+
+THE STORY OF BIG TUSK, THE WILD BOAR
+
+
+'Twas the tenth night of what might be called the Sa'-zada convention,
+and Black Panther was making the iron bars of his cage jingle in their
+sockets with his full-voiced roar. Shoulders spread, and head low to
+the floor, his white fangs showing, he called "Waugh, waugh! Waw-houk!
+Come, Comrades. Ganesh, One-tusked Lord of the Jungles, Muskwa and
+Mooswa; you, Sher Abi, eater of Water-men; even little Magh; come all
+of you and listen to the lies of a Swine." Then he laughed: "Che-hough,
+che-hough! the lying tales of Jungli Soor."
+
+"Ugh, ugh!" grunted Grey Boar, angrily, as he slipped up the graveled
+walk to the front of Leopard's cage. "In my land there is a saying of
+the Men-kind, that 'A lie can hide like a Panther; if it be a bad lie,
+that it is as difficult to come face to face with as Black Panther.'"
+
+By this time the animals had all gathered, and Sa'-zada opening The
+Book, spoke:
+
+"This is Wild Boar's night. I am sure he will tell us something
+interesting."
+
+"A lie is often amusing," declared Magh.
+
+"That may be so," retorted Boar, "for even Sa'-zada has said that you
+are the funniest Animal in the Park."
+
+"But why should we listen to Soor's squeaky tales?" snarled Bagh; "when
+he gets excited his voice puts me on edge."
+
+"Well," interrupted Sa'-zada, "these meetings are so that each animal
+may have a chance to tell us what good there is in him."
+
+"Then why should Soor waste our time?" queried Magh. "Even he will know
+no good of himself."
+
+"I don't know about that," answered Sa'-zada. "I think every animal is
+for some good purpose, and we can tell better after we have heard
+Boar's story."
+
+"Here are two of us, O Sa'-zada," said Grey Boar. "I, who am from
+Burma, know of the way of my kind in that land, and Big Tusk, who is
+also here, being my Comrade, is from Nagpore, in India, and can tell
+you how we are persecuted in the North. If I am all bad, can anyone say
+why it is? I am not an eater of Bhainsa, Men's Buffalo, like Bagh and
+Pardus; neither am I, nor any of my Kind, known as Man-killers. Even in
+Hathi's family have there been Man-killers--the Rogue Hathi."
+
+"But it is said in the Jungles that you sometimes kill _Bakri_, the
+Men's Sheep," declared Magh.
+
+"All a lie!" answered Grey Boar. "We are not animals of the Kill;
+neither do we wreck the villages of the Men, as does Hathi, nor drive
+the rice-growers from their lands--lest they be eaten--as do Bagh and
+Pardus."
+
+"But you eat their jowari and rice," asserted Panther.
+
+"A little of it at times, perhaps, but only a little. Our food is of
+the Jungles, and how are we to know just what has been grown by the
+Men, and what has grown of itself? And in my land, which was Aracan in
+Burma, but for me and my people the Men could not live."
+
+"In what manner, O Benefactor of the Oppressed?" asked Magh, mockingly.
+
+"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.
+
+"'Wait, Pack Comrades,' he would say, 'there will surely be a kill of
+many Musk-Ox. I know the way of the White Men--they come here but for
+the shedding of blood.'
+
+"But one night, being close to the edge of starvation, seeing one of
+the Huskies come forth from the tepee, not knowing what I did--Ghur-rh!
+I had him by the throat. Even now as I remember it, perhaps it was
+another of the Pack that put his strong jaws on the Dog's gullet--yes,
+I think it was another.
+
+"'Ki, yi-i-i-i! E-e-eh!' he whined.
+
+"'Buh!' loud the Firestick barked as the White Man smote at the Pack
+with it.
+
+"After a manner there was some eating that night, what with the Huskie
+and three of our kind the Man slew with the Firestick."
+
+"Cannibal!" exclaimed Magh in disgust.
+
+"It was to save our lives," exclaimed Oohoo. "At last the White Man
+came to a herd of Musk-Ox; but what think you of the temper Black Wolf
+had when he saw that the Men-kind were not for making a big Kill at
+all; just the matter of a Head or two to take back with them."
+
+"Queer taste, sure enough," cried Cockatoo. "Now, if it had been a head
+with a crest like mine----"
+
+"Or even if it had been Magh's head," insinuated Pardus.
+
+"Eu-wh, eu-u-u-h! to think that a Pack of famished Wolves had trailed
+so far through the snow, holding back from a Kill of the Men-kind, and
+to get--nothing! True, the Men killed for their own eating and the
+Dogs', but what was that to a whole Pack? Buh-h-h! even now it makes me
+laugh when I think of the manner we tore down the tepee one night, for
+the Men had taken the eating inside to keep it from us.
+
+"After that, having learned wisdom, they killed one of these fat
+creatures for us each day. Ghurrh! but a bite!
+
+"And from listening beside the tepee at night, I learned that the
+Redmen were angry because of the Head-taking. These Forest-Dwellers
+think, Comrades, that if they sell or give away the head of a Kill all
+their strength in the hunt will depart."
+
+"It's a wondrous good thing to believe, too," declared Coyote. "Many an
+honest meal I've come by when I was woefully hungry through the matter
+of a head stuck on a pole, or stump, as a gift to Matchi-Manitou. I
+remember one particularly fat head of Muskwa--I mean--but you were
+saying, Brother Oohoo, a most interesting happening of the Musk-Ox when
+I interrupted you."
+
+"So, when the Redmen knew that it was heads their White Comrade was
+after, they were filled with anger, and a fear of the wrath of Manitou;
+they declared that something of an evil nature would happen to them if
+he took from that land the Heads. And, would you believe it, Comrades,
+whether there was truth in the power of this Head-matter or not, I am
+unable to say, being but Oohoo the Wolf, but two days from that time,
+as they journeyed back toward the Big Water, they fell in with a large
+Herd of the round-nosed Musk-Ox, and the Wind wrath came upon them. The
+Redmen, thinking to stop the taking of Heads, talked to the
+Moss-eaters in a loud voice, as though they were men, bidding them go
+far over the Barren Lands and tell all the other Musk-Ox to keep away,
+for here was a taker of Heads. But the White Man only laughed, and
+killed a Bull Leader who had a beautiful long black beard, swearing
+that such a Head was a prize indeed.
