by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXXV
A SUCCESSFUL HUNT IN THE SUNDERBUNDS
A breakfast at six o'clock was provided the following morning for thetourists, and they came down from their chambers prepared for the aquaticexcursion, which was to include something more than sight-seeing, for thegentlemen and the boys were directed to take their rifles along. Mr.Boulong had called upon the commander the evening before, and he had beeninvited to join the party; but he had excused himself, and suggested thatMr. Gaskette would enjoy it more than he should, and he was asked to go.
By half-past six the party were on The Strand, as the road in the esplanadebordering the river is called. The second officer of the ship was there;and he was not only a sailor and an artist, but he had the reputation ofbeing a dead shot. The company embarked on the steam-yacht, which was largeenough to make voyages to Madras and Ceylon. The excursion was not intendedas a mere shooting-party, Lord Tremlyn explained, but to enable the companyto obtain a better view of Calcutta than they could get in any othermanner.
From the river a full view was obtained of the multitude of columns,belfries, and cupolas, as well as of the Government House, the Town Hall,and the line of magnificent houses beyond the esplanade. Along the shoreThe Strand, as it is called the whole length of the city, the jetties, andthe landing-stages were crowded with men; for, where labor is so cheap,work is not done by small forces of men. There are several lines ofsteamers running between London, Southampton, and Liverpool to this port;and they were constantly arriving and departing.
"You don't see such a variety of races here as you did in Bombay," saidLord Tremlyn as he was pointing out the sights to be seen. "You observesome Chinamen and Burmese; but most of the laborers are of the low class ofnatives, Bengalese, and they are very sorry specimens of the Hindus."
"But what are the merchants and shopkeepers?" asked Captain Ringgold.
"They are Baboos, which is a name given to the Bengalese. The better classof them, in contact with the English, realize that education is a power;and they have labored for years to improve their countrymen. They haveestablished schools and colleges, and when young natives applied forgovernment situations the authorities felt obliged to admit them. To-dayyou will find many natives acting as clerks in the post-office, railway,and telegraph-offices, as well as in the courts in minor capacities.
"In fact, there has been a social revolution in progress here for half acentury or more, and its effects may be seen now. The government hasmodified the lot of woman to some extent, as you have learned. The Hindulaw weighed terribly upon her. When a woman lost her husband, customrequired that she should be sent back to her own family. Her relativesshaved off her hair, dressed her in the coarsest clothing, and compelledher to do the severest drudgery of the household. She is forbidden to marryagain, and is treated as though she was responsible for becoming a widow.The reforming of this evil is in progress; but the people are baked intotheir prejudices and superstitions of forty centuries, and it is worse thanpulling their teeth to interfere with them.
"One of the favorite divinities of the natives here is Kali, the wife ofSiva, the goddess of murder. Her worship is odious and disgusting; for heraltars were formerly sprinkled with human blood, and the idols weresurrounded with dead bodies and skulls. Their great festival is theChuruk-Pooja, which is still celebrated, though the government hasforbidden all its brutal features. You have all seen a 'merry-go-round'machine in which children ride in a circle on wooden horses.
"An apparatus like this, but without the wooden steeds, was used by thesefanatics. At the end of the four arms hung ropes with sharp hooks at theend, on which were hung up the devotees, as the butcher does his meats inhis shop; and the machine was revolved rapidly till the hooks pulled out,and the victim dropped upon the ground, fainting or dead. At the presenttime the festival is attended by Baboos of the best class; but it amountssimply to an athletic exhibition with music. The government and thereformers have brought about this change of performance."
"Do the English attend such shows?" asked Dr. Hawkes.
"Sometimes, from curiosity. But they are here just about what they are inLondon, and their habits are much the same," replied the viscount. "Theriver here is about a mile wide. Formerly we could not have come as far aswe have without seeing hundreds of corpses floating on the surface. Nativeswho were too poor to pay the bill for the funeral pyre threw the bodies oftheir friends into the river. Of course this was a menace to the health ofthe city; and the practice was forbidden by the government, which built animmense tower, wherein is kept a fire constantly burning, in which thebodies of the poor are consumed without expense."
"See that big bird on the shore!" exclaimed Mrs. Belgrave. "I saw severalof them yesterday, and I meant to ask what it was."
"That is the _arghilah_, generally called the adjutant," replied SirModava. "He is the licensed scavenger of Calcutta, for it is forbidden bylaw to kill or molest him. You see him walking about in a crowd with asmuch dignity and gravity as though he were a big banker; and he is alsoseen perched upon the walls and buildings. They have an enormous bill, asyou observe. A friend of mine had a tame one; and one day when the tablewas ready for dinner he took a chicken from the dish and swallowed itwhole. He has a searching eye, and discovers a hidden bit of meat, a deadcat or other animal, and bolts it in the twinkling of an eye."
