"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," a.s.serted 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
[Ill.u.s.tration]
[Ill.u.s.tration]
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 c.o.c.katoo. "By my crest! I am surely the oldest one here; shall I begin, O Sa"-zada?"
"c.o.c.katoo 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 c.o.c.katoo, "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, d.a.m.n 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 c.o.c.katoo 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 c.o.c.katoo. 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 c.o.c.katoo.
"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 c.o.c.katoo? A teller of false tales and a breaker of rest."
"Ca-lack! even what c.o.c.katoo 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 b.u.t.ter, 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 G.o.ds."
"Just what I thought," grunted Pardus; "all clatter, and no true story of anything."
"Well," sighed c.o.c.katoo 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."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "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."