+
+"Comrades, perhaps there is someone looking over the lives of Animals
+who has power with the Wind and the White Storm. Of this I know not,
+but it is a true tale that even as he cut the head from the dead
+Moss-eater, such a storm as had not been in the memory of any Dweller
+came with the full fury of a hungry Wolf Pack down upon that land. Like
+Pups of one litter all of us Wolves huddled together, pulling the cover
+of our tails over our noses to keep the heat in. We waited; and moved
+not that day, nor that night, nor the next day, nor the night after
+that again. Bitter as the storm was, I almost laughed at Black Wolf's
+lament. 'Now the men will be dead and lost to us when we might have had
+them,' he kept whimpering; 'there will be no more killing of Musk-Ox,
+and we shall go hungry.'
+
+"As we crawled out when the storm ceased, our Leader went to where the
+snow was rounded up a little higher than the rest. 'Here is the
+Musk-Ox,' said Black Wolf; 'let us eat.'
+
+"I remember, as we dug at the snow there was a strong scent of Man. 'It
+is the Hunter dead, I think,' Black Wolf said, poking his nose down
+into the snow.
+
+"But all at once, 'Buh!' came a hoarse call from the Firestick, and
+Black Wolf, our Leader, 'E-e-he-uh!' fell over backward, dead. Then I
+knew what it was. The Huntman had cut open the Musk-Ox, and crawling
+inside, had kept his life warm through the fierce storm. But the Redmen
+had gone. Whether they had died because of the storm, or trailed away
+because of the Head-taking, I know not; but there they were not. Close
+curled against the Musk-Ox had lain the Hunter's three Dogs, and they,
+too, were alive.
+
+"Then commenced such a trail of a Man, Comrades, as I, Wolf though I
+am, never wish to see again. E-u-uh! eu-u-uh! but it was dreadful, for
+in his face there was the Fear Look that Hathi has spoken of. Night and
+day it was there, I think, for he dared not sleep as he hurried back
+toward the Big Water. Being without a Leader, we were like a lot of
+Monkeys, fighting and jangling amongst ourselves. Some were for killing
+him, but others said, 'Wait, surely he will make a kill of Musk-Ox
+again, and then we shall have eating--what is one Man to a Wolf Pack in
+the way of food?'
+
+"That day, coming up with a Herd, he shot two of the Moss-eaters, and,
+as we ate of them, he trailed to the South; but that availed him
+little, Comrades, for the swing of a Wolf's going is like the run of a
+river; and when he camped that night we also camped there. And the next
+day, and the next, it was the same; the Huntman pushing on with tiring
+walk striving for his life, and, behind the Pack--some howling for a
+Kill of the Man, and some fighting to save him that we might have
+greater eating.
+
+"It was the last day before we came to the Big Water. That day, being
+full famished, for we had passed the land of the Musk-Ox--though to be
+sure he had killed two Caribou for us--we ate his Dogs, and he was
+fleeing on foot.
+
+"I must say, Comrades, though I lay no claim to a sweet nature, yet I
+wished not to make a Kill of the Man. But five times, as I remember it,
+some of the Pack, eager for his life, closed in on him; and five times
+with the Firestick he slew many of my Wolf Brethren. Comrades, he made
+a brave fight to reach the shack."
+
+"This is a terrible tale," cried Magh, excitedly. "Did he reach the
+shack alive, Oohoo?"
+
+"Yes, but would you believe it, Comrades, the White Man who had been
+left behind, through being alone and through drinking much Firewater,
+had become mad, even as I have seen a Wolf in the time of great heat;
+and he knew not his Comrade, the Huntman, but called through the closed
+door, 'Go away, go away!'
+
+"'I am Jack,' called the Huntman.
+
+"'Jack is dead!' yelped the Man who was mad. 'He is dead out in the
+strong storm, and you are an evil spirit--go away! go away!'
+
+"Oh, Hathi, it was dreadful, dreadful.
+
+"'Let me in, Tom; I am Jack,' pleaded the Huntman who had come so far
+through the snow; and, just beyond, we of the Wolf Pack waited, waited,
+waited.
+
+"Sa'-zada, the cry of the lone Wolf is not so dreadful as the yelpings
+of the Man who was mad. Even we of the Wolf Pack moved back a little
+when he called with a fierce voice. And he always answered: 'Go away!
+You are an evil spirit. Jack is dead! But I did not kill him--Go away!'
+And, Sa'-zada, though it is dreadful, yet it is true, he struck with
+his Firestick full through the door, and killed the Man who was Jack.
+And in the end he, too, died, and the Wolves buried them both after the
+manner of Wolves."
+
+"Chee-hough! it's a terrible tale," said Magh.
+
+"It is true," answered White Wolf; "and all that is the way of my land
+which is the Northland.
+
+"In the Hot Time sometimes there are the little red flowers that are
+roses, but in the long Cold Time it is as I have said, cold and a land
+of much hunger. But it is my land--the Northland."
+
+"Engh-h-hu!" sighed Sher Abi, opening his eyes as though just coming
+out of a dream; "I had an experience one time very much like that,
+Brother Wolf."
+
+[Illustration: "'LET ME IN, TOM; I AM JACK,' PLEADED THE HUNT MAN."]
+
+"Of a snow storm, Sher Abi?" queried Mooswa, doubtingly.
+
+"No, my solemn friend, I know nothing of snow; I speak of having a Man
+inside of one. As Sa'-zada has said, I think it's quite possible, and
+I'm sure they must rest nice and warm, too."
+
+"Did a Man cut you open, Magar?" sneered Magh.
+
+"No, little Old Woman, he did not; he was busy that day taking off your
+tail for stealing his plantains."
+
+"Tell us about it, Magar," lisped Python. "Wolf's tale of his snow-land
+makes me shiver."
