PAKHAL NADDI OF THE PALM TREES 125 



Antelopes, capricious moving, 



yellow flanks turn towards the morning. 



Far o'er furrow, through paldti 

 dry-stalked, cotton-picked paldti 

 comes a slowly moving darkness ; 

 darkness growing ever nearer, 

 twining, halting, crackling, snuffing; 

 darkness of suspicious bodies, 

 bodies of suspicious darkness, 

 looming ever bigger, nearer, 

 till the snouts of snuffling " dookers? 

 "dookcrs?" pigs they, wild, of jungle 

 snuff and gruntle slowly onwards. 

 Piggies full of sweet potatoes, 

 stolen sweetstuffs, luscious juices ! 

 luscious they the cane-stored juices, 

 slobbered canes of luscious sugar, 

 crunched up by the teeth of piggies, 

 in that field beyond the river ! 

 Lean sows grunting to their hoglets, 

 small brown hoglets squealing answer ; 

 youthful boars assuming graces, 

 graceless pranks they ne'er had tried on 

 were he present Grey-Boar, master ! 

 Sterns retreating, tails a-twitching, 

 passes on the champing sounder, 

 sounder of the jungle " dookers" 

 seeking shelter mid the Pakhal. 



Entering the prickly covert, 

 covert closing tight behind them, 

 covert smiling in the sunshine, 

 level rays of dawning sunshine, 

 showing ne'er a sign of piggies, 

 innocent it smiles. Of " dookers n 

 what does it know ? Peaceful Pakhal ! 



In the distance sounds a thudding, 

 cantering of useful " tattoos " ; 

 ponies carry sahibs to hunting, 

 canter on till, dust subsiding, 

 sees them drawing rein o'er yonder 



