The Sa'-Zada Tales

"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.

"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 – "

"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

"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.

"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?'