+
+"There is not much to tell," murmured Sher Abi, regretfully. "It was
+all over in a few minutes, and all an accident, too; and, besides, it
+was only one Man. You see, I was sunning myself on a mud bank in
+Cherogeah Creek, when I heard 'thomp, thomp, thomp!' which was the
+sound of a Boatman's paddle against the side of his log dug-out. I slid
+backward into the water, keeping just one eye above it to see what
+manner of traveler it might be. It was old Lahbo, a villager who often
+went up and down that creek, so I started to swim across, meaning to
+come up alongside of his canoe and wish him the favor of Buddha. As you
+know, Comrades, all Animals love these Buddhists, for their Master has
+taught them not to take the life of any Jungle Dweller.
+
+"As I have said, I was swimming across the creek, when Lahbo, who must
+have been asleep, suddenly ran his canoe up on my back. It was such a
+light little dug-out, too, quite narrow, and being suddenly startled, I
+jumped, and by some means Lahbo's canoe was upset. Poor old Lahbo! How
+my heart ached for him when I heard him scream in the water."
+
+"Oh, the evil liar!" whispered Magh in Hathi's ear.
+
+"Hush-h!" whistled Elephant, softly, through his trunk; "Sher Abi was
+ever like this; I know him well. It is just his way of boasting; he
+knows nobody believes it."
+
+"Poor Lahbo," continued Magar. "I swam quickly to help him, picked him
+up tenderly in my jaws, and started for the shore. I would have saved
+his life in another minute, but his cries had gone to the ears of some
+Villagers, and they were now on the bank of the creek, and with two
+Firesticks, also. I was in a terrible fix, Comrades; if I held my head
+under water, poor Lahbo would drown; if I held it up, the Village Men
+would kill me with the Firestick."
+
+"How did it end, Saver of Life?" asked Pardus. "Did poor Lahbo ask you
+to swallow him to save his life?"
+
+"I really can't say what did happen," answered Sher Abi. "To this day
+tears come into my eyes when I think of poor Lahbo. And it was all the
+fault of the Villagers, for when the Firestick coughed, I think the
+Man-fear, that Hathi has spoken of, came over him, for he commenced to
+wriggle about so that I couldn't hold him. I was so careful, too, for
+my teeth are sharp, and I was afraid of hurting him. But, anyway,
+before I knew it, Ee-eh-he! he had slipped down my throat; poor Lahbo!
+And do you know, Comrades, I'm a little afraid I'm not done with him
+yet, for he had a big two-handed dah (sword) in his waist-band, and I
+know that some of the pains I feel at times are due to that; there's
+nothing so hard to digest as a Burmese dah. And to this day, Comrades,
+sometimes when I'm jumping about it seems to me that bangles and rings
+that are inside of me string themselves on that sword--I fancy at times
+I can hear them jingle."
+
+"How did you come to have bangles inside of you?" asked Magh most
+solicitously.
+
+"Engh-hu! little Moon-face, you make me very tired. If any one tells a
+tale you try to put false words into his mouth."
+
+"And bangles," snapped Magh.
+
+"Who spoke of bangles?" asked Sher Abi. "I said not that they were
+bangles, but that it was like that--the pains I mean. Perhaps even
+Lahbo dropped the dah overboard, for all I know. And look here, little
+one, Moon-faced Languar, if you doubt what I say, you may go inside and
+see for yourself."
+
+"How came you to this place, Sher Abi?" asked Mooswa. "Did the
+Villagers catch you then?"
+
+"Not that time. But once, hearing a Pariah Dog in great distress, I
+thought he called to me for aid, even as poor Lahbo had done, so I swam
+quickly to lend him help----"
+
+"Poor Dog," jeered Magh.
+
+"But it was all a vile trick of the Men-kind," declared Magar; "though
+at the time, not knowing of this, I paid no heed to the matter. There
+were two long rows of stakes in the water coming close together at one
+end----"
+
+"Lough-hu! I know," murmured Buffalo; "the walls of a stockade."
+
+"Yes," sighed Sher Abi. "And as I pushed through the small end, the
+poor Dog being just beyond, and in great distress, a big rope drew
+tight about my neck, and before I could so much as object, many of the
+Men-kind pulled me out on to the dry land. Then I was sent here to
+Sa'-zada."
+
+"Well, well," murmured Hathi, "it seems to me that every Jungle-Dweller
+thinks he's badly treated, but judging from all the tales I've heard I
+think we've all got our faults--I think we're nearly as bad as the
+Men-kind."
+
+"My people are not," objected Buffalo; "we never did harm to anyone."
+
+"Neither did we," exclaimed Mooswa.
+
+"Nor we," added Elk; and soon the clamor became general, all holding
+that the Men-kind who killed almost every animal for the sake of
+taking its life, and not because they were driven to it by lean
+stomachs, were much worse than the Jungle-Dwellers.
+
+"Well, well," decided Hathi, "it seems that most of you are against me,
+anyway. I think Buffalo is right in what he says, but some of us have
+done much wrong to the Men-kind----"
+
+"Meaning me, of course," ejaculated Wild Boar. "I, who lay no claim to
+being good, and who am counted the worst of all Animals, say, with
+Buffalo, that the Men-kind have done more harm to me than I to them,
+and have been of less benefit to me than I to them."
+
+Then Sa'-zada spoke: "Comrades, this is a question that we can't
+settle. If we were all like the Buddhists, and took no life except
+because of great need, perhaps it would be better. But now you must all
+go back to your cages and corrals to sleep."
+
+
+
+
+Twelfth Night
+
+The Story of Sa'-Zada, "Zoo" Keeper
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+TWELFTH NIGHT
+
+THE STORY OF SA'-ZADA, THE "ZOO" KEEPER
+
+
+It was the twelfth night of the Sa'-zada stories. For eleven evenings
+Tiger, and Leopard, and the others had told of their manner of life,
+with more or less relevancy. This night Sa'-zada, the little Master,
+was to speak of his jungle and forest experience.
+
+Magh, the Orang, was filled with a joyous anticipation. Perched as
+usual on Hathi's broad forehead, she gave expression to little squeaks
+of enjoyment.
+
+Once even she stuck out her long, elastic under-lip and broke into the
+little jungle song she always had resource to when pleasantly excited:
+
+"Co-oo-oo-oo-oo! Co-wough, wough-oo!" with a rising inflection that
+made the listener's ears tingle. She even danced a modest can-can on
+Hathi's patient old head.
