CHAPTER VI
INHABITANTS OF THE JUNGLE
_Elephants, Lions, Tigers, etc._
Elephants undoubtedly possess the faculty of scenting spirits in a very marked degree. It is most difficult to get an elephant to pa.s.s a spot where any phantasm is known to appear. The big beast at once comes to a halt, trembles, trumpets, and turning round, can only be urged forward by the gentlest coaxing.
Jungles are full of the ghosts of slain men and animals, and afford more variety in hauntings than any other localities. The spirits of such cruel creatures as lions, tigers, leopards, are very much earth-bound, and may be seen or heard night after night haunting the sites of their former depredations.
The following case of a tiger ghost was narrated to me years ago by a gentleman whom I will style Mr. De Silva, P.W.D. I published his account in a popular weekly journal, as follows:--
_The White Tiger_
"Tap! tap! tap. Someone was coming behind me. I halted, and in the brilliant moonlight saw a figure hobbling along--first one thin leg, then the other, always with the same measured stride--accompanied with the same tapping of the stick. I had no wish for his company, though the road was lonely, and I feared the presence of tigers, so I hurried on, and the faster I went, the nearer he seemed to come. Tap! tap! tap! The man was blind and a leper, and so repulsively ugly that the n.i.g.g.e.rs on the settlement regarded him with superst.i.tious awe. I had a horror of tigers, but of lepers even greater. And I loved my wife with no ordinary love. So I hurried on, and he followed quickly after me.
"The night was brilliant, even more so, I thought, than was ordinary, and the very brilliancy made me fear, for my shadow, the shadow of the trees, shadows for which I had no name, flickered across the road, were lost to sight to return again, and the jungle was getting nearer. The open country on either side ceased, one by one tall blades of jungle gra.s.s shook their heads in the gentle breeze, and the silence of the darkness beyond began to make itself felt. A night bird whizzed past me, croaking out a dismal incantation from its black throat; something at which I did not care to look clattered from under a stone I loosened with my foot, and sped into the shade, and I hastened on.
"Tap! tap! tap! Faster and faster, and faster came the blind man. I could smell the oil on his body, hear his breathing.
""Whoever you are, sahib, stop!"
"There was fear in his voice as he whined out these words, a fear which increased my own; but I pretended not to hear, and pressed on faster.
"The darkness grew; high over my head at either side of the road waved the gra.s.s, rustling to and fro, and singing to sleep the insects nestling on its green stalks with its old-time song of the jungle.
"The gra.s.s ahead of me slowly parted; my heart beat quicker, the tapping behind me ceased--it was only some small animal. What was it? A small hyaena? No. A jackal, a lame jackal, and it looked at me from out of eyes that for some reason or other made me shiver. I did not know what there was about the jackal that was different from what I had seen in any other jackal, but there was a something. And as I looked at it in awe, it vanished--melted into thin air.
"The moment after a second jackal appeared just where the other one had been standing, but there was nothing remarkable about this one, and on my bending down, pretending to look for a stone to throw at it, it slunk back silently and stealthily whence it had come, and I hurried on faster than ever, knowing a tiger was near at hand.
"Tap! tap! tap! I blessed the presence of the blind man.
""For G.o.d"s sake, sahib, stop! For the love of Allah, sahib, stop!" (You know how they talk, O"Donnell.) "The jackals, did you see them? I knew them by their smell, the smell of the living and of the dead. Walk with me, sahib, for Allah"s sake."
"Presently, O"Donnell, I heard a heavier rustling in the gra.s.s than the wind makes; a rustling that kept pace with me and went along by my side, never halting, but faster and faster, and faster.
"A short distance ahead of me was a patch of bright light, where the cross-roads met. A few yards more and the jungle gra.s.s would end.
"I thought of this, O"Donnell--the beggar might not know the road so well as I. He had no wife, no child; he was a leper, only a leper--and my teeth chattered.
"Here the Colonel paused and wiped his forehead.
"I slackened my speed, the rustling by my side slowing down, and the tapping grew faster. I was close to the whitened road.
""Sahib, the blessing of Allah be on you for stopping. Sahib, let me walk by your side."