The steamer continued on her course down the river, and in less than fourhours arrived at Diamond Harbor. It contained a fort, a signal-station, anda telegraph-office, though there is nothing in the shape of a village. TheEast India Company's ships made this their port; but the improvement of thenavigation of the river enables all the steamers to go up to the city, towhich their arrival is telegraphed.
The extensive territory included in the delta of the Ganges is called theSunderbunds, and is about equal to the State of Massachusetts in size. Itis a muddy region, cut up by a network of streams; and it is full ofswamps, morasses, and mud-holes. Nearest to the sea is a belt of land,forming a wide extent of jungle, with a dense undergrowth of tropicalplants and verdure; for it is in the Torrid Zone, which the touristsentered about forty miles north of Calcutta. This jungle was the objectivepoint of the hunters of the party.
The captain of the steam-yacht took the company on board through a numberof the lagoons and cutoffs to enable them to see the wild character of thescenery. Lord Tremlyn, Sir Modava, and Dr. Ferrolan were kept busyexplaining the trees, plants, crocodiles, storks, and other animals.
At a pleasant basin, dinner was served on board, and it was quite as goodas they would have obtained at the Great Eastern; for just now the partywere government guests, and the officials could not do enough for a personof Lord Tremlyn's influence in England. After the meal the hunters preparedthemselves for the sport in which they were to engage. Mrs. Belgrave warnedher son to be very careful, and Mrs. Blossom did as much for Felix.
The steamer started into a cut-off leading through to the Bay of Bengal,the polite captain explained. It was full of game of all sorts, includingthe wild buffalo, rhinoceros, tiger, leopard, wild hog, deer, and the treesand bushes were as full of monkeys as they could swarm. It was agreed amongthe hunters that none of the latter should be shot, for they were harmlessanimals.
"Captain, dear, are there any schnakes forninst the joongle?" asked theMilesian, who was much exhilarated at the prospect of the sport, and easilyslipped into the vernacular of his mother.
"Plinty av thim, Musther McGavonty," replied Captain O'Flaherty, with abroad grin on his honest face. "They air as thidck as broken heads at aDonnybrook fair."
"Faix, ye's air a brither o' moine!" exclaimed Felix, grasping the hand ofthe captain.
"Air ye's from the County Carhk?"
"Oi'm from the county and parish of Kilkenny; or mi mudther was, thou'she's dead now, long loife to her! Wud I foind ary cobry in here?"
"All you'll want uv 'em; and pythons too."
"What is a poithon?" asked F
elix.
"A big schnake; a boa, or loike him."
"Is it the bore that runs up the river to Calcutty?"
"Not the same boa," laughed the captain. "But you speak English, for I haveheard you do it; and I have about forgotten my native brogue."
"If the boa is a snake, he is the fellow I want to see," replied Felix.
"There's one of them now!" exclaimed Captain O'Flaherty, pointing to onewreathed around a bush.
The young hunter brought his rifle to his shoulder, and fired before thecaptain had time to say anything more. The python began to writhe andwriggle in the bush, and Felix fired again. Then he dropped off into thewater. The rest of the company had been aft with the ladies, but they allrushed forward at the report of the rifle. The captain stated what thehunter had done, as he rang to stop and back the boat. They saw the bambooon which the serpent had been, but the game could not be seen. Theywondered what had become of him.
The rest of the hunters began to shoot ducks, herons, and otherwater-fowls. As fast as a bird dropped into the bayou he disappeared, andnot one of them could be recovered. Captain Ringgold wondered what becameof them, and the Indian gentlemen only laughed at his perplexity.
"But what becomes of them, for they do not sink?" demanded the commander.
"You shall see," replied Sir Modava. "Don't shoot the adjutants; but thereis a long-legged heron. I will bring him down, for he waits very patientlyto be shot. Now watch the water when he comes down."
The bird dropped the moment he fired, and the instant he touched the watera pair of jaws closed upon him, and drew him under water. The company wereastonished, and looked for an explanation.
"I never counted the crocodiles in this river; but I should guess therewere at least a million of them, and they steal your game as fast as youbring it down," said Sir Modava.
The ladies were interested; and another bird was shot, to enable them tosee the operation of the saurians. The python was about ten feet long, andhe must have been a meal for one of them. The cranes, herons, and storkswere numerous; but the party decided to kill no more of them, for they heldstill, as though they were all ready to be shot; and there was no sport insuch game.