+
+The Keeper came briskly up the walk, and patting Hathi's trunk
+affectionately as it was held out to him, sat on the grass with his
+back against Mooswa's side.
+
+"Well, Comrades," he commenced, "before I came to a state of
+friendship with the Jungle Dwellers, I was like a great many others of
+my kind, and thought the only pleasure to be got from animals was in
+killing them."
+
+"It is the beginning of a true talk," commented Pardus.
+
+"And, so, in that time I hunted a great deal," continued Sa'-zada.
+"When I first went to Burma to live, my bungalow was just on the edge
+of the Jungle, and some of the Dwellers were always forcing their
+presence upon me--either Snakes, or Jackals, or Jaruk the Hyena, or the
+Bandar-Log; and one night even a Rogue Elephant----"
+
+"Hum-p-p-ph! he should have been prodded with a sharp tusk," commented
+Hathi.
+
+"A Rogue Elephant," continued Sa'-zada, "came down and played
+basket-ball with my garden and bamboo cook-house. Gidar the Jackal,
+with a dozen companions, used to gut my kitchen, and then sit out in
+the moonlight and howl at me in derision."
+
+"We sing at night because we can't help it, and not because of ill will
+to the Men-kind," corrected Gidar.
+
+"Well, one night, as the Jackals were in the middle of a heavy chorus,
+they suddenly ceased; a silence as of death came over everything; it
+seemed as though all life had gone miles away from that part of the
+country. Then came a hoarse call which shook my little bungalow----"
+
+"I know," interrupted Gidar, "when we stop singing and move away
+silently it is to make room for Bagh the Killer. We object to being
+seen in the company of a murderer like that."
+
+"Yes, it was Tiger," asserted Sa'-zada, "and two Sahibs, who were my
+companions, and, like myself, new to the country, determined to get
+him.
+
+"So next evening we took a Goat and tied it just inside the Jungle,
+each one of us lying down on the ground at a short distance from our
+bait. But the Goat commenced to browse quietly and refused to bleat. I
+tried jumping him up and down by the tail and back of his neck, and
+he'd bleat just as long as I'd pump. At last I tied him up so that he
+stood on his hind legs, and he called then with full vigor. For the
+matter of an hour we lay thus, when presently, behind me, I heard the
+stealthy step of some huge Jungle Dweller coming for the Goat.
+
+"It was the most deliberate animal I had ever waited for; it seemed
+hours that those carefully planted feet had been heading towards the
+back of my head. I could see nothing, for I was facing the other way,
+and I dared not turn over for fear of frightening the approaching Tiger
+away. This is a true tale, Comrades, and I did not like overmuch the
+idea of Bagh or Pardus, whichever it might be, pouncing upon me from
+behind."
+
+"And they would do it," declared Gidar, "for there is a saying in
+their tribe that 'a kill from behind is a kill of skill.'"
+
+"Were you afraid, little Master?" asked Hathi.
+
+"I didn't like it," answered Sa'-zada, evasively.
+
+"I've lain close hid in the Elephant Grass," said Bagh, "when a mighty
+drive of the Sahibs was on; and perhaps you felt that time, O Sa'-zada,
+even as I did."
+
+"I, too, have heard the Pigstickers galloping, galloping all about a
+little _nulla_ where I have sought for safety and the chance of my
+life," added Wild Boar, "and it's dreadful. If all the Sahibs could
+have known that feeling, even as you did, O Sa'-zada, perhaps they
+would hunt us less."
+
+"Perhaps," answered the Keeper; "but I could hear the great animal
+creeping, oh, so carefully, step by step, hardly a twig shifting under
+his cautious feet--only a little soft rustle of the leaves as they
+whispered to the sleepy night air that something of evil was afoot. It
+got on my nerves, I must say, for I knew that I had not one chance in a
+thousand if Bagh were to spring upon me from behind. A fair fight I did
+not mind. I dared not even whisper to my companions, for they were a
+short distance from me, lest I should frighten the quarry away. When
+the soft-moving feet were within five yards of my head they became
+silent, and I felt that the great animal, Bagh or Pardus, or some
+other Killer, was crouched ready for a spring.
+
+"One minute, two minutes, an hour--perhaps half the night I seemed
+waiting for something to happen. The suspense was dreadful. One of my
+comrades had heard the footsteps, too, for I could see his rifle gleam
+in the moonlight as he held it ready to fire at sight of the animal.
+The strain was so trying that I almost wished Bagh would charge.
+
+"But at last my nerves got the better of me and I turned over on my
+face, bringing my Express up to receive the visitor. The noise startled
+him, and with a hoarse bark he was off into the Jungle. It was only
+little ribbed-faced Barking Deer, who had come out of curiosity to see
+what the Goat was making a row about."
+
+Hathi gave a great sigh of relief, for the Little Master's story of
+thrilling danger had worked him up to a pitch of excited interest.
+
+"I remember a little tale of a happening," said Arna the Buffalo. "We
+were a herd of at least twenty, lying in a bit of nice, soft muddy
+land, for it was a wondrous hot day, I remember, when suddenly right
+through the midst of us walked a Sahib, and with him was one of the
+Black Men-kind. By his manner I knew that he had not seen us, being
+half-buried as we were in the _jhil_. Just beyond where we rested was a
+plain of the dry grass Eating, and to that our enemies the Men passed.
+Comrades, the method of our doing you know, when there is danger. If
+it is far away, and we see it, we go quickly from its presence, as is
+right for all Jungle Dwellers; but should it come suddenly close upon
+us we fight with a strength that even Bagh dreads.
+
+"As I have said, seeing the Sahib so close, our Leader sprang up and
+snorted in anger. Now Bagh, when he is in an evil temper, roars loudly;
+but we, being people of little voice, trusting more to our horns than
+to noise, only call 'Eng-ugh!' before we charge. So, when our Leader
+called twice, we rushed out into the field where was this Sahib. I
+remember well, the Black man ran with great speed across the Plain, but
+the Sahib faced us. In his eyes there was a look such as I have seen in
+the eyes of another Bull when I have challenged him, and it was a
+question whether we should fight or not.
+
+"But fear came not to this Man," added Arna, decidedly, "for as we
+raced down upon him, he smote at us with his Firestick, and taking the
+cover that was on his head----"
+
+"His helmet," suggested Sa'-zada.