"(To the end of my days, O"Donnell, I shall never forgive myself, and yet I want you to understand it was for my wife--and child.) I slunk into the shade. Two steps more and the tapping would pa.s.s me. The stick struck the ground within one inch of my foot; my heart almost ceased to beat; I gazed in fascination at the spot in the jungle opposite. The heavy rustling had stopped; only the gentle sighing of the wind went on.
The two steps were taken, the blind man paused on the cross-roads. He was ghastly in the moonlight. I shuddered. His eyes peered enquiringly round on all sides; he was looking for me; he had lost his way; he feared the tiger.
"Suddenly something huge shot like an arrow from the darkness opposite me. I bowed my head, O"Donnell, and muttered a prayer, for I thought my end had come.
"A terrible scream rang out in the clear night air. I was saved.
""Allah curse you and yours, sahib."
"I opened my eyes; an enormous tiger was bending over the leper, searching for the most convenient spot in his body to afford a tight grip.
"The man"s sightless eyes were turned towards the moon, his teeth shone white and even; with the striped horror purring in his face, he thought of vengeance on me.
"I dared not move. I could not pa.s.s, O"Donnell. I had no gun. The big brute found a nice place to catch hold. It opened its mouth so that I could see its glistening teeth. It looked down at its paws, where the cruel claws glittered, and they seemed to afford it keen satisfaction--it was a tigress and vain--then it lowered its head, and the leper shrieked. I watched it pick him up as if he were one of its cubs; saw the blood trickle down its soft white throat into the dusty road, and then it trotted gracefully away, and was lost in the darkness of the jungle. There was a deathlike silence after this. I waited a few minutes, and then I got up.
"I had only a short distance to go, and I no longer feared the presence of man-eaters--there was not likely to be another. Hours afterwards, O"Donnell, when I lay in my hammock as safe as a fortress, I fancied I heard the dead man"s cry, fancied I heard his curse. No one was more devoted to a wife than I was to mine. Ours had been purely a love match, and it was against my wish that she had accompanied me to such an out-of-the-way place as Seconee. I told her about my adventure, suppressing the leper"s curse; and I was glad I did so, as she was greatly distressed.
""Thank goodness you escaped, Charlie," she said. "I am so sorry for the poor leper. I suppose you couldn"t have helped him."
""I might have fetched my rifle," I replied, "and tried to rescue him, of course. But I fear it wouldn"t have been of much avail, as he would have been badly mauled by then."
"My wife sighed. "Ah, well," she said, "love is selfish! It makes one forget others. Still, I wouldn"t have it otherwise."
""I wish this railway job here was over," I murmured, sitting with my elbows on my knees and looking over the flat ground, sun-baked and barren, away towards the dark jungles and the still darker mountains towering above them; and as I gazed a shadow seemed to blur my vision and a voice to whisper in my ears, "Beware of my curse."
"I took Cushai, one of the native servants, into confidence.
""Now, Cushai," I said, "you know all the superst.i.tions of the country--the evil eye and the rest of them. Tell me, what can the dying curse of a leper do?"
"Cushai turned pale under his skin.
""Not of Nahra!" he stuttered, swinging the knife with which he had been cutting maize in his hand, "not of Nahra, the leper of Futtebah. Sahib, if you were cursed by him, beware. He was learned in the black arts; he could heal ulcers by repeating a prayer, he could bring on fever."
"At this, O"Donnell, I turned cold. I had lived long in India. I had seen their so-called juggling, had experienced also strange cases of telepathy, and knew quite sufficient of their intimacy with the supernatural elements to be afraid.
""You must keep the young sahib safe," Cushai said, "and the white lady.
I wish it hadn"t been Nahra."
"I took his advice. My boy, Eric, was more closely supervised than ever, and as to my wife, I begged and entreated her not to move from the house until the tiger was dead, and I searched for it everywhere.
"The dry season pa.s.sed, the wet came, and my work still kept me in Seconee. At times there came to us rumours of the man-eater--of another victim--but it never visited our bungalow, where the bright rifle leaned against the wall waiting for it.
"I certainly did meet with slight misfortunes, which the more timid might have put down to the working of the curse.
"My little finger was squashed in the laying down of a rail, and Eric had several bouts of sickness.
"It was nearly a year after the leper"s death that alarming rumours of a man-eater having been at work again were spread about us. Several n.i.g.g.e.rs were carried off or badly bitten, and the wounded showed symptoms of the loathsome disease so well known and feared by us all--leprosy.