THE " JACKALS' " TAMASHA "
[To the Editor of the SrEcT Awn.] SIR,—Your contributor's vivid account_ of the Wolves'. Pare liament reminds me of a similar encounter which I . had in India years ago, but.with less formidable tieasts7---the jackals. Quartered at Sialkot in the Punjab, where sport was limited: to an occasional day's pig-sticking by. invitation of the Maha- rajah of Cashmere, which invitation was not forthcoming as often as we thought it might have been, we decided to form a pack of hounds of our own to hunt the jackal. Kind fox- hunting friends sent us some drafts from home, and we, managed to muster a pack of ten couples, which we proudly dubbed " The Sialkot Hounds "—no bobbery packs for us.
A rough kennel, a few standing tents, thirty miles from the. station on the further bank of the Jumna river, was estab- lished as our camp and base of operations. No hunting fixtures could be made, for, subjected to the whims of our Commanding. Officer on the question of leave, whose stern sense of military, duty did not always respond to the sound of the horn, we had to arrange an impromptu day. when we could. Having fixed our day, we rode out to camp in the afternoon and met at dawn on the following morning. An uncomfortable hour, but it had to be so, as. from then till nine o'clock was the only time during which there was any scent, thanks to the heavy dew.
The dawn meet at the cross-roads . was a somewhat grim and chilly affair. A dozen riders in nondescript polo kit. No red coats enlivened the scene, hounds dropped their sterns at . the unusual darkness of the hour ;- the Master, however, on his gallant grey, dressed in black coat and white breeches, towering over his native huntsman in flowing turban mounted on a. small .pony, did give a touch of dignity to the assembly.
On one occasion, not being able to go with the othersin the , afternoon, I arranged to ride to camp by night. Arrived at the last stage of my joursiey, I was met by a native groom with a fresh pony. He told me there was a jackal tamasha going on
some miles ahead. Asked as to the meaning of this fussy, quarrelsome meeting—had they found some dead animal or other prey ?—he said he thought not ; it was only a tamasha• Another mile or two along the sandy track brought me within sound of the meeting. A few sharp barks opened the debate ; then a long wailing concerted howl of protest at some imaginary wrong ; a lull ; then on again at stated intervals with the solos and chorus. - Curious to see what was going on, I pulled up when I got to the jackals' meeting-place. On a low mound, a few hun- dred yards from the track, a large pack of jackals, about fifty in number, was clearly visible in the moonlight ; some (no doubt the elders) were squatted on their haunches on the top of the mound ; others wandered and skulked around the sides and base of the hill. The din they managed to make in the stillness of the night was uncanny, almost unbelievable. My Arab pony pricked his little ears and gave an answering neigh, much to my disgust, as I had no wish for the pack to come and talk politics to us. However, they paid not the slightest atten- tion and carried on as before. I don't suppose, in those days, that I formulated to myself any clear idea about the parlia- ments of animals or of men, but it did strike me as odd that whereas these animals generally hunted by night, either singly or in pairs; so many should now be gathered together.
And quite rightly, I think, had the jackals protested. Very few white men had ever come into that part of their country certainly no Master of Hounds dressed in unusual attire, armed with hounds and horn, had ever before disturbed the jackal at dawn, as he returned to his lair after a night's scavenging. What right had we to invade his sacred realms I —I am, Sir, &c.,
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