+
+"The cover in his hand," proceeded Arna, "charged full at us, calling
+us evil names in a loud voice. I know not which of us turned in his
+gallop, but certain it is that the herd passed on either side of the
+Man and he was not hurt."
+
+"But did you not turn and trample him?" asked Boar.
+
+"No," answered Arna; "when we charge we charge, and there's an end of
+it."
+
+"That is also our way," concurred Bagh, "except, perhaps, when we are
+struck by the Firestick, then sometimes we turn and charge back."
+
+"By-the-memory-of-honey!" said Muskwa the Bear, "I should like to hear
+a tale from Sa'-zada of my people."
+
+"Well," declared the Keeper, "there was a happening in connection with
+Muskwa's cousin, Grizzly, that makes me tremble--I mean, calls up
+rather unpleasant memories to this day."
+
+"I'm glad of that--Whuf! glad we're to have the story," corrected
+Muskwa, apologetically.
+
+"It was in the Rocky Mountains," began Sa'-zada, "in the South Kootenay
+Pass. I was after Big Horn, the Mountain Sheep, with two Comrades, and
+a guide called Eagle Child, when we saw a big Grizzly coming down the
+side of a mountain called the Camel's Back.
+
+"Now, Eagle Child was a man very eager to do big things, so, almost
+without asking my consent, he laid out the whole plan of campaign. On
+the side of the Camel's Back Mountain grew a spruce forest, and through
+this snow avalanches had ploughed roadways, from top to bottom, looking
+like the streets of a city. Eagle Child called to me as he forded the
+mountain stream on his Horse that he would go up one of these snow
+roads and get the Grizzly, or turn him down another one for me.
+
+"Now, Comrades, Muskwa here is a man of peace, loving his honey and his
+Ants, but Grizzly is one to interview with great caution, and my
+Comrade, Eagle Child, being a man of unwise haste, you will understand,
+Comrades, that I expected strange happening when he started to
+interfere with Grizzly's evening plans, for it was toward the end of
+the day."
+
+"It is not wise to meddle with one of a short temper," declared Hathi.
+
+"I am not one of a short temper," objected Grizzly. "I seek a quarrel
+with no one; but, perhaps, if this man, who was Sa'-zada's comrade,
+sought to make a kill of one of our kind, there may have been trouble.
+If I am of a great strength why is that--is it so that I may be killed
+easily? Have I not strong claws just as Bagh has his teeth, and Boar
+his tusks, and Python his strength of squeeze?--even also have I
+somewhat of a squeeze myself. And shall I not use these things that I
+have, as do the other Forest Dwellers when their desire is to live? I
+am not like Elk that can gallop fast--flee from a slayer. And so, if I,
+being strong, fight for my life, it is temper, eh? Wough! I am as I am.
+But go on, Little Master--tell us of this happening."
+
+"As I was saying," recommenced Sa'-zada, "when Eagle Child in his
+great eagerness started after that Bear, I had an idea there would be
+fun, and there was--though I must say that I followed up to give him
+some help."
+
+"There was no harm in that," said Grizzly, magnanimously. "Comrades of
+the same kind must help each other."
+
+"That Eagle Child had ridden up to meet the Grizzly was in itself a
+fair promise for excitement, but also his Cayuse was one of the
+jerkiest brutes ever ridden by anybody. He had a great dislike for
+spurs."
+
+"Quite right, too," bubbled Unt the Camel; "I remember a Cavalry Man on
+my back once----"
+
+Sa'-zada interrupted Camel, and continued: "A dig from the spurs and
+the Cayuse would refuse to budge; but, of course, the rider knew that.
+
+"Eagle Child thought that the Bear was working down in a certain
+direction, but, as you know, Comrades, Muskwa is a fellow of many
+notions, turning and twisting and changing his course beyond all
+calculations."
+
+"Yes, we are like that," assented Muskwa. "It is our manner of life. We
+find our food in small parts, and in many places--berries here, and
+Ants there, and perhaps Honey on the other side. We are not like Bagh,
+who goes straight for his Kill, for we must keep a sharp lookout or we
+shall find nothing."
+
+"Well, Grizzly evidently turned, for, while my Guide was looking for
+him in one direction, he bounced out not ten yards from the Cayuse from
+a totally different quarter. This rather startled Eagle Child; and,
+though he should have known better, he dug the silly spurs into his
+erratic tempered Horse, with the result that the latter balked--bucked
+up like a stubborn mule.
+
+"This looked as though he meant to stop and fight it out--the Grizzly
+evidently thought so, for he gave a snort of rage and tore down the
+mountain full at his enemy. I dared not shoot for fear of striking my
+comrade; but one bullet wouldn't have mattered, anyway; it wouldn't
+have stopped the charging Grizzly. Luckily for Eagle Child, his Horse
+reared just as the Bear arrived, and though he was sent flying,
+Muskwa's cousin did not succeed in clawing him, his time being taken up
+in making little pieces of the Horse. Eagle Child arrived at the foot
+of the mountain very rapidly, for all this had happened at the top of a
+long shale cut bank, and he did not look for smooth paths, but just
+came away without regard to the means of transport."
+
+"And is that all of the tale?" inquired Magh, with a rather
+disappointed air, for she had hoped to hear of Muskwa's getting the
+worst of the encounter.
+
+"Not by any means," answered Sa'-zada; "that was but the beginning. My
+comrade being out of the way," he continued, "I fired at Grizzly."
+
+[Illustration: "THE GRIZZLY ... BOUNCED OUT NOT TEN YARDS FROM THE
+CAYUSE."]
+
+"To kill him?" exclaimed Mooswa, reproachfully.
+
+"That was before I was comrade to the Jungle Dwellers," apologized the
+Keeper--"before I knew they were more interesting alive than dead. And
+I fear I struck him, too," he added, "for when he had finished knocking
+the Horse to pieces we saw him go up the side of the Camel's Back
+limping as though a leg had been broken."
+
+"That was a shame," declared Mooswa.
+
+"It would have been a great shame, an outrage," asserted Bagh, "if I,
+or Pardus, or even Hathi had broken the leg of a Man; we would have
+been hunted by a drove of twenty Elephants, and many of the Men-kind."