The boat continued on its course for half an hour longer, and then came upto a sort of stockade, extending out into the water, and near it were acouple of bamboo huts. This wild region is sparsely peopled with Hindus,who are obliged to keep guard over themselves and their families all thetime, and are occasionally the victims of the ferocious monsters of thejungle and of the water.
"What is that stockade for?" asked the commander, as soon as the steamerwas moored to the shore.
"The Hindus are a cleanly people, as required by their religion," repliedCaptain O'Flaherty in the hearing of all the party. "That stockade containsa big trough for washing their scanty clothing. It reaches into the water,so that they can fill their washtub without going out of it."
"I don't see why?" asked Mrs. Woolridge.
"If they went to the border of the stream to dip up water the crocodileswould pick them up as fast as they did so," added the captain; and all theladies shuddered, and wanted to get out of such a horrible place.
"But the hunters are to land here; and they will find all the heavy gamethey can dispose of, for there have been no hunters here yet this season toscare them off. You will find the biggest tigers of India here, gentlemen."
The hunters went on shore, and as they passed down the gangway they saw acouple of the crocodiles in the water. Louis put a bullet into the eye ofone, and Mr. Woolridge served the other in the same way; but all of themthought saurians were mean game. Near the huts they found two men, and SirModava had a talk with them, which no one else could understand; but heemployed them to guide the party and show them their traps.
"The wife of one of these men was devoured by a crocodile a year ago, andthe daughter of the other, a child of six, had been borne off by a tiger,"he explained, as they proceeded after the two men.
They soon came to the traps. The tigers were exceedingly numerous on allthe islands formed by the cut-offs, and swam without difficulty from one toanother. The first trap they saw was a broad trench, the bottom and sidesarmed with stakes of the hardest wood, sharpened to a wicked point. Aroaring sound attracted the visitors to another of the same kind, in whicha monstrous tiger was floundering about, trying to escape the points thatpierced him. He was suffering fearfully; and Captain Ringgold shot him atonce, though the Hindus were delighted by his torture.
Another kind of trap was more ingenious. It was on the plan of thetwitch-up snare, common in New England. A young tree, very strong andflexible, is bent down till the upper end touches the ground. To thisextremity is attached a stout cord, and fastened to a stake in the ground.A slip-noose is so arranged that the tiger thrusts his head through it inorder to reach the meat with which the cord holding the tree is baited. Asthe animal pulls the cord he casts off the line holding the tree in itsbent position. The slip-noose is tightened around his neck, the tree fliesup into the air, carrying the tiger with it. Everything about the trap ismade very strong, and there the savage marauder hangs till he chokes todeath.
Captain Ringgold brought down another--Page 349]
The party moved on, and they had not gone ten rods before a cobra elevatedhis head. Felix claimed the right to fire first, and he killed him with oneball. A large python was Scott's first prize; and, after a long walk, theycame to a nest of tigers, as it seemed, for there were not less than fiveof them drinking at a brook. It appeared to be the only place in thevicinity where fresh water could be obtained. The first of the tigers waskilled by Louis with a single shot, for he put the ball through the eye ofthe beast.
Captain Ringgold brought down another with three shots from his repeatingrifle. Felix did not care for tigers; he was looking for snakes, and theycame to the brook to drink. In a couple of hours he had half a dozen of hisfavorite game. He declared that he was following the blessed example of St.Patrick, and if he did not die too soon he would rid the world of all thesnakes in it.
The five tigers lay dead by the brook; and, taking the advice of thecoolies, the hunters returned into a thicket, where Felix killed anotherpython. The party could see the brook. A pair of timid deer came next todrink; but they fled at the approach of what seemed to be a family ofleopards, for two of them were evidently cubs. They were all shot; but therepeated reports of the rifles had probably scared off others, and no morebeasts of any kind came.
"These men say you have killed more tigers and leopards than any party ofhunters who ever came here," said Sir Modava, who carried a rifle, but hadnot fired it once; and Lord Tremlyn's weapon had not been discharged; forboth preferred to leave the game for their friends.
It was a great hunt, and the Americans were correspondingly proud of theirsuccess. Louis and Felix had been trained in a shooting-gallery, andneither of them missed his aim; but the shooting had all been at shortrange. With the help of two coolies, all the game was carried to thesteamer, where it was exhibited to the rest of the company. The tigers wereall skinned by the coolies and the crew of the steamer, as were theleopards; but after Mrs. Blossom and the others had seen the snakes, theywere fed out to the crocodiles. The coolies were abundantly rewarded, andseemed to worship their visitors. They presented to them four mango fish,golden-yellow in color, and exquisite in flavor.
The steamer cast off her fasts, and headed for Calcutta; but it was late,and the fish presented, which abound in the markets of the city, were theburden of a fine supper they ate on the way.