+
+"But," objected Magh, "as Sa'-zada has said, that was before he had
+proper wisdom, so we bear him no malice. Even Muskwa does not, do you,
+old Shaggy Sides?"
+
+"No, I did not know the law of life then," said the Keeper; "and Eagle
+Child and myself followed after poor old wounded Grizzly and in our
+hearts was a desire for his life. Eagle Child was cross because I had
+laughed at him when he came down all covered with mud, also he had lost
+a Horse. He swore that he would kill that Bear if it took a week."
+
+"I know," commented Hathi, swinging his trunk sideways and lifting
+Jaruk off his feet with a blow in the ribs as if by accident. "I hate
+the smell of that Jungle Scavenger," he confided to Magh in a whisper.
+"I know," he continued aloud, "I've heard the Sahibs swear often, over
+a less matter than the killing of a Horse, too."
+
+"We thought that Grizzly was badly wounded and couldn't go far, and
+that we should soon come within range of him up amongst the rocks."
+
+"Of course, he went up, having a broken leg," declared Pardus; "that's
+the way with all Forest Dwellers--one pitches going down on three
+legs."
+
+"But it was getting late, so we hurried fast. I had tied my Horse to a
+tree, for the climb was steep. Up, up, up we went; sometimes catching
+sight of Grizzly, sometimes seeing a drop of blood----"
+
+"Dreadful," whimpered Mooswa. "Why should Men be so eager to see the
+blood of Forest Dwellers who have not harmed them?"
+
+"Sometimes we saw blood on the rocks," proceeded Sa'-zada, "and
+sometimes we followed Grizzly's trail by the mark of a stone upturned
+where his strong claws had been planted. Once I got another shot at
+him, and struck him, too, but, as Greybeard here might tell you, a
+Grizzly is like Arna, he can carry off the matter of twenty bullets
+unless they happen upon his heart or brain."
+
+"That is even so," concurred Grizzly. "Whuff! I have at least a dozen
+in my own body. The Men seek to improve our tempers after that manner."
+
+"It was getting late," resumed Sa'-zada, "but still we continued
+upward, the Bear holding on with great strength. It was October, and in
+the hollows of the upper ranges snow was lying like a white apron in a
+nurse's lap. 'He went this way,' said the guide to me, pointing to a
+narrow ledge of rock around the side of a cliff, with a drop from it of
+a thousand feet.
+
+"Now, Eagle Child was a Stony Indian, and they are like Mountain Sheep
+in their ability to climb. We had to work our way down carefully to
+this ledge, helping each other lest we fall, and even when it was
+reached the yawn of the valley a thousand feet below caused me to
+tremble. So, cautiously we worked along this narrow path, and, as we
+rounded the point, to our great fear we saw that we could go no
+farther--a dead wall stood two hundred feet high in front of us.
+Slowly, cautiously, we turned our bodies, and went back; and then we
+saw what we had overlooked in our eagerness for poor old Grizzly's
+life--we could not get up the way we had come down--we were trapped."
+
+"It's a dreadful feeling," declared Pardus, "to be caught in a
+Trap--though there were no Men enemies about you, Sa'-zada, to make it
+worse."
+
+"Or to be shut up in a Keddah," muttered Hathi--"it's awful. To be
+taken out of one's nice pleasant jungle and led into a Keddah trap with
+those of the Men-kind trumpeting and calling, and even those of our own
+tribe, Elephant, taking part against us."
+
+"Was that what made you friend to the Jungle Dwellers, Sa'-zada?" asked
+Muskwa.
+
+"At the time," answered the Keeper, "I thought only of the dreadful fix
+we were in. Below, a thousand feet or more, the sharp tops of the
+spruce and cedar stood like spears----"
+
+"I've felt a spear in my shoulder, ugh, ugh! it drives one fair mad
+with fear and pain," grunted Boar.
+
+"Under our feet was a narrow ledge of rock not the width of Hathi's
+back; behind us, and on either side of us, the cliffs ran up hundreds
+of feet. On the upper peak of the Camel's Back a snowstorm was shutting
+out the last grey light of day--the darkness of night was fast coming
+on. I could see nothing for it but to stand perfectly straight with our
+backs to the rock wall all through the bitter night and talk to each
+other to keep sleep away. The next day our comrades might find us, and
+let down a rope to help us up."
+
+"You could also think in the night of how we feel, O Little Brother,
+when we are hunted," declared Pardus. "Even perhaps Grizzly with his
+broken leg had to lie on some rock, afraid to travel in the night lest
+he fall."
+
+"Yes, it was a good time to think of the troubles of Jungle Dwellers,"
+concurred Hathi.
+
+"I thought of many things," said the Keeper, softly; "and but for Eagle
+Child I fear I should have fallen a dozen times; I felt his hand on my
+arm more than once pressing me against the wall. But at last morning
+came. I never felt so cold in my life, for, you see, we dared not move
+about. But it was noon before I saw my two comrades riding up the
+valley looking for us.
+
+"Eagle Child called, 'Hi, yi, yi--oh, yi!' The rocks threw his voice
+far out, and they heard it. It took them a long time to climb up to the
+place from where we had descended. They had brought their lassos with
+them, for they knew that we were cut off; and soon, but with much
+cautious labor, we were safe."
+
+"And what of Grizzy?" asked Muskwa, solicitously.
+
+"I hope he, too, got away all right," answered Sa'-zada, "for I never
+saw him again--we did not follow him."
+
+"I think Wie-sah-ke-chack led you to that place, Little Master, to give
+Grizzly a chance for his life," commented Mooswa.
+
+"I like our Master's story," declared Hathi; "so often I've heard the
+Sahibs boasting of the Animals they have killed, but Sa'-zada tells
+only of the times fear came to him because of his wrong-doing."
+
+"That happening was of Greybeard, and he is but a cousin of mine,"
+complained Muskwa the Black Bear. "Did you never meet with my family,
+Little Master?"
+
+"If you insist upon it, Muskwa," answered the Keeper, "I might tell a
+little tale of your people."
+
+"I should like that--do," pleaded Black Bear; "in all the stories there
+has been nothing of our doing."
+
+"But they were also only relatives of yours, though they were black,
+for the happening was in India, and there they are called Bhalu the
+Bear. And the happening was not of my doing, either, for I was hunting
+Bagh, the Tiger."
+
+"Every hunter takes me for a choice," growled Raj Bagh.
+
+"But this was a bad Tiger," declared Sa'-zada; "he had killed many
+people."
+
+"And what of that--Waugh-houk! what of that, Little Master?" demanded
+Raj Bagh. "Have not many people killed many of my kind--are they not
+always killing us?"
+
+"Still the Little Master is right," objected Hathi. "If a Bull Elephant
+becomes Rogue, and, neglecting his proper eating which is in the
+Jungle, goes seeking to kill the Men-kind, does he not surely come into
+trouble?"
+
+"But we be flesh eaters and slayers of life," answered Raj Bagh.
+
+"Even so, though that were better otherwise, but do you not know of
+your own people that the Men-kind are not for Kill? Before all other
+Dwellers of the Jungle you stand forth and are ready to battle, but
+just the _scent_ of Man causes you to slink away like Jaruk the Hyena."
+
+"I think that is true," commented Mooswa. "Wie-sah-ke-chack has
+arranged all that."
+
+Said the Keeper: "It is not right to kill the animals as men do, for
+sport, but when Bagh, or any other Jungle Dweller, turns Man-eater, he
+should die."
+
+"And Sher Abi, too," squeaked Magh; "his tribe are all Man-eaters--they
+should be all killed."
+
+"At any rate," continued the Keeper, "I was after this Man-eater. I had
+a _machan_ built in a Pipal tree, and a Buffalo calf tied up near
+it----"
+
+"One of your young, Arna," said Bagh, vindictively.
+
+"And early in the evening I climbed into my _machan_ and prepared for
+Mister Stripes."
+
+"That's Man's way," sneered Raj Bagh. "What chance have we against them
+up in a _machan_? No chance; and they call that sport."
+
+"And what chance has a village woman against a big-fanged Tiger?"
+grunted Boar. "No chance. It seems to me there are few in the Jungle as
+decent as Hathi and myself; we meddle not with the Men."
+
+"Just before dark," continued Sa'-zada, "I heard a noise coming through
+the Khir bushes. 'Bagh comes early,' I thought to myself."
+
+"He must have been hungry to scent a kill before dark," muttered Raj
+Bagh.
+
+"He smelt a man and thought it a good chance to commit murder," sneered
+Magh.
+
+"It wasn't Tiger at all," said the Keeper, "but three noisy Black
+Bears--Bhalu the Bear. I thought they would soon pass, for they do not
+meddle much with cattle."
+
+"No, we are not throat cutters like Bagh," whuffed Muskwa.
+
+"But they seemed in an inquisitive mood. Now, the calf was tied to the
+foot of a toddy palm, and they looked at him as much as to say, 'What
+are you doing here?'"
+
+"I would have explained matters to them had I been there," exclaimed
+Arna, shaking his head. "A poor Calf!"
+
+"No doubt they meant to help him out of his trouble," volunteered
+Muskwa.
+
+"Presently one of them proceeded to climb the toddy palm, and I thought
+they were looking for me perhaps. On the tree was a jar the natives had
+put there for catching the toddy liquor; and you can imagine my
+surprise, Comrades, when I saw Bhalu take a big drink out of this. When
+he came down one of his comrades went up. There were half-a-dozen toddy
+trees there, and the Bears helped themselves to the toddy until in the
+end they became very drunk."
+
+"I know how that feels," said Oungea the Water Monkey; "have I not
+told you, Comrades, of the gin my Master----"
+
+"Caw-w-w, caw-w-w!" interrupted Crow. "I also know of that condition. I
+ate some cherries once that had been thrown from a bungalow in
+Calcutta, and they made my head wobble so I couldn't fly. A Sahib stood
+in the door and laughed and said I was drunk."
+
+"The cherries had been in brandy, I suppose," explained Sa'-zada. "But
+Bhalu was most unmistakably drunk. They wanted to play with the Calf,
+but he became frightened and bawled. I could see there was small chance
+of a visit from Bagh with three drunken Bears and a bellowing Calf at
+the foot of my tree."
+
+"This is a nice story, Muskwa," sneered Magh. "I'm so glad to hear of
+your people and their ways."
+
+"Only cousins of mine," declared Muskwa, "and called Bhalu."
+
+"All Bears are alike," snapped Coyote; "meddlesome thieves."
+
+"They steal little Pigs," added Boar.
+
+"They wouldn't go away," said Sa'-zada, "and I began to fear that I
+shouldn't get a shot at Stripes. I did not want to shoot, because if
+Tiger was anywhere in the neighborhood it would put an end to his
+visit. I had nothing heavy to throw at them except my water-bottle;
+but, finally, taking a long drink to keep the thirst away for a time,
+I stood up in the _machan_ and let fly the bottle. It caught the Bear
+just behind the ear, and Bhalu, thinking one of his comrades had hurt
+him, pitched into the other two, and there was a fierce three-cornered
+fight on in a minute."
+
+"I can swear that it is a true tale," barked Gidar, "for twice I've
+seen a family of Bhalu's people in just such a stupid fight. Not that
+they were possessed of toddy, for they are silly enough at all times.
+But it is known in the Jungle that when Bhalu is wounded, he fights
+with the first one he sees, even his own brother, thinking he has done
+him the harm."
+
+"One chap got the worst of the encounter and reeled off into the
+Jungle, the other two following. I could hear them wrangling and
+snarling for a long distance--all the world like a party of drunken
+sailors."
+
+"These Bear stories are just lovely," grinned Magh. "Aren't they,
+Muskwa?"
+
+"Did you kill Bagh, the Man-eater?" asked Muskwa, to change the
+subject.
+
+"Yes, I stopped his murderous career that night," answered Sa'-zada.
+"He was an evil animal and deserved to die. Now it is late and you must
+all go to your cages."
+
+"I'm glad your people had a chance to be heard from, Muskwa," lisped
+Magh as she slid down Hathi's trunk. "You always looked so terribly
+respectable and honest, that I was really afraid to speak to you."
+
+[Illustration: "BHALU ... PITCHED INTO THE OTHER TWO."]
+
+"Phrut, phrut!" muttered Hathi through his trunk; "I have lived for a
+matter of forty years or so, amongst the Jungle Dwellers and with the
+Men-kind, and I think that we are all alike, all having some good and
+some bad qualities."
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+Books by W. A. Fraser
+
+Published by Charles Scribner's Sons
+
+
+BRAVE HEARTS
+
+_With frontispiece. 12mo, $1.50_
+
+"Like the thoroughbred he writes about, Mr. Fraser's narrative is
+always full of action. He has the knack of telling a story."--New York
+_Evening Sun_.
+
+"The author has caught the spirit of the paddock, track, and betting
+ring, and ... he manages to show them to us in their true
+colors."--Newark _Advertiser_.
+
+"It has the stir and go of a healthy sporting blood."--New York
+_Evening Post_.
+
+"Of rapid movement, and as refreshing as the outdoor air in which the
+scenes are laid."--Boston _Herald_.
+
+"Clever, spirited, and sympathetic."--_The Outlook._
+
+"Few stories of outdoor sport and exercise of any sort equal these in
+vigor, reality, and suspense."--Washington _Evening Star_.
+
+"Stories that all lovers of the noblest of domesticated animals will
+enjoy."--_The Churchman._
+
+
+
+
+BY W. A. FRASER
+
+BLOOD LILIES
+
+_With illustrations by_ F. E. SCHOONOVER
+
+_12mo, $1.50_
+
+
+"The quality of the story is strong and seamed with the invigorating
+life of nature, and at times reads like a Longfellow prose poem. The
+illustrations by Mr. Schoonover are of remarkable excellence."--Boston
+_Herald_.
+
+"Will keep the reader both interested and amused, for the author has
+humor as well as a sharp dramatic faculty."--New York _Sun_.
+
+"The tale is one of both emotion and action. It has elements that will
+give it a hold upon the sympathies of its readers."--New York _Times
+Review_.
+
+"No one can read the story without a thrilling of the pulses. He will
+be exhilarated and moved.... It is well worth mention among the best
+books of the fall."--Los Angeles _Times_.
+
+"The men we meet here are men of flesh and blood and of passion.... One
+really cannot describe the beauty and pathos of the story."--San
+Francisco _Post_.
+
+"The art that can so graphically draw such a poetic, dramatic, and
+pathetic picture as this of the wild life of these rude Northland folk
+is viable and enduring."--_The Independent._
+
+
+
+
+BY W. A. FRASER
+
+MOOSWA
+
+and Others of the Boundaries
+
+_Illustrated by_ ARTHUR FLEMING
+
+_Crown 8vo, $2.00_
+
+
+"In these stories we find somewhat of a return to the AEsopian
+presentation of animals, touched by the spirit of modernity, and,
+thrown over them all, a thorough knowledge of the animal life of the
+wilderness."--New York _Mail and Express_.
+
+"One of the best nature books ever published."--Brooklyn _Eagle_.
+
+"These stories of the doings of the fur-bearing animals in winter will
+be greatly relished by readers of all ages and both sexes. Besides
+being good stories, they contain any quantity of interesting
+information about the lives of these animals, their relations with one
+another, their food, and how they build their homes."--Boston _Herald_.
+
+"He has succeeded in introducing several very real and charming forest
+acquaintances to his readers."--New York _Tribune_.
+
+"Mr. Fraser has mingled a deal of natural history with folk-lore and
+the interests of the far fur-bearing lands in a volume that ought to
+please all readers of animal stories."--_The Interior._
+
+
+
+
+BY W. A. FRASER
+
+THE OUTCASTS
+
+_Illustrated by_ ARTHUR FLEMING
+
+_Crown 8vo, $1.25 net_
+
+
+"It has all the charm of the 'Jungle Book,' of which it is in no sense
+an imitation, of Ernest Thompson Seton, of Gilbert Parker's tales of
+Northland. The writing is charming, almost flawless; it is pathetic,
+curious, interesting. The woodcraft and the intimate knowledge of
+animal life and habits are a revelation."--Chicago _Tribune_.
+
+"A book worthy to be classed with Thompson Seton's 'Wild Animals I Have
+Known' and Kipling's 'Jungle Book.'"--Boston _Evening Transcript_.
+
+"Should be ranked among the very best.... It is full of interest,
+kindly humor, and is sympathetically and delightfully told."--Atlanta
+_Journal_.
+
+"This book is a delightful picture of the woodland life of the vast
+stretches of that flank of the Rockies toward the Arctic Circle.... It
+is one of the best nature books ever published."--Brooklyn _Eagle_.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes
+
+
+Added missing hyphen to "Sa'-Zada", but kept the lowercase z variation
+"Sa'-zada" which was used throughout the book. Removed the hyphen in
+"Sher Abi" for consistency. Corrected mismatched quote marks, and made
+the following changes:
+
+Contents: Changed "Bheh" to "Bagh" to match chapter title and
+character name.
+  Orig.: Raj Bheh, the King Tiger
+
+Page xi: "HANSOR, (the Laugher) Hyena" is only mentioned in the list
+of "The Dwellers in Animal Town." "Jaruk the Hyena" is used throughout
+the remainder of the book.
+
+Pages 5 and 177: "Pard" is used instead of "Pardus;" it might be
+a nickname rather than a typo.
+
+Page 129: Changed "tale" to "tail".
+  Orig.: I pulled the tale of every Donkey of the line
+
+Page 225: "Grizzy" may be a typo for "Grizzly," or just Muskwa's
+nickname for Grizzly.
+
+Note: Bakri apparently refers to a sheep or goat:
+  Page 71: a jungle Bakri (sheep)
+  Page 83: I sprang on Bakri the Goat
+  Page 175: kill Bakri, the Men's Sheep
+
+Spelling variations:
+
+Pages 8, 58: Wie-sak-ke-chack
+Pages 225, 227: Wie-sah-ke-chack
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Sa'-Zada Tales, by William Alexander Fraser
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SA'-ZADA TALES ***
+
+***** This file should be named 38289.txt or 38289.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/2/8/38289/
+
+Produced by Darleen Dove, Shannon Barker, Diane Monico,
